Diophantus of Alexandria: A Study in the History of Greek Algebra (Classic Reprint) [Paperback]

English Diophantus, appeared in 1885, and has long been out of print. Inquiries made for it at different times suggested to me that it was a pity that a treatise so unique and in many respects so attractive as the A rithmetica should once more have become practically inaccessible to theE nglish reader. At the same time I could not but recognise that, after twenty-five years in which so much has been done for the history of mathematics, the book needed to be brought up to date, Some matters which in 1885 were still subject of controversy, such as the date of Diophantus, may be regarded as settled, and some points which then had to be laboured can now be dismissed more briefly. Practically the whole of the I ntroduction, except the chapters on the editions of Diophantus, his methods of solution, and the porisms and other assumptions found in his work, has been entirely rewritten and much shortened, while the chapters on the methods and on the porisms etc., have been made fuller than before. The new text ofT annery (T eubner 1893, 95) has enabled a number of obscure passages, particularly in Books Vand VI, to be cleared up and, as a basis for a reproduction of the whole work, is much superior to the text of Bachet. I have taken the opportunity to make my version of the actual treatise somewhat fuller and somewhat closer to the language of the original. In other respects also I thought I could improve upon a youthful work which was my first essay in the history of Greek
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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