The Commentary of al-Nayrizi on Books II-IV of Euclid's Elements of Geometry

249 Pages·2009·3.217 MB·English

by  Anthony Lo Bello

The Commentary of al-Nayrizi on Books II–IV
of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry
Ancient Mediterranean
and Medieval Texts
and Contexts
Editors
Robert M. Berchman
Jacob Neusner
Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism,
and the Platonic Tradition
Edited by
Robert M. Berchman
Dowling College and Bard College
John F. Finamore
University of Iowa
Editorial Board
JOHN DILLON (Trinity College, Dublin) – GARY GURTLER (Boston College)
JEAN-MARC NARBONNE (Laval University-Canada)
VOLUME 8

Codex Leidensis (MS OR 399.1): A photograph of folio page 1v, which contains
the Introduction to the Commentary, the discussion of the formal divisions of
a proposition, and the definition of a point, reproduced by permission of the
University Library of Leiden University, The Netherlands.
The Commentary of
al-Nayrizi on Books II–IV of Euclid’s
Elements of Geometry
With a Translation of That Portion of Book I
Missing from MS Leiden Or. 399.1 but Present in
the Newly Discovered Qom Manuscript
Edited by Rüdiger Arnzen
By
Anthony Lo Bello
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anaritius, d. ca. 922.
[Sharh Kitab Uqlidis. English]
The commentary of al-Nayrizi on Books II–IV of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry :
with a translation of that portion of Book I missing from ms Leiden or. 399.1 but
present in the newly discovered Qom manuscript edited by Rudiger Arnzen / by
Anthony Lo Bello.
p. cm. — (Ancient Mediterranean and medieval texts and contexts) (Studies in
Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic tradition ; vol. 8)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17389-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Geometry—Early works to
1800. 2. Mathematics, Greek. 3. Euclid. Elements. Books 1–4 I. Lo Bello, Anthony,
1947– II. Arnzen, Rüdiger. III. Title. IV. Series.
QA31.A35513 2009
516—dc22
2008054793
ISSN 1871-188X
ISBN 978 90 04 17389 7
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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printed in the netherlands
Eugenio Kullmann
(1915–2002)
Ex dono Dei mortalis homo per assiduum studium adipisci valet scientiae margaritam,
quae eum ad mundi arcana cognoscenda dilucide introducit et in infimo loco natos evehit
in sublimes (Pius Pp. II, anno 1460, ex instrumento fundationis Universitatis
Basiliensis).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author acknowledges the assistance of Dr. Lloyd Michaels, Dean of
Allegheny College, who arranged for him to be awarded a “Divisional
Teacher-Scholar Professorship”, which, for a period of three years,
released enough time from the classroom to allow for the preparation
of this book. Dr. Ward Jamison and the Academic Support Commit-
tee provided funds for secretarial assistance, and Christopher Andrew
Eicher arranged for a microfilm of the Madrid manuscript 10010 to
be sent to the author from the Biblioteca Nacional. Librarians Cynthia
Burton and Linda Ernst obtained many necessary and rare books on
loan from other libraries. Brenda Metheny drew the mathematical
diagrams. Finally, the author expresses his appreciation to Dr. Robert
Berchman, without whose patronage none of the books in this series
could have been published.