I read with interest your comments on Udai Venedem's remarks
on the Elements. But I would like to point out the
following:
1. Campanus' text, which was written in the 1250s, was based
on a version of the Elements that Clagett called "Adelard
II", though the proofs were not those in the "Adelard II"
text, but partly Campanus' own. It is now fairly certain
that "Adelard II" was not written by Adelard of Bath. It was
not a translation from the Arabic, but was compiled from the
translations of Hermann of Carinthia and Adelard of Bath
(the so-called "Adelard I" text); other texts, such as
Boethius' Euclid, were also incorporated. Probably the
compiler of "Adelard II" was Robert of Chester. He appears
to have made the compilation shortly before 1140. For
details, see the edition of the Robert text by Busard and
myself in 1992:
Robert of Chester's (?) Redaction of Euclid's Elements: the
so-called Adelard II Version. Basel / Boston / Berlin
(Birkhaeuser) 1992. (= Science Networks. Historical Studies.
Vol. 8, 9).
Campanus' text is not at all a translation from the Arabic,
but a reworked compilation with additions from contemporary
sources and some extra pieces apparently by himself. Perhaps
the best secondary source is J. Murdoch's article in
"Dictionary of Scientific Biography", Euclid, Transmission
of the Elements.
2. The second edition of the Elements was published by
"Magister Leonardus de Basilea" (= Leonard of Basel) and
"Gulielmus de Papia" in 1491, not in Venice, but in Vicenza.
(The colophon runs: "Impressum Vincentiae ..."). The text of
this edition is essentially the same as the 1482 edition,
i.e., the Campanus text. You can find facsimile pages of the
1482 and the 1491 editions in the following bibliography:
Max Steck: Bibliographia Euclideana, Hildesheim 1981,
pp.218-221.
With best regards,
Menso Folkerts