Conics (Books 1-3)

The Conics of Apollonius (3rd Century BCE) is the culmination of the brilliant geometrical tradition of ancient Greece. With astonishing virtuosity, and with a storyteller's flair for thematic development, Apollonius leads the reader through the mysteries of these intriguing curved lines, treated as objects of pure mathematics. His work in turn provided a basis for the very differently conceived investigations of modern mathematicians and scientists such as Viète, Descartes, Kepler, and Newton. Reading the Conics is an unparalleled adventure into the highest reaches of human intellectual achievement. This is a completely new edition of Taliaferro's translation of the first three books of Apollonius's Conics, with all new diagrams. It is the only English translation of these books other than Heath's out-of-print version which is a modernized retelling rather than a true translation. Conics Books I--III were formerly included in Volume 11 of the Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World, but the work is no longer included in that series and has been out of print. We made many corrections to the old edition's text, translation, and notes. The book features all new diagrams, an index, a bibliography, and an introductory essay by Harvey Flaumenhaft. Design and layout make it easy to read and work with, with diagrams repeated on every spread, adequate space for notes, and high quality paper to prevent show-through.