Description
VOLUME TWO of Professor Clagett's Archimedes in the Middle Ages concentrates on the Latin translations of Archimedes made by the Flemish Dominican William of Moerbeke in 1269 at Viterbo. These translations were the first extensive presentation of the works of Archimedes in Latin. The Introduction treats Moerbeke's career as a translator. This is followed by a detailed examination of the first use of Moerbeke's translations by his friend, the Polish student of optics, Witelo. Dr. Clagett then assembles the evidence that establishes not only that the translations were in fact made by Moerbeke but also that the single manuscript in which they are all contained (Vatican, Ottobonianus 1850) is in the translator's handwriting. The techniques and capabilities of Moerbeke revealed by these translations are closely examined and the information available on the now lost Greek manuscripts used by Moerbeke is collected. The Introduction concludes with a discussion of the textual procedures employed by the editor in the texts that follow. These texts constitute the bulk of the volume. They include seven works of Archimedes and two commentaries by Eutocius. The texts are supplemented by variant readings, which in the main represent the translator's marginal notes and textual corrections, as well as the corrections made by two Renaissance scholars. Following the variant readings, the editor has presented a detailed commentary in which he illustrates Moerbeke's treatment of Greek manuscripts A and B and he discusses Moerbeke's efforts, sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful, to correct the Greek text. The volume is completed by diagrams, a Greco-Latin glossary, and an extensive index of the Latin words used by Moerbeke. Thus in this volume one of the principal sources of the medieval Latin Archimedes is fully presented to the reader, setting the stage for an examination in Volume Three of the use made of the medieval Archimedes from 1300 to 1565.
