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ex Arabico msto Latine versi; Accedunt ejusdem De sectione spatii libri duo restituti. ... Præmittitur Pappi Alexandrini præfatio ad VIImum collectionis mathematicæ, nunc primum Græce edita: ... Opera & studio Edmundi Halley ..., APOLLONIUS of Perga. De sectione rationis libri duo ex Arabico MSto Latine versi. Accedunt ejusdem de sectione spatii libri duo restituti ... praemittitur Pappi Alexandini praefatio ad VIImum collectionis mathematicae, nunc primum Graece edita: cum lemmatibus ejusdem Pappi ad hos Apollonii libros. Opera & studio Edmundi Halley. Oxford Sheldonian Theatre, 1706. 8vo in half sheets, 1lea. + 2 + 1 tit. + 1 ded. + 1 + 6 pref. + 53 + 1 + 168 + 2 + 1lea, the text of Pappus printed in Greek, title of the Arabic manuscript printed in Arabic, with numerous woodcut diagrams in the text; a very good copy in contemporary panelled calf. First edition of Halley's translation of Apollonius's "Cutting-off of a ratio" from an Arabic manuscript. This text of Apollonius, like Books V-VII of the Conics (previous book) survives only in Arabic, and in this case the Arabic remains unpublished. "Much of Halley's scholarship was exercised upon the works of Apollonius of Perga, one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity, and indeed of all time, who flourished in the latter part of the third century B. C. One of his minor works, Sectio rationis (Cutting-off of a ratio), an exercise in geometrical algebra, was thought to be lost until an Arabic translation of it was found among the Selden manuscripts in the Bodleian and identified by Edward Bernard, the Savillian Professor of Astronomy. Bernard set about translating it into Latin; but the manuscript was very defective and he soon laid the task aside. His successor, David Gregory, made a fair copy of the original for the use of Henry Aldrich, Dean of Christ Church, at whose invitation Halley, upon succeeding Wallis in the Savillian Chair of Geometry, undertook to complete the translation. He had never previously studied Arabic; but using as a key the few passages translated by Bernard, he eventuaqlly made out the meaning of the text. He proceeded to restore the lost companion tract, Sectio spatii, following hints from Pappus. He gave his reasons for regarding the works as genuine; and he included in his edition the earliest printed Greek text of Pappus's preface to the seventh book of his Synagoge (Collection)" (Angus Armitage, Edmond Halley, p. 160). Carter, 1706, I; ESTC 128712., Main Heritage Shelves General, QA31 .A66 1706, Book, Item-ID: i10056403, BIB-ID: 1007276 |
