The eclectic content and sources of Clavius's \textit{Geometria practica} (Q2144555)

The author looks at some parts of Clavius's \textit{Geometria practica} with an eye to what sources Clavius used and how he reworked them. The topics discussed are: Heron's formula for the area of a triangle; Archimedes' \textit{Measurement of the circle}; some classical constructions for finding two mean proportionals; arithmetical cube root extraction. All of these things were quite well known and had already been covered in a number of Renaissance works by authors such as Fibonacci, Pacioli, and Stifel, in addition to the ancient sources themselves. Clavius's habit was to write his own exposition rather than to follow other sources literally. Nevertheless, by comparing the details of his treatment with previous works it is possible to identify some of his likely sources for particular topics.