Kept Alive in Arabic
Apollonius's Cutting off of a Ratio
قطع الخطوط على نسبة لأبولونيوس
It is the only work of Apollonius besides the Conics to survive complete, and it survives in Arabic alone. Ibn al-Nadim lists it: 'The Cutting of Lines in a Ratio, two books'. From the Arabic the English astronomer Edmond Halley translated it into Latin and published it at Oxford in 1706.
- Author
- Apollonius of Perga (3rd century BC; listed by Ibn al-Nadim)
- Field
- Mathematics
- What Arabic kept
- The whole book, in two parts
- Greek title
- Λόγου ἀποτομή
- Arabic title
- كتاب قطع الخطوط على نسبة
- Latin title
- De sectione rationis (Halley, Oxford 1706)
Click a card to see it full size; each has a download button for sharing.
Sources
- ابن النديم، الفهرست ٢/٢١٢
- Wikipedia, «Apollonius of Perga»: «a single other work surviving in Arabic translation, De Rationis Sectione»
- R. Rashed, H. Bellosta, Apollonius de Perge, La section des droites selon des rapports (De Gruyter, 2010)
Spotted a mistake, or have something to add?
Your note comes to us only; it is not published here. We read it, and if it holds we correct the card.
