Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/85

Rh had prevented books of geometry from going throiigli the press, but that he had so completely overcome it, by great pains, that " qua facilitate litterarum elenienta imprimuntur, ea etiara geometrice figure conficerentur/' These diagrams are printed on the margin, and though at first sight they seem to be woodcuts, yet a closer inspection makes it probable that they are produced from metal lines. The number of propositions in Euclid (15 books) is 485, of which 18 are wanting here, and 30 appear which are not in Euclid ; so that there are 497 proposi- tions. The preface to the l4th book, by which it is made almost certain that Euclid did not write it (for Euclid's books have no prefaces) is omitted. Its Arabic origin is visible in the words helmuaym and hehnuariplw^ which are used for a rhombus and a trapezium. This edition is not very scarce in England ; we have seen at least four copies for sale in the last ten years.

The second edition bears " Vincentiae 1491," Roman letter, folio, and was printed " per magis- trum Leonardum de Basilea et Gulielmum de Papia socios." It is entirely a reprint, with the introduction omitted (unless indeed it be torn out in the only copy we ever saw), and is but a poor specimen, both as to letter-press and diagrams, when compared with the first edition, than which it is very much snarcer. Both these editions call Euclid Megarensis.

The third edition (also Latin, Roman letter, folio,) containing the Elements, the Phaenomena, the two Optics (under the names of Specularia and Perspectiva)^ and the Data with the preface of Marinus, being the editio princeps of all but the Elements, has the title Euclidis Megarensis philo- sophici Ftatonici, matliemaiicarum disciplinaru janitoris : habent in hoc volumine quicuque ad nia- thematica substantia aspirdt : elemeioriun iibros, ^c. <^c. Zamberto Veneto Interprete. At the end is Impressum Veneiis, <S[c. in edibus Joannis Ta- cuini, ^c, M. D. V. VIII. Klendas Novtbris — that is, 1505, often read 1508 by an obvious mistake. Zambertus has given a long preface and a life of Euclid : he professes to have trans- lated from a Greek text, and this a very little inspection will shew he must have done ; but he does not give any information upon his manu- scripts. He states that the propositions have the trposition of Theon or Hypsicles, by which he pro- bably means that Theon or Hypsicles gave the demonstrations. The preceding editors, whatever their opinions may have been, do not expressl}' state Theon or any other to have been the author of the demonstrations: but by 1505 the Greek manuscripts which bear the name of Theon had probably come to light. For Zambertus Fabricius cites Goetz mem. bibl. Dresd. ii. p. 213: his edition is beautifully printed, and is rare. He exposes the translations from the Arabic with unceasing severity. Fabri- cius mentions (from Scheibel) two small works, the four books of the Elements by Ambr. Jocher, 1506, and something called "Geometria Euclidis," which accompanies an edition of Sacrobosco, Paris, H. Stephens, 1507. Of these we know nothing.

The fourth edition (Latin, black letter, folio, 1509), containing the Elements only, is the work of the celebrated Lucas Paciolus (de Burgo Sancti Sepulchri), better known as Lucas di Borgo, the first who printed a work on algebra. The title is Euclidis Megarensis philosophi acutis- simi matluiinaticorumque omnium sine controversia principis opera. Sec. At the end, Venetiis impressum per. .. Payaninum de Paganinis. . . a7mo...JADvnii. ., Paciolus adopts the Latin of Adelard, and occa- sionally quotes the comment of Campanus, intro- ducing his own additional comments with the head " Castigator." He opens the fifth book with the account of a lecture which he gave on that book in a church at Venice, August 11, 1508, giving the names of those present, and some subsequent lau- datory correspondence. This edition is less loaded Avith connnent than either of those which precede. It is extremely scarce, and is beautifully printed : the letter is a curious intermediate step between the old thick black letter and that of the Roman type, and makes the derivation of the latter from the former very clear.

The fifth edition (Elements, Latin, Roman letter, folio), edited by Jacobus Faber, and printed by Ileary Stephens at Paris in 1516, has the title Contenta followed by heads of the contents. There are the fifteen books of Euclid, by which are meant the E?mnciations (see the preceding re- marks on this subject); the Comment of Campanus, meaning the demonstrations in Adelard 's Latin ; the Comment of Theon as given by Zambertus, meaning the demonstration in the Latin of Zam- bertus ; and the Comment of Hypsicles as given by Zambertus upon the last two books, meaning the demonstrations of those two books. This edition is fairly printed, and is moderately scarce. From it we date the time when a list of enunciations merely was universally called .the complete work of Euclid.

With these editions the ancient series, as we may call it, terminates, meaning the complete La- tin editions which preceded the publication of the Greek text. Thus we see five folio editions of the Elements produced in thirty-four years.

The first Greek text was published by Simon Gryne, or Grynoeus, Basle, 1533, folio: contain- ing, 6/f Twi/ @iwvos cvvovaiciv (the title-page has this statement), the fifteen books of the Elements, and the connnentary of Proclus added at the end, so far as it remains ; all Greek, without Latin. On Grynoeus and his reverend care of manuscripts, see Anthony Wood. {Athen. Oocon. in verb.) The Oxford editor is studiously silent about this Basle edition, which, though not obtained from many manuscripts, is even now of some value, and was for a century and three-quarters the only printed Greek text of all the books.

With regard to Greek texts, the student must be on his guard against bibliographers. For in- stance, Harless gives, from good catalogues, Eu-