Search All of the Math Forum:
Views expressed in these public forums are not endorsed by
Drexel University or The Math Forum.
|
|
|
|
[HM] Planudes
Posted:
Mar 16, 2006 11:08 AM
|
|
Dear Mr. Brown and all,
There are several MSS. that contain some fragments of Great Calculation
According to Indians (pse^phophoria kat'Indous he^ legomene^ megale^).
Probably more important than others is Codex Ambrosianus Et 157 sup., v.
below. As Tannery wrote, source of all such MSS., id est, "Planudea
classis codices", is "codex deperditus seaculo XIV cuius exstant decem
folia in Ambrosiano Et 157 sup." (cf. Tannery's Prolegomena in his
edition of Diophantus: Diophanti Alexandrini opera omnia cum graecis
commentariis, Lipsiae (in aedibus Teubneri), 1895, Prolegomena, pp.
XXIII and XXVII, sq.). Curiosly enough, name of Maxime Planudes appears
only three times in all MSS.; as Tannery says, "Nomen Planudis fragmento
illi in tribus tantum codicibus praefigitur, Guelferbytano, Reginensi et
manu posteriore Ambrosiano A 91 sup." (loc. cit. p. XXV, n. infra).
Moreover, last mentioned Ambrosianus codex contains, according Tannery,
7 folios of the Calculation, namely, 6, 10, 12 bis, 11 bis, 12, 11, 4,
no one of these is "frontpage" of the codex, but fol. 4 appears to be
first page of the Calculation, although not in right order ("manifestum
est in archetypo classis istius perturbato ordine partes Calculi Indici
ante et post Diophantum exstitisse", ad loc. p.XXVII). Even in others
MSS., with less amount of texts of the Calculation than Ambrosianus
mentioned above, the first page, if exists, is not "frontpage" of whole
codex.
Therefore, you probably want only first page of the Calculation rather
than "frontpage" of whole Ms. that contain some fragments of the work.
Certainly best copied first page of the Calculation is fol. 15 in
Parisinus gr. 1928, source of which is famous Parisinus gr. 2379
(loc.cit. p. XXXII). In this case you are lucky. There is fine
reproduced fol. 15 of the MS. as first page of the Calculation in:
Paul Tannery - Memoires scientifiques, publies par. J.L. Heiberg & H. G.
Zeuthen, tome IV, planche 1.
The tome of Tannery's scientific works contain his own investigations in
byzantine mathematics and probably there is something interesting for
you (e.g. very useful article "Les schifres Arabes dans les manuscrits
grecs", pp. 199-205). As to me, Paul Tannery (1843-1903) is one of the
greatest and even most ingenious historians of mathematics at the time.
Most of his hypotheses has been pointed out and used by many scholars up
to now.
Best regards from snowy Belgrade,
Konstantin R. Starcevic-Olgin, K.S.B.
|
|
|
|
