Fundamentals of Arithmetic; Fundamentals of Music

IV PREFACE.

While I was working on this, Halmius asked me if I would be willing to undertake the labors necessary to edit the mathematical works of Boethius. He did not only incite me, even though I was willing, but he also assisted me by sending the best manuscripts he could. I therefore made use of the most excellent codices preserved in Munich, to which were added the Bamberg codices of no less note and the Erlangen book, which only another codex from Chartres equals. I must express my greatest thanks for this matter both to Halmius himself and to the most kind and benevolent men Föringer and Thomas of Munich, Stenglein of Bamberg, and Autenrieth of Erlangen. Prince Boncompagni provided me with extraordinary assistance. Through his supreme generosity, which is worthy of my highest praise, I was able not only to make use of what he himself held in his own manuscripts and what had been found in other Roman codices as much as seemed necessary, but also to learn about codices that are kept in Naples, Florence, and Verona.

Thus instructed, I dared to undertake the task, perhaps with little awareness of how much my shoulders could bear. But I did not want to miss the opportunity to stretch my strength. I have now completed what I proposed to complete. I bring forth both works of Boethius—the one he composed on arithmetic and the one on music, most recently edited by us in 1570 in Basel—nearly three centuries later, with the addition of the small work on geometry. A few things seem worth noting about these.

I took the inscription of the other work of Boethius from the fourth chapter of Book I of De Institutione Musica (p. 192, v. 19): in the books which we have written concerning arithmetic instruction,