Le rapport di isou (Euclide V, définition 17): Définition, utilisation, transmission. (Definition 17 in Euclid's Elements V, di isou: definition, utilisation, transmission) (Q1092877)

Definition 17 in Euclid's Elements, Book V, consists of two statements, which are not equivalent. The first is a remake of theorem V.22; so the second is the only one to be taken as genuine. This can be proved by the use of the expression ex aequali in Greek geometry, and also by a close investigation of the various witnesses of this part of the text. Consequently, Definition 17 should be left out. Definition 18.1, of the ordered proportion, should be restored as genuine, and Definition 18.2, of the perturbed proportion, should be reduced to its original core, and made similar to 18.1. I can add that what the author says with regard to Version I and Hermann holds good for Version II, and that Gerard agrees with the Arabic Version as contained in R. O. Besthorn and J. L. Heiberg, Codex Leidensis 399.1 (1898), part 3, pp. 25-27. Besides in the translation of Gerard of Cremona the definitions 18.1 and 18.2 occur in the medieval Latin translation made directly from the Greek.