I just received the new English edition of Apollonius of Perga' Conics from
the Green Lion Press. On perusing the volume, I noticed something curious.
As it is, the first four books of the Conics are extant in the original
Greek, but only the first three are translated for this edition (which
relies on an edition from 1939). Although I have not read the Green Lion
Press's introduction and preface really closely yet, nothing seems to be
said about this omission of book IV.
Heath gives us a rather unsatisfactory explanation as to why the book may
have been left out by referring to it as "on the whole dull and one that
need not be noticed at length" (A History of Greek Mathematics, Vol.II,
p.157 of the Dover edition). However, a casual remark like that should not
be taken for granted, even when it is made by someone of Heath's stature.
So, rather than going over to the library and ploughing my way through the
original Greek, I would like to ask whether there is anyone who could me
off the bat what is in book iv and why its contents need not be noticed.
Might there be something of a tradition here?
Eisso
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Eisso Atzema, Ph.D.
Department of Mathematics & Statistics
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
tel.: (207) 581-3928 (off.)
(207) 990-4680 (home)
e-mail: atzema@gauss.umemat.maine.edu (preferred)
eisso.atzema@umit.maine.edu (FirstClass)