PREFACE.

I have decided this. Regarding the spelling of words, if it seems to someone that I have been inconsistent—because they find forms like supponenda to be placed under and obtinet he/she/it obtains, inpar unequal/odd and comparare to compare, adsumo and aspicere to take up and to look at, and other such variations in the printed text—let them remember that I have followed the manuscripts, which are extremely varied in this regard, and I could achieve nothing but what seemed most probable⁷). In the word spatio meaning "space" or "extent" alone, almost against the testimony of the manuscripts, I have preserved the letter t and rejected the c which occurs so frequently in them. For Greek proper names, I preferred to follow the Greek method of spelling, according to which it seems that even Ptolomaeus Ptolemy, the famous Greco-Roman astronomer and geographer. should be written in that way. As for the books on Geometry, since they seem to me to be attributed to a later period Friedlein refers to the "Pseudo-Boethian" Geometry, which scholars today generally agree was not written by Boethius himself but compiled later., I did not change them where they differed in any way from Boethius’s other works. Indeed, I suspect that in correcting the works of Boethius himself, I may have strived for more consistency than Boethius did, since his love for variety is shown not only by the great diversity in how he expresses the same thoughts, but also by the fact that he most likely used various terms interchangeably, such as triangulus and triangulum Both meaning "triangle," using different grammatical genders., pyramidam and pyramidem Variation in the Latin ending for "pyramid.", or atomon meaning "atom" or "indivisible unit" in Latin letters and kolouron original: "κολουρον," meaning "truncated" or "docked," often referring to a truncated pyramid or cone in Greek letters, and other similar things.

I have enclosed in brackets the passages found on page 375, lines 1, 2, 18, and 19; nor does it escape me that others could also be bracketed, such as on page 383, lines 5–21, page 387, line 23, and page 388, lines 1 and 2. However, those passages are too corrupt to be healed merely by brackets. On page 401, line 10, a lacuna A gap or missing part in a manuscript. must be established after the word longitudine meaning "length". For there is something missing—

⁷) Even though I was very intent on rendering the same word with the same letters everywhere, I could not prevent some errors from escaping my notice. Furthermore, some points varied as my opinion changed based on new arguments. I request that these be considered corrected according to the spelling used in the index.