Complete Works of Diophantus of Alexandria, Vol. 1

That very well known epigram concerning the life of the mathematician (see page 60 below) is of no importance. Some people willingly grant it credibility as a historical witness, while others completely reject it. The epigram mentioned is a famous riddle that describes the stages of Diophantus's life in mathematical terms, used by historians to estimate his age and family history.

6. Regarding those few scholia Scholia are explanatory comments or notes written in the margins of ancient manuscripts by later readers or teachers. on Iamblichus (see page 72 below) which I have borrowed from the recent edition by Pistelli, I will only mention this: the commentator seems to have known the same manuscript used by Psellus. He appears to have identified an ancient commentary (perhaps by Hypatia) as being two works by Diophantus, as it was not clearly separated from the main text. Hypatia of Alexandria was a 4th-century mathematician who is historically credited with writing a commentary on Diophantus, though her work is largely lost.

7. I have taken the final fragment (pages 73 to 77) from a manuscript of Nicomachus, Parisinus 2372 (15th century). I did this to show how a certain learned Byzantine scholar, perhaps a contemporary of Psellus, spoke about Diophantus in an empty manner. He had heard the name and mentions thirteen books by that author, but he is completely ignorant of the problems treated in those books (page 73, line 25). For other reasons as well, it may seem that this short, unpublished preface should not be neglected.

III.

1. I now turn to the scholia that I have made public. In the manuscript Vaticanus gr. 116 (16th century), after the Scholia on the Arithmetic of Diophantus by the Lord Maximus Planudes, I found others under the heading from another source original: "ἐξ ἑτέρου" which I placed before the notes by Planudes. The author did not remain hidden from me for long. Ten years ago, I had already described the unpublished parts of the work of George Pachymeres titled Compendium of the Four Sciences or Tetrabiblos (1), and I easily recognized the chapters.

1. Charles Vincent edited the musical portion and a damaged part of the introduction. He provided information on the Paris manuscripts (Notices and The note in the source ends abruptly, likely referring to the journal Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale.).