"...ending with the words 'come dovevasi dimostrare' [italian for latin "quod erat demonstrandum" and for greek "oper edei deixai"] . Such a uniform conclusion, that was no longer employed after Euclid, maybe had its root in often employed didactic lullabies [reference to Tannery, Researches sur l'histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, Paris 1893], and was needed to characterize the nature of the above proposition, because it seems that the headlines 'theorem' and 'problem' are to be ascribed to following commentaries [reference to Proclus' commentary]. - Now this so obeyed regularity seems opposite to Greek people's genius, jelous defender of any forms of liberty; then it is natural to find its origin under another sky: for in the Egyptian Calculator's Manual [actually the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus] the solution of any problem begins with the same words, it has been supposed that the euclidean formula is the most evoluted form of a geometric style, born in Egypt and then transfo!
rmed by many Greek geometers [reference to Cantor's Vorlesungen I, 237, Heiberg's Studien]. This hypothesis is very likely, even though it can not be supported ba any fact." (pag.62)
Yours sincerely,
Luigi Borzacchini