The Complete Works of Archimedes, Vol. 2

"...without any recommendation of his own or any preface to see: for the first face of the leaf in the ancient exemplar, from which this was copied, was consumed and worn away by age, so that not even the name of Archimedes could be recognized, nor did anything else remain in Rome at that time by which this face could be restored. It lacked generally both breathings and accents in every note; in other parts it was whole and absolute, except that the On measurements of Hero on the second page of the last leaf had been completely obliterated just as Archimedes’ work. Yet so that Gaul might also enjoy such an Author, I preferred that you be provided with a copy of it at my own expense, in whatever way, rather than appear to the lovers of mathematics to be more negligent in this part through my own fault." And at the end of the codex, the scribe added this subscription: "Christoph Auuer, a German, put an end to this composition on the first day of the year 1544, at the expense of the most pious bishop of the Ruthenes, Georges d'Armagnac, who at that time was managing the administration of the Holy Church for Paul III in Rome, serving as ambassador with praise for Francis, king of the Celts."

From this it is apparent that codex C was copied in Rome in 1544 at the expense of Georges d'Armagnac by Christoph Auuer. Now Guillaume Philander, who was secretary to Georges d'Armagnac and accompanied him to Venice in 1541 and thence to Rome, has these things in his edition of Vitruvius (Lyon 1552 and again 1586) on p. 357: "I had written these things, when through the kindness of Rodolphe le Pieux, Cardinal of Carpi, I was given the opportunity of seeing and transcribing, under the care of my Maecenas [i.e., Georges d'Armagnac], the volume of Archimedes' On the Sphere and Cylinder with the commentary of Eutocius, which would be an ornament to that most august and most learned Library which you [Francis I] founded at Fontainebleau. That volume had belonged to Giorgio Valla, in which, besides the peculiarity of the Doric dialect and the omission of breathings and accents, which presented no small difficulty in reading, there occur repeatedly signs of syllables and words which are not sufficiently recognized even by the Greeks." Therefore, hardly any