Complete Works of Diophantus of Alexandria, Vol. 1

I have recognized certain arithmetic writings in which Pachymeres excerpted from Diophantus, just as he did with Nicomachus in earlier sections and Euclid in later ones. Or rather, he attempted to present a paraphrase of the first book adapted to his own time. I believe he came across the archetype An archetype is the original manuscript from which all other known copies of a text are derived. of our own manuscripts, as it was damaged by the same errors. For example, the phrase irrational number original: "ἄλογος ἀριθμός" (alogos arithmos) was already present there (page 80, line 8; compare with Book I, section 6, line 4).

The manuscript Vaticanus Greek 116 seems to have been copied from a certain lost codex, of which the Paris manuscripts are also copies. It was already damaged at the beginning, so the author's name was missing. A complete text exists only in Naniano 255 (now known as Marciano Class VI, Codex VI). This dates to the 15th century but is of the highest quality. It was originally brought from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. Signor Castellani, the distinguished head of the Marcian Library, very kindly sent it to me in Paris. I have presented the version from this manuscript below (pages 78 to 122). I found no alternative readings in the Paris manuscripts that seemed worth mentioning.

2. Not long after the attempt by Georgios Pachymeres, Maximus Planudes wrote a proper commentary on the first two books of Diophantus. This work appears anonymously in many manuscripts. In others, the name was only added after the Latin translation was published by Xylander, who had suspected Planudes was the author. But there is no room for doubt. Although the original source of the Vaticanus Greek 116 manuscript mentioned above is lost, ten leaves from it dating to the 14th century still exist in the manuscript Ambrosianus Et 157 sup. At the point where the mathematical problems begin, the original hand clearly...

Excerpts, Volume XVII, 1858, pages 362 to 533: Th. H. Martin added certain fragments from the fourth book to his edition of Theon of Smyrna: Astronomy.