A history of Greek mathematics Vol.II from Aristarchus to Diophantus by Heath, Thomas Little, Sir, 1921

THE TEXT OF THE CONICS 127
The edition of Eutocius suffered interpolations which were
probably made in the ninth century when, under the auspices
of Leon, mathematical studies were revived at Constantinople ;
for it was at that date that the uncial manuscripts were
written, from which our best manuscripts, V (= Cod. Vat. gr.
206 of the twelfth to thirteenth century) for the Conies, and
W (= Cod. Vat. gr. 204 of the tenth century) for Eutocius,
were copied.
Only the first four Books survive in Greek ; the eighth
Book is altogether lost, but the three Books V-VII exist in
Arabic. It was Ahmad and al-Hasan, two sons of Muh. b.
Musa b. Shakir, who first contemplated translating the Conies
into Arabic. They were at first deterred by the bad state of
their manuscripts ; but afterwards Ahmad obtained in Syria
a copy of Eutocius's edition of Books I-IV and had them
translated by Hilal b. Abi Hilal al-Himsi (died 883/4).
Books V-VII were translated, also for Ahmad, by Thabit
b. Qurra ( 826-901) from another manuscript. Naslraddm's
recension of this translation of the seven Books, made in 1248,
is represented by two copies in the Bodleian, one of the year
1301 (No. 943) and the other of 1626 containing Books V-VII
only (No. 885).
A Latin translation of Books I-IV was published by
Johannes Baptista Memus at Venice in 1537 ; but the first
important edition was the translation by Commandinus
(Bologna, 1566), which included the lemmas of Pappus and
the commentary of Eutocius, and was the first attempt to
make the book intelligible by means of explanatory notes.
For the Greek text Commandinus used Cod. Marcianus 518
and perhaps also Vat. gr. 205, both of which were copies of V,
but not V itself.
The first published version of Books V-VII was a Latin
translation by Abraham Echellensis and Giacomo Alfonso
Borelli (Florence, 1661) of a reproduction of the Books written
in 983 by Abu 1 Fath al-Isfahanl.
The editio princeps of the Greek text is the monumental
work of Halley (Oxford, 1710). The original intention was
that Gregory should edit the four Books extant in Greek, with
Eutocius's commentary and a Latin translation, and that
Halley should translate Books V-VII from the Arabic into
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