> XVIII to XIX century This is off topic, but what is up with the Roman numerals when referring to centuries? I tried googling it but came up empty. I can't f

> XVIII to XIX century This is off topic, but what is up with the Roman numerals when referring to centuries? I tried googling it but came up empty. I can't find any authoritative source for this being a thing in any particular dialect of English and at least one person I've seen using this was a native Russian speaker. Google results only indicate that this is common in Spanish and maybe Polish. Am I missing something? Is this a thing in American or British academia? Is it part of some popular newspaper's house styles? As a non-native speaker I find this incredibly peculiar.