The Complete Works of Archimedes, Vol. 2

longer; therefore, the scribe of this codex was able to read slightly more in the archetype than the scribe of codex C was able to read, or considered worth the effort, some fifty years later. That the archetype of the Florentine codex could not be read at the end, we can also conclude from the fact that in the Florentine codex neither τέλος nor any other sign, which scribes are accustomed to use to signify that a work is complete, is found.

Furthermore, in that letter there is such a discrepancy in codex B that in this part it could not have been copied from the Florentine codex; see in particular vol. I, p. 4, 6: ἠγνόειστο F, γνοει B; p. 4, 11: πολλα . . . F, πολ . . . ξου B; p. 6, 1: ἀγνοεῖσθαι F, . . . εῖσθαι B; and in all these places the writing of codex F is so clear that no doubt is left about it. Therefore, it had to be established that that lacuna in codex F was filled in only after codex B had been copied from it. This could have happened by itself; but yet it is probable that then the scribe of codex B, who discourses at such length about his exemplar, would have noted that he had taken the preface from another copy, especially since he added to this very preface: "The preface of Archimedes' On the Sphere and Cylinder is missing¹⁾, as you see." I do not believe these words can be taken to refer to any other copy than that exemplar which he followed throughout the entire work.

Next, in those passages which Valla translated into Latin from his codex (on which matter see what I have argued in Neue Jahrbücher, Suppl. XII p. 381 sq.), certain places are found where Valla quite clearly did not have the corrupt reading of the Florentine codex before his eyes, but the good one of codices BC:

vol. III, p. 306, 17: ἀρτώμενον BC, αρτωμεν F, "elevated" Valla.

• III, p. 70, 11: αὐτῶν BC, αυτον F, "of them" Valla.
• III, p. 118, 25: ΘΝ BC, ΘΗ F, "hn" Valla.
  Less significant are III, p. 104, 12: 'Ιπποκρατις F, "Hippocrates"

1. That is, it is mutilated (not: absent), as is apparent from the added words ὡς ὁρᾷς; for the preface is written by the same hand as the rest. cf. Quaest. Archim. p. 121, note.