Textual Studies of Ancient and Medieval Geometry

This work is an important study of the problems of documentation in ancient technical texts. It presents a survey of the primary Greek evidence on cube duplication together with a selection of medieval Arabic texts on cube duplication and angle trisection, comparing the various versions and describing the changes which occurred as the works were transmitted from one generation to the next.

The second half of the book is devoted to an in-depth look at the history of one particular text, Archimedes' Dimension of the Circle , beginning with its ancient origins and tracing through the later commentaries and medieval translations into Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. Reproductions of these texts are included for easy reference. The pattern that emerges from this study sheds a startling new light on the foundations of the ancient textual tradition.