Image: Angers, Museum Plantin-Moretus, B 1829 (Christophus Clavius, Algebra, p. 138,
1609
“Reworking Euclid’s Irrationals at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century”
by Mia Joskowicz
Abstract
Euclid’s Book X, devoted to the theory and classification of irrational magnitudes, was long regarded as one of the most complex and difficult parts of the Elements. At the turn of the seventeenth century, this theory was taken up in a variety of mathematical contexts, including editions and commentaries on Book X, as well as works of arithmetic and algebra that engaged with it. In this session, we will examine a selection of passages to explore how Euclid’s irrationals were read, explained and reworked, and how the theory of Book X interacted with other ways of understanding and working with irrational quantities.
Beijing, Peking University, 北京大學藏秦簡牘《算書甲種》(Beijing daxue cang Qin jiandu Suanshu jiazhong), slips 93, 94 and 95r
Paris, BnF, Français 565, f. 69r
Paris, BnF, Latin 7432, f. 160r
Jodhpur, Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, 32552, f. 1r