PROLEGOMENA.

Regarding problem II, 29, pages 246 to 247, I neglected to mention that the diagram was poorly constructed by Planudes Maximus Planudes (c. 1260–1305) was a Byzantine monk and scholar who wrote a commentary on the first two books of Diophantus.. He was misled by a faulty reading original: "prava lectione" and, due to that error, he was barely able to explain the matter in his commentary. Thus, it has been established that the diagrams are the work of Planudes himself. I would not mention this if a learned man and friend of mine, L. Rodet, had not argued in vain that they were older 1).

IV.

On the original composition of Diophantus's Arithmetica.

Let what has been said regarding this second volume be sufficient for now. I shall return to the first volume to complete the promised discussion regarding the fate of the Diophantine manuscripts.

The period in which Diophantus lived and wrote the Arithmetica The Arithmetica is the most famous work by Diophantus, consisting of a collection of algebraic problems. was uncertain for a long time. Today, a letter from Michael Psellus Michael Psellus was an 11th-century Byzantine polymath. suggests Diophantus lived no later than Anatolius, the Bishop of Laodicea. Although this cannot be concluded with absolute certainty, it seems highly probable. His era should not be set much earlier than that. Therefore, I may be permitted to place the prime original: "ἀκμὴν", referring to the height of a person's career or life. of Diophantus roughly in the middle of the third century AD.

I have already attempted to prove that a commentary was added by Hypatia Hypatia of Alexandria (died 415 AD) was a famous female mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. around the end of the fourth century, at least for the first six books of the Arithmetica. I am inclined to believe that the last seven books remained untouched and were, for that reason, lost.

On numerical and algebraic notations prior to the 16th century, Paris, Leroux, 1881.