A history of Greek mathematics - Wilbourhall.org

PROCLUS 535
second Book \ But at the time when the commentary on
Book I was written he was evidently uncertain whether he
would be able to continue it, for at the end he says, ' For my
part, if I should be able to discuss the other Books in the
same way, I should give thanks to the gods ; but, if other
cares should draw me away, I beg those who are attracted by
this subject to complete the exposition of
well,
the other Books as
following the same method and addressing themselves
throughout to the deeper and more sharply defined questions
involved '} Wachsmuth, finding a Vatican manuscript containing
a collection of scholia on Books I, II, V, VI, X, headed Eis ra
EvKXeiSou (TToi)(€ia TTpoXanfiavojieva €K toou UpoKXov (nropdSrju
Kal kolt €7TLTo/xriu, and seeing that the scholia on Book I were
extracts from the extant commentary of Proclus, concluded
that those on the other Books were also from Proclus; but
the 7r/oo- in TTpoXa\x$avbii£va rather suggests that only the
scholia to Book I are from Proclus. Heiberg found and
published in 1903 a scholium to X. 9, in which Proclus is
expressly quoted as the authority, but he does not regard
this circumstance as conclusive. On the other hand, Heiberg
has noted two facts which go against the view that Proclus
wrote on the later Books: (1) the scholiast's copy of
Proclus was not much better than our manuscripts ; in
particular, it had the same lacunae in the notes to I. 36,
37, and I. 41-3; this makes it improbable that the scholiast
had further commentaries of Proclus which have vanished
for us ; (2) there is no trace in the scholia of the notes
which Proclus promised in the passages already referred to.
All, therefore, that we can say is that, while the Wachsmuth
scholia may be extracts from Proclus, it is on the whole
improbable.
Hypotyposis of Astronomical Hypotheses.
Another extant work of Proclus which should be referred
to is his Hypotyposis of Astronomical Hypotheses, a sort of
readable and easy introduction to the astronomical system
of Hipparchus and Ptolemy. It has been well edited by
Manitius (Teubner, 1909). Three things may be noted as
1
Proclus on Eucl. I, p. 432. 9-15.