PREFACE.

which we did not examine ourselves, and concerning whose age it was not permitted to make a certain judgment, we deliberately neglected. For this reason, the critical apparatus of Kulenkamp to Cleomedes, containing the readings of eight manuscripts and the first edition—which the Göttingen library, with singular generosity, twice entrusted to me for my studies at home—was not of great help, since the learned man refrains from speaking about the age of the manuscripts he used.

And while I was occasionally doubting and considering with myself whether perhaps that burden was greater than our strengths, there was not lacking—a fact I profess openly with a grateful heart—my colleague Carolus Manitius, who, with the learning and sagacity he possesses in astronomical matters, proved a most rigorous supervisor of the work undertaken. We have noted in their proper place all the conjectures he most generously granted to me. Also, the emendations of Hultsch, Kont, Letronne, and Meineke, which removed inveterate errors, have been received into the text.

The Latin translation of Balfour, which Bakius added to his edition, has been changed and corrected in so many places that we do not fear to claim it as our own. The index to Pappus, elaborated by Hultsch with wonderful diligence and care, often kindly showed us the way as we worked and made this difficult and sometimes thankless labor easier. However, we chose not to consult the Latin translation made by Giorgio Valla of Piacenza, with which Marcus Hopperus augmented his 1561 edition of Cleomedes, as it was faulty and lacking in elegance, even though the quite rare book was available to us.

So that individual words and things treated by Cleomedes may be found more easily and his Greek style in some way...