ISSN:
1600-0498
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
Notes:
In the fourth proposition of Book II of Apollonius' Conies one finds a method of constructing the hyperbola of which a point and both asymptotes are given. But a close examination of this proposition in comparison with three other versions of the construction extant from ancient authors reveals that the version in the Conies is incorrectly established, that it was not included within the early editions of that work, but entered its tradition via late interpolation. Its composer and the agent of its insertion into the Conies proves to be Eutocius of Askalon, the early sixth-century commentator on the works of Apollonius and Archimedes. Eutocius appears to have framed his solution with the assistance of a prior text closely resembling one preserved in the Collection of Pappus of Alexandria (early fourth century). Nevertheless, one extant form of the construction may be viewed as a fragment of the ancient geometrical analysis which flourished under Apollonius and his colleagues toward the close of the third century B.C.The variant forms of this construction thus provide an unusual case history of the working methods of the editors and commentators of late antiquity. One is surprised by the low level of expertise demonstrated by Pappus, as well as the high degree of responsibility Eutocius had for the production of the extant manuscript tradition of the Conies. Further, one perceives however dimly something of the nature and objectives of the older tradition and the form of the fourth-and early third-century studies from which it developed.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0498.1981.tb00647.x
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