A history of Greek mathematics - Wilbourhall.org

128 APOLLONIUS OF PERGA
Gregory, however, died while the work was proceeding,
Latin.
and Halley then undertook responsibility for the whole. The
Greek manuscripts used were two, one belonging to Savile
and the other lent by D. Baynard ;
their whereabouts cannot
apparently now be traced, but they were both copies of Paris,
gr. 2356, which was copied in the sixteenth century from Paris,
gr. 2357 of the sixteenth century, itself a copy of V.
For the
three Books in Arabic Halley used the Bodleian MS. 885, but
also consulted (a) a compendium of the three Books by 'Abdelmelik
al-Shirazi (twelfth century), also in the Bodleian (913),
(b) Borelli's edition, and (c) Bodl. 943 above mentioned, by means
of which he revised and corrected his translation when completed.
Halley's edition is still, so far as I know, the only
available source for Books V-VII, except for the beginning of
Book V (up to Prop. 7) which was edited by L. Nix (Leipzig,
1889).
The Greek text of Books I-IV is now available, with the
commentaries of Eutocius, the fragments of Apollonius, &c,
in the definitive edition of Heiberg (Teubner, 1891-3).
Apollonius's own account of the Conies.
A general account of the contents of the great work which,
according to Geminus, earned for him the title of the ' great
geometer' cannot be better given than in the words of the
writer himself. The prefaces to the several Books contain
interesting historical details, and, like the prefaces of Archimedes,
state quite plainly and simply in what way the
treatise differs from those of his predecessors, and how much
in it is claimed as original. The strictures of Pappus (or
more probably his interpolator), who accuses him of being a
braggart and unfair towards his predecessors, are evidently
unfounded. The prefaces are quoted by v. Wilamowitz-
Moellendorff as specimens of admirable Greek, showing how
perfect the style of the great mathematicians could be
when they were free from the trammels of mathematical
terminology.
Book I. General Preface.
Apollonius to Eudemus, greeting.
If you are in good health and things are in other respects
as you wish, it is well ; with me too things are moderately