Further adventures of the Rome 1594 Arabic redaction of Euclid's \textit{Elements} (Q420534): Difference between revisions

This article takes up the adventure of Arabic version of the Elements published in Rome at the Typographia Medicea in 1594 at the point where the first instalment ended. In this new instalment of the adventure, we situate the Rome edition within a stemma of connected Arabic copies spanning some four centuries. We show that the text of the Rome edition was typeset from Biblioteca Medicena Laurenziana, Or. 20 and that Or. 20 in turn was copied from Or. 50. We show that a manuscript (Tehran, Sipahslar 540) was later copied from the printed edition and that still later the text of the de Rome edition was reissued in lithograph form in Fez. The story is important because the Rome edition influenced the development of non-Euclidean geometry in European mathematics and because the mistaken identity of its author has led to persistent errors in the history of mathematics. This article divided into the following parts: 1. Introduction 2. Disentangling genuine and Pseudo-Tusi Tahrir 3. Laurentian library manuscripts Or. 50 and Or. 20 4. Arabic manuscripts and the Medici press 5. Typesetting the Rome 1594 edition 6. From print to manuscript: Sipahsalar 540 7. From typography to lithography (Fez 1876) 8. Concluding thoughts 9. Appendix I 10. Appendix II 11. References