The Complete Works of Archimedes, Vol. 2

There remains no doubt that Georges d'Armagnac had that codex of Valla—which he made available to Philander—copied, in order to donate this transcript to the library at Fontainebleau. Thus, it follows that codex C was also copied from Valla's codex, which is further confirmed by the fact that it reached the Parisian library from Fontainebleau.

The paper codex Paris. 2360, formerly a Medicean one, contains the same works of Archimedes and the commentaries of Eutocius in the same order. After the book on the quadrature of the parabola, it presents the same verses. It is argued that it was written by Philander and therefore should be assigned to the sixteenth century; but this cannot be concluded at all from Philander's words cited above; for he says only this, that he "transcribed" Valla's codex, i.e., he noted down from it what could be useful to him in his commentary on Vitruvius, nor, if he had transcribed the whole thing, would he have mentioned only the books on the sphere and cylinder; he seems to have examined these books alone and not looked at the rest. Moreover, it is apparent from that subscription of the scribe that the archetype codex, at the time when codex B was being copied from it, had belonged to Albertus Pius; for if it had already passed to Rodolphus Pius, he would undoubtedly have put the latter’s name, not Albertus’, or at least would have named him as well. Wherefore, since Giorgio Valla died in 1499 and Albertus Pius in 1531, it must be concluded that codex B was written between these years.

The paper codex Paris. 2361 (C), also from Fontainebleau, contains the same works of Archimedes and Eutocius in the same order, and furthermore the measurements of Hero, just like the Florentine one. From this codex, F. Hultsch published those Heronian texts: Heronis reliquiae, pp. 188–207. After the measurements of Hero, there follow two fragments, on weights¹⁾ and on measures, which the same scholar published from this codex (Metrolog. script. 83–84; I, pp. 267–272; cf. preface, p. XVII). All these are found in the same order in the Florentine codex, except that the last fragment on measures is slightly longer in it.

1. Hultsch has on talents, but Carolus Graux testifies that it is on weights in the codex, and it is read as such in the Florentine.