The Works of Archimedes

The three most important manuscripts extant are:

F (= Codex Florentinus, Laurentian Library, Medicean, shelfmark xxviii. 4to).

B (= Codex Parisinus 2360, formerly Mediceus).

C (= Codex Parisinus 2361, Fonteblandensis).

Of these, it is certain that B was copied from the Valla manuscript. This is proved by a note on the copy itself, which states that the archetype formerly belonged to George Valla and afterwards to Albertus Pius. From this, it may also be inferred that B was written before the death of Albertus in 1531; for if, by the time B was written, the Valla manuscript had already passed to Rodolphus Pius, the latter's name would presumably have been mentioned. The note referred to also provides a list of peculiar abbreviations used in the archetype, which is important for comparing it with F and other manuscripts.

From a note on C, it appears that this manuscript was written by one Christophorus Auverus at Rome in 1544, at the expense of Georgius Armagniacus (Georges d'Armagnac), Bishop of Rodez, who was then on a mission from King Francis I to Pope Paul III. Further, a certain Guilelmus Philander, in a letter to Francis I published in an edition of Vitruvius (1552), mentions that he was allowed—by the kindness of Cardinal Rodolphus Pius, acting at the request of Georgius Armagniacus—to see and make extracts from a volume of Archimedes destined for the library founded by Francis at Fontainebleau. He adds that the volume had been the property of George Valla. We can therefore hardly doubt that C was the copy Georgius Armagniacus had made to present to the library at Fontainebleau.

Now F, B, and C all contain the same works of Archimedes and Eutocius in the same order: (1) two books On the Sphere and Cylinder, (2) Measurement of a Circle, (3) On Conoids and Spheroids, (4) On Spirals, (5) On the Equilibrium of Planes, (6) The Sand Reckoner, (7) The Quadrature of the Parabola, and the commentaries of Eutocius on (1), (2), and (5). At the end of the Quadrature of the Parabola, both F and B provide the following lines:

F and C also contain Measurements from Heron and two fragments, On Weights and On Measures, with the order being the same in both.