PREFACE

This could hardly have happened unless the margins of the ancient copy had been covered in notes.

5. Greek Arithmetic Epigrams, which Bachet Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac was a 17th-century French mathematician and the first to translate Diophantus into Latin. added to his commentary on Diophantus's problem V, 33 ¹), I believed should be included in this new edition. Indeed, I felt I should spare no effort to make the ancient annotations, or scholia, of the Palatine manuscript public, since they seemed to be of high quality and mention Diophantus more than once. Therefore, I have expanded the abbreviations original: "Compendia", the difficulty of which had discouraged Jacobs Friedrich Jacobs was a German classical scholar who edited the Greek Anthology in the early 19th century. and other editors of the Anthology, and I have presented a text that I believe is easy to understand. I do not boast of this work, but I am content with having found a very important piece of evidence regarding the ancient way of writing fractions. In fact, in the 10th-century manuscript, I constantly found denominators written above the line, not in the position of what they call an "exponent" today. I had suspected this practice (see the preface to volume I, page VIII), but I had been unable to provide an undisputed example of it from Diophantine manuscripts.

Regarding the method I followed in sending these epigrams to the press once again, I have explained this in the note on page 43 and will not attempt to defend it further. It is enough for me to "adorn my Sparta" This is a Latin proverb meaning to do one's best with the task at hand rather than seeking more prestigious work. as best I can, those famous Mycenas...

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1) The last one (Bachet's 45th), which is not found in the Palatine manuscript and had been taken by Salmasius Claude Saumaise, a 17th-century French classical scholar. from the Planudean Anthology, I have omitted on purpose, but I will repeat it here word for word: original Greek: "᾿Ημίονος καὶ ὄνος φορέουσαι οἶνον ἔβαινον..." > A mule and a donkey were walking along, carrying wine; > the donkey was groaning under the weight of her own load. > Seeing her groaning heavily, the mule spoke to her: > "Mother, why do you weep and lament like a young girl? > If you gave me one measure, I would carry twice as much as you; > but if you took one measure from me, we would both carry equal loads." > Tell me the measure, O best master of geometry.