Title | Simplicius’s Proof of Euclid’s Parallels Postulate |
Type | Article |
Language | English |
Date | 1969 |
Journal | Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |
Volume | 32 |
Pages | 1-24 |
Categories | no categories |
Author(s) | Sabra, A. I. |
Editor(s) | |
Translator(s) |
A commentary by Simplicius on the premisses to Book I of Euclid’s Elements survives in an Arabic translation of which the author and the exact date of execution are unknown. The translation is reproduced by the ninth-century mathematician al-Fadl ibn Hâtim al-Nayrïzï in the course of his own com mentary on the Elements. Of Nayrïzî’s commentary, which is based on the earlier translation of the Elements by al-Hajjâj ibn Yûsuf ibn Matar, we have only one manuscript copy at Leiden and Gerard of Cremona’s Latin trans lation, both of which have been published.1The passages quoted by Nayrïzï, owing to their extensiveness and con secutive order, would strongly lead one to assume that they together make up the whole of Simplicius’s text. In what follows, however, I shall argue that they suffer from at least one important omission : a proof by Simplicius himself of Euclid’s parallels postulate. Since the omission occurs both in the Leiden manuscript and in Gerard’s translation, it cannot simply be an accidental feature of the former. My argument will consist in (i) citing evidence (Document I) to the effect that such a proof was known to some Arabic mathematicians, and (2) producing a hitherto unnoticed text (Document II) which, in the light of the evidence cited, may well be taken to be the missing proof. In addition, I shall show how Simplicius’s proof entered Arabic discussions on parallels, first, by being made subject to criticism (Document I), and then by being incorporated into a new proof which was designed to take that criticism into account (Document III). [p. 1] |
Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/yyXlDjNP3t7ipML |
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Title | Simplicius’s Proof of Euclid’s Parallels Postulate |
Type | Article |
Language | English |
Date | 1969 |
Journal | Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |
Volume | 32 |
Pages | 1-24 |
Categories | no categories |
Author(s) | Sabra, A. I. |
Editor(s) | |
Translator(s) |
A commentary by Simplicius on the premisses to Book I of Euclid’s Elements survives in an Arabic translation of which the author and the exact date of execution are unknown. The translation is reproduced by the ninth-century mathematician al-Fadl ibn Hâtim al-Nayrïzï in the course of his own com mentary on the Elements. Of Nayrïzî’s commentary, which is based on the earlier translation of the Elements by al-Hajjâj ibn Yûsuf ibn Matar, we have only one manuscript copy at Leiden and Gerard of Cremona’s Latin trans lation, both of which have been published.1The passages quoted by Nayrïzï, owing to their extensiveness and con secutive order, would strongly lead one to assume that they together make up the whole of Simplicius’s text. In what follows, however, I shall argue that they suffer from at least one important omission : a proof by Simplicius himself of Euclid’s parallels postulate. Since the omission occurs both in the Leiden manuscript and in Gerard’s translation, it cannot simply be an accidental feature of the former. My argument will consist in (i) citing evidence (Document I) to the effect that such a proof was known to some Arabic mathematicians, and (2) producing a hitherto unnoticed text (Document II) which, in the light of the evidence cited, may well be taken to be the missing proof. In addition, I shall show how Simplicius’s proof entered Arabic discussions on parallels, first, by being made subject to criticism (Document I), and then by being incorporated into a new proof which was designed to take that criticism into account (Document III). [p. 1] |
Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/yyXlDjNP3t7ipML |
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