A history of Greek mathematics - Wilbourhall.org

360 PAPPUS OF ALEXANDRIA
who is mentioned as having asked Pappus's opinion on the
attempted solution by ' plane ' methods of the problem of the two
means, which actually gives a method of approximating to
a solution 1 ), Hipparchus (quoted as practically adopting three
of the hypotheses of Aristarchus of Samos), Megethion (to
whom Pappus dedicated Book V of his Collection), Menelaus
of Alexandria (quoted as the author of Sphaerica and as having
applied the name 7rapd8o£os to a certain curve), Nicomachus
(on three means additional to the first three), Nicomedes,
Pandrosion (to whom Book III of the Collection is dedicated),
Pericles (editor of Euclid's Data), Philon of Byzantium (mentioned
along with Heron), Philon of Tyana (mentioned as the
discoverer of certain complicated curves derived from the interweaving
of plectoid and other surfaces), Plato (with reference
to the five regular solids), Ptolemy, Theodosius (author of the
Sphaerica and On Bays and Nights).
(y)
Translations and editions.
The first published edition of the Collection was the Latin
translation by Commandinus (Venice 1589, but dated at the
end Pisauri apud Hieronymum Concordiam 1588'; reissued
*
with only the
'
title-page changed Pisauri ... 1602 '). Up to
1876 portions only of the Greek text had appeared, namely
Books VII, VIII in Greek and German, by C. J. Gerhardt, 1871,
chaps. 33-105 of Book V, by Eisenmann, Paris 1824, chaps.
45-52 of Book IV in losephi Torelli Veronensis Geometrica,
1769, the remains of Book II, by John Wallis (in Opera
mathematica, III, Oxford 1699); in addition, the restorers
of works of Euclid and Apollonius from the indications
furnished by Pappus give extracts from the Greek text
relating to the particular works. Breton le Champ on Euclid's
Porisms, Halley in his edition of the Conies of Apollonius
(1710) and in his translation from the Arabic and restoration
respectively of the Be sectione rationis and Be, sectione spatii
of Apollonius (1706), Camerer on Apollonius's Tactiones (1795),
Simson and Horsley in their restorations of Apollonius's Plane
Loci and IncUnationes published in the years 1749 and 1770
respectively. In the years 1876-8 appeared the only com-
- 1 See vol. i, pp. 268-70.