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Maria Zack
Elaine Landry
Editors
Research in History
and Philosophy of
Mathematics
The CSHPM 2015 Annual Meeting
in Washington, D. C.
Proceedings of the Canadian Society for History
and Philosophy of Mathematics/La Société
Canadienne d’Histoire et de Philosophie
des Mathématiques
Series Editors
Maria Zack
Elaine Landry
This volume contains seventeen papers that were presented at the 2015 Annual
Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics
(CSHPM). This was a special year, because the meeting was part of the Mathe-
matical Association of America’s MathFest and was a joint meeting of the CSHPM
with the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM), the History of
Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America
(HOMSIGMAA), and the Philosophy of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the
Mathematical Association of America (POMSIGMAA). The meeting took place in
August of 2015 in Washington, D.C.
At this meeting the memories of Jacqueline (Jackie) Stedall and Ivor Grattan-
Guinness were honored, the centennial of the Mathematical Association of America
was celebrated, and a special session on the importance of mathematical communi-
ties was held. Several papers in this volume connect with these themes. The papers
are arranged in roughly chronological order and contain an interesting variety of
modern scholarship in both the history and philosophy of mathematics.
In “The Latin translation of Eucid’s Elements attributed to Adelard of Bath:
relation to the Arabic transmission of al-Hajjaj,” Gregg De Young discusses new
:
evidence that supports the conclusion that the earliest Latin version of Euclid’s
Elements, which is derived from the Arabic, is based on the Arabic version attributed
to al-Hajjaj.
:
Christopher Baltus’s “The arc rampant in 1673: Abraham Bosse, François Blon-
del, Philippe de la Hire, and conic sections” exposes the reader to the arc rampant
which is an arc of a conic section determined by tangents at two given endpoints
and by an additional tangent line. In the seventeenth century, both François Blondel
and Philippe de la Hire independently worked on this interesting curve. In “The
need for a revision of the prehistory of arithmetic and its relevance to school
mathematics,” Patricia Baggett and Andrzej Ehrenfeucht continue the conversation
about seventeenth-century mathematics by looking at the computational work of
John Napier (1617) and the subsequent work of John Leslie (1817). They also
v
vi Introduction
discuss how these ideas can be used to enrich student learning in twenty-first-
century mathematics classrooms.
A significant number of the papers in this volume focus on nineteenth-century
mathematics. In “Bolzano’s measurable numbers: are they real?” Steve Russ and
Kateřina Trlifajová examine work done by Bolzano in the 1830s in Prague. At
that time, Bolzano wrote a manuscript giving a foundational account of numbers
and their properties. This work was evidently an attempt to provide an improved
proof of the sufficiency of the criterion usually known as the “Cauchy criterion” for
the convergence of an infinite sequence. Roger Godard also considers the work of
Bolzano and several others in “Finding the roots of a nonlinear equation: history and
reliability.” In this paper, Godard looks at part of the history of numerical methods
for finding roots of nonlinear equations.
In addition to being the MAA Centennial, the year 2015 was also the 200th
anniversary of the birth of George Boole, and the 150th anniversary of the founding
of the London Mathematical Society, whose first president was Augustus De
Morgan. Gavin Hitchcock has created a delightful play “Remarkable Similarities:
A Dialogue Between Boole and De Morgan” which illuminates the relationship
between these two men, and the text of the play is published in this volume. Francine
Abeles looks at another important nineteenth-century friendship, the relationship
between Charles Peirce and William Kingdon Clifford in “Clifford and Sylvester
on the development of Peirce’s matrix formulation of the algebra of relations,
1870–1882.” Abeles is particularly interested in Pierce’s work to show that every
associative algebra can be represented by a matrix.
The British mathematician William Burnside, who was in the late nineteenth
century a pioneer of group theory, spent most of his career at the Royal Naval
College, Greenwich. Many believe that Burnside worked in isolation. However in
“The correspondence of William Burnside,” Howard Emmens looks at some new
evidence that may change that understanding of Burnside and his work. Another
unexpected piece of scientific history can be found in Michiyo Nakane’s “Historical
evidence of the close friendship between Yoshikatsu Sugiura and Paul Dirac.” In this
paper, Nakane looks at the relationship between Paul Dirac, J. Robert Oppenheimer,
and the Japanese physicist Yoshikatsu Sugiura. Their friendship began in the 1920s
while Sugiura was studying in Europe, continued after Sigiura had returned to Japan,
and, surprisingly, endured well beyond World War II.
For nearly 50 years, Ivor Grattan-Guinness was a significant force in the
twentieth- and twenty-first-century history. Grattan-Guinness, who was an
extremely prolific writer and collaborator, passed away in December of 2014.
In “Grattan-Guinness’s work on classical mechanics,” Roger Cooke provides a
carefully documented survey of one part of Grattan-Guinness’ significant body of
scholarly work.
Mathematics is a human endeavor and humanistic mathematics emphasizes that
fact. In “Humanistic reflections on hundredth powers: a case study,” Joel Haack and
Timothy Hall use their own experience in solving a problem that recently appeared
in Mathematics Magazine to illustrate that solutions and proofs can be approached
in a variety of ways and that it is possible for different strategies to offer unique
insights into the problem.
Introduction vii
Steve DiDomenico and Linda Newman are both librarians and tackle an impor-
tant twenty-first-century issue in their paper “The quest for digital preservation:
will a portion of mathematics history be lost forever?” This paper offers some
important cautions for all of us whose research is dependent on archival material.
Libraries, archives, and museums have traditionally preserved and provided access
to many different kinds of physical materials, including books, papers, theses,
faculty research notes, correspondence, etc. However, in the modern mathematical
community much of the equivalent material only exists electronically on websites,
laptops, private servers, and social media. If this material is going to be of any use to
future generations of researchers, it must be preserved. In this article, DiDomenico
and Newman discuss several key issues in digital preservation.
In honor of the centennial of the Mathematical Association of America, sev-
eral papers in this volume focus on mathematical communities, particularly the
development of an American mathematical community in the twentieth century.
In the first paper, “Mathematical communities as a topic and a method,” Amy
Ackerberg-Hastings develops a formal historical definition for the term “mathemat-
ical communities.” In “The American Mathematical Monthly (1894–1919): a new
journal in the service of mathematics and its educators,” Karen Hunger Parshall
looks at the first twenty-five years of the publication of the Monthly in the context of
the evolving American mathematical community. The Monthly became the official
publication of the Mathematical Association of America when it was founded in
1915.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is home to a number
of interesting physical objects associated with the history of mathematics. In
“Charter members of the MAA and the material culture of American mathematics,”
Peggy Aldrich Kidwell discusses several artifacts in the Smithsonian that are
connected with charter members of the MAA. These objects are associated with
a variety of mathematical activities including research on prime numbers, creating
geometric models for the classroom, and encouraging participation in recreational
mathematics.
One of the significant changes in the United States in the twentieth century
was the emergence of an American mathematical research community. Like many
American mathematicians of his generation, Edward V. Huntington (1874–1952)
began his mathematical studies in the United States, but completed his doctoral
work in Germany. In “An American postulate theorist: Edward V. Huntington,”
Janet Heine Barnett discusses one area of Huntington’s mathematical research
and its connection to the development of the research agenda of the American
postulate theorists. Well-prepared high school students are a critical component
in maintaining a mathematical research community in the United States. The
eastern European tradition of using Math Circles to prepare mathematically talented
secondary school students for mathematical competitions spread to the United States
in the 1990s. In “The establishment and growth of the American Math Circle
movement,” Brandy Wiegers and Diana White look at the growth of Math Circles
and the unique ways that they are being implemented in the United States.
viii Introduction
This collection of papers contains several gems from the history and philosophy
of mathematics which will be enjoyed by a wide mathematical audience. This
collection was a pleasure to assemble and contains something of interest for
everyone.
The editors wish to thank the following people who served on the editorial board
for this volume:
Amy Ackerberg-Hastings
University of Maryland University College
Thomas Archibald
Simon Fraser University
June Barrow-Green
The Open University
David Bellhouse
University of Western Ontario
Mariya Boyko
University of Toronto
Daniel Curtin
Northern Kentucky University
David DeVidi
University of Waterloo
Thomas Drucker
University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
ix
x Editorial Board
Craig Fraser
University of Toronto
Hardy Grant
York University
Elaine Landry
University of California, Davis
Jean-Pierre Marquis
Université de Montréal
Duncan Melville
St. Lawrence University
V. Frederick Rickey
United States Military Academy
Dirk Schlimm
McGill University
Joel Silverberg
Roger Williams University
James Tattersall
Providence College
Maria Zack
Point Loma Nazarene University
Contents
xi
xii Contents
xiii
xiv Contributors
1 The problem
1
A concise overview of the contemporary understanding of the medieval transmission has been
given by Brentjes (2001a, 37–49).
G. De Young ()
The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
e-mail: gdeyoung@aucegypt.edu
Thābit b. Qurra. Only the Ish.āq version as revised by Thābit is still extant in the
manuscript tradition.2 There are, however, significant divergences evident in the
surviving manuscripts. These divergences involve (a) different technical vocabulary,
(b) altered orders of propositions, and (c) sometimes different demonstrations
(De Young 1984). The textual differences occur mainly in book V and in books
VII–IX. Such divergences suggest that the two translations might not be entirely
independent, or that some surviving manuscripts may have been contaminated
from the earlier translation versions. Teasing out these relationships in the Arabic
transmission frequently requires introducing evidence from secondary transmission
documents such as commentaries or later translations, as discussed by Brentjes
(1996). Establishing the relation of this Arabic transmission to the Latin and Hebrew
transmissions is fraught with many difficulties and scholars continue to disagree on
interpretation of the evidence.3
2 Introducing Adelard
More than a century ago, Charles Homer Haskins (1911, 491) described Adelard as
a “dim and shadowy figure.” The description is still apt today. We know Adelard
almost exclusively through the works attributed to him. Although tradition says that
he was born in England, we have no documentary evidence. He is reported to have
studied at Tours in France, and is said to have taught for a time at Laon. After some
time, he apparently journeyed to Magna Graeca and perhaps spent some time in
Sicily. Either as a continuation of this trip or on a second trip, he reportedly spent
seven years in the Levant (Cilicia and Syria) before returning to Europe sometime
prior to 1126. It was then that he began the series of translations for which he is best
known, including his translation of Euclid’s Elements. In 1130 he is mentioned on
the tax records of Bath (hence his name), but it is unclear whether he remained in
Bath until his death or undertook further travels.
Three Latin versions of Euclid have been ascribed to Adelard over the years.
These three versions were first identified and described by Marshall Clagett (1953)
about half a century ago.4 Only one of these versions is today believed to be the
2
Brentjes (1994) has given the most complete discussion of the transmission of al-H.ajjāj.
3
On the basis of stylistic features, Lorch (1987, 33) concluded that Adelard’s version — at least in
some places — “inclines to H.ajjāj,” although he notes that Kunitzsch, from his study of vocabulary,
considered that “the wording of Adelard I is in general more like that of Ish.āq/Thābit.” Busard, the
editor of the Latin version of Adelard, had concluded (1984, xiii) that Adelard probably depended
on an al-H.ajjāj version. Kunitzsch (1985, 119) suggested that Adelard’s source was most likely
a manuscript from the Ish.āq-Thābit transmission, although contaminated with readings from al-
H.ajjāj. Unfortunately, Kunitzsch did not provide specific details to support his conclusion.
4
His work was amplified and extended by Murdoch (1968). See also the summary article by
Folkerts (1987).
Adelard’s Euclid 3
work of Adelard. These versions, which Clagett called Adelard I, Adelard II, and
Adelard III, were as follows:
1. A literal translation of the Elements, which Clagett identified as Adelard I. This
version is presumed to represent the actual translation of Adelard and it is this
treatise that concerns us in this study. The text has been edited by Busard (1983).5
2. An abridgement of the Euclidean text featuring summary demonstrations, which
Clagett called Adelard II. The Latin text has been edited by Busard and Folkerts
(1992), who argued that the actual author of this version was probably Robert of
Chester.
3. A paraphrase or reworking of the Euclidean text, which Clagett called Adelard
III. The Latin text was edited by Busard (2001), who has tentatively identified its
author with Johannes of Tinemue.
The Latin translation of Adelard survives in several manuscripts, but each
contains only a portion of the text. When combined, these fragments do not add
up to a complete text — all of book IX and the initial section of book X are missing.
To date, there has not been a sustained effort to investigate the relations between
Adelard’s translation and the later Latin translations attributed to Hermann of
Carinthia (Busard 1968, 1977) and to Gerard of Cremona (Busard 1984), nor has its
relation to the complex Arabic transmission outlined briefly in section 1 been firmly
established. This paper offers some preliminary findings from an investigation
of Adelard’s relation to the Arabic Euclidean transmission and especially to the
transmission credited to al-H.ajjāj.
Evidence concerning the content of the translation of al-H.ajjāj has traditionally been
drawn from two sources:
1. The commentary of al-Nayrı̄zı̄ on Euclid’s Elements, which an anonymous
introduction asserts is based on the second (presumably referring to the revised)
version of the translation of al-H.ajjāj. This early commentary is extant in
only two manuscripts, each of which is now incomplete. The more extensive
manuscript (Leiden University Library, ms. 399.1) breaks off abruptly a few
lines into book VII.6 Thus this commentary offers no information concerning
5
Kunitzsch (1985, 120) suggests that the Latin text as we know it now seems to be a pastiche —
it “has sections of complete literalness against the Arabic” while other sections reveal a degree of
“literary Latin” and a more “elegant” style suggesting that there has been a manipulation of the
original literal translation.
6
A medieval Latin translation, traditionally ascribed to Gerard of Cremona, exists in more complete
form. Brentjes (2001b) has discussed the relation of the Arabic text to the Latin translation.
4 G. De Young
books VII–IX, which seems to be one of the most important areas of divergence
between the two Arabic translation streams.7
2. A number of notes included in the Tah.rı̄r of Nas.ı̄r al-Dı̄n al-T.ūsı̄ that describe
differences between the version ascribed to al-H.ajjāj and that ascribed to Thābit
(De Young 2003, 134–8). These notes focus on alterations in the order of
propositions and definitions as well as additions to or deletions from the text.
(Some of these comments are repeated in the Tah.rı̄r incorrectly attributed to
al-T.ūsı̄ that was published in Rome in 1594 (De Young 2012).)
There are potential difficulties with accepting each of these pieces of evidence
at face value. The commentary of al-Nayrı̄zı̄, with its claim to be based on the
second version of al-H.ajjāj, also contains quotation from two Hellenistic Greek
commentators, Simplicius and Heron, whose work is lost from the Greek tradition.
These quotations appear to have the same stylistic and philological features as the
main commentary, suggesting that they might have been edited by the commentator.
And if the Greek text has been edited, there is also the possibility that the quoted
text ascribed to al-H.ajjāj might also have been edited by the commentator.
The comments of al-T.ūsı̄ do not, in themselves, present any serious difficulties
or ambiguities. But these reports concerning the transmission of al-H.ajjāj have been
difficult to correlate with anything in the commentary of al-Nayrı̄zı̄. Since al-T.ūsı̄
does not mention whether he is referring to the first or the second version of al-H.ajjāj
in his comments, it is possible that the difficulty of correlating his reports with the
text of al-Nayrı̄zı̄ may mean that al-T.ūsı̄ is describing features of the first version.
But without additional independent witnesses, we cannot be completely certain
which version of al-H.ajjāj the comments of al-T.ūsı̄ describe. These uncertainties
reflect the difficulties that bedevil the study of the history of the Arabic transmission
of the Elements.
Since Busard produced his edition of Adelard’s Latin translation of the Elements,
four new lines of evidence concerning the transmission attributed to al-H.ajjāj have
become available to historians. Although the bits of evidence are ascribed to al-
H.ajjāj, none seems to distinguish between the original translation and its later
revision. These pieces of evidence, listed in order of discovery / discussion, are:
1. Sixteen quotations ascribed to al-H.ajjāj are preserved in three Arabic primary
transmission manuscripts, all copied in al-Andalus (De Young 1991). These
quotations involve either alternative enunciations (book II, propositions 1–9),
7
Burnett notes (1997, 134) that the commentary of al-Nayrı̄zı̄ was known in the early Latin
transmission, being mentioned by Roger Bacon and also in the Latin commentary attributed to
Albertus Magnus.
Adelard’s Euclid 5
demonstrations of additional cases (book III, propositions 24, 32, 34, 35, 36 and
book IV, 5),8 or alternative demonstrations (book VIII, propositions 20 and 21).
2. Approximately twenty reports ascribe alternative formulations of definitions
and propositions to al-H.ajjāj. These quotations are preserved in an anonymous
commentary on the Elements, extant in two copies, both of which are in Hyder-
abad, India (De Young 2002–2003). In some cases, alternative formulations are
attributed to Ish.āq, suggesting that the commentator may have been working
from a text deriving from the transmission of al-H.ajjāj.
3. A collection of alternative diagrams explicitly attributed to al-H.ajjāj. These
alternative diagrams differ from diagrams in the Arabic Euclidean transmission
in several ways: (a) the pattern of assigning the letter labels to points in the
diagrams, (b) the values of numerals inserted into some diagrams — apparently
as example cases, and (c) favoring horizontal rather than vertical orientation of
the line segments used to represent numbers or magnitudes (De Young 2014).
Curiously, some diagrams ascribed to al-H.ajjāj show no apparent differences
from diagrams of the Thābit tradition.
4. An anonymous commentary, Mumbai, Mullā Fı̄rūz, R.I.6, which quotes a version
of the text different from that of Thābit and different from that of al-Nayrı̄zı̄.
The commentary contains a multi-layered text. Some portions seem to present
a version of the text not known elsewhere in the Arabic Euclidean tradition.
Similarities between these sections and the Latin translation of Adelard suggest
that they may derive from the translation of al-H.ajjāj (Brentjes 2006).
These pieces of evidence provide a broader and more nuanced view of the
transmission ascribed to al-H.ajjāj. It is surprising, though, that these new pieces
of evidence rarely overlap with any of the older pieces of evidence, nor do they
typically overlap with one another. So we continue to face significant uncertainties
when attempting to characterize the work of al-H . ajjāj.
Although space considerations prevent us from examining every one of these
claims in detail, the remainder of the paper will consider a few brief examples to
illustrate how these bits of evidence concerning the Arabic transmission of al-H.ajjāj
are reflected in the Latin translation of Adelard.
5 Al-H
. ajjāj and Adelard
In this section, we turn our attention to the evidence for a possible influence from
the transmission of al-H.ajjāj to the translation of Adelard. In each subsection, we
consider one or two representative examples of the kind of evidence found in each
8
Another report of these additional cases that explicitly refers them to the work of al-H.ajjāj is
found in the commentary by Ah.mad al-Karābı̄sı̄. These reports have been analyzed by Brentjes
(2000, 47–49).
6 G. De Young
of these four newer forms of evidence and examine whether the Arabic features
attributed to al-H.ajjāj are reflected in what we find in Adelard’s Latin translation.
Fig. 1 Byzantine Greek manuscripts typically construct the given rectilineal figure as a
triangle labelled with a single letter. Diagram edited from Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale
dell’Archiginnasio, ms A. 18, folio 73v.
In the Arabic version of Ish.āq – Thābit, the enunciation of the problem is almost
identical to the Greek (Escurial, ms arabe 907, folio 23b): “We want to construct
a square equal to a given rectilineal figure.” Curiously, though, the diagrams are
not consistent in all Arabic manuscripts. In some manuscripts, the given figure is
represented by a triangle, just as in the Byzantine Greek manuscripts (Figure 2). In
other manuscripts, the given figure is represented as a quadrilateral (Figure 3). Of
course, from a mathematical point of view, either form of the diagram is possible
since the enunciation does not specify any specific characteristics of the given figure
apart from having rectilineal sides. And whether the diagram contains a triangle or
a quadrilateral, the given figure is labelled with only one letter.
In the commentary of al-Nayriı̄zı̄ (based on the second version of al-H.ajjāj),
however, we read (Leiden University Library, Arabic codex 399.1, folio 33a): “We
want to show how to construct a square area equal to a triangle.” The diagram, of
course, also contains a triangle. But now the triangle is identified with a letter at
each vertex (Figure 4). The testimony of al-Nayrı̄zı̄ is confirmed by a statement
in an anonymous Arabic commentary (Hyderabad, Oriental Manuscripts Library
8 G. De Young
One of the more unusual sources of evidence about the early Arabic version of al-
H.ajjāj is a collection of some 55 alternative diagrams recorded in the margins of two
of the many manuscripts of the Tah.rı̄r of the Elements composed by Nas.ı̄r al-Dı̄n
al-T.ūsı̄. The fact that nearly all these diagrams are explicitly ascribed to al-H.ajjāj
suggests that whoever collected these diagrams considered it important to mention
Adelard’s Euclid 9
that attribution. These diagrams, which appear mainly in the margins of book V and
books VII–IX, differ from the diagrams present in the Tah.rı̄r in several ways:
1. The diagrams, both those attributed to al-H.ajjāj and those in the text of the Tah.rı̄r,
include numerical values, apparently intended to illustrate the mathematical
content of the proposition. In some propositions, it is only these numerical values
that differ, suggesting that such numerals may have been included in the original
translation of al-H.ajjāj.9 Such numerical values were, so far as we can ascertain,
not part of Euclid’s original text. Since these numerical values appear only in
a minority of surviving manuscripts, the ascription to al-H.ajjāj suggests that he
was perceived as the source of one tradition of numerical values.
2. Some diagrams have the same geometric features but use different conventions of
labelling. These differences in labelling, of course, will correspond to differences
in the textual formulation. For example, the diagram for Elements V, 5 reflects
two different conventions of lettering within the Arabic primary transmission
(Figures 6 and 7). The second of these diagram styles is identical to that ascribed
to al-H.ajjāj by the anonymous scholiast (Figure 8).
3. The line segments in diagrams attributed to al-H.ajjāj are typically placed
horizontally on the page. The diagrams in typical manuscripts of the Tah.rı̄r
are oriented vertically, as are the typical diagrams in the surviving primary
transmission documents. It is difficult to decide, though, whether this visual
difference is significant or merely represents a convention adopted by one or
more copyists to distinguish one collection of diagrams from another.
Fig. 8 The diagram for Elements V, 5 which is ascribed to al-H.ajjāj by an anonymous scholiast.
Diagram edited from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, Hss Cod. arab. 2697, folio 55a. The numbers
and diagram lines are in red in the manuscript (De Young 2014, 193).
9
Since such numerals are often present in the surviving Byzantine Greek manuscripts, one may
be tempted to speculate about a possible Greek origin for these diagram numerals that are
attributed to al-H.ajjāj. An informal survey of diagram numerals included in Greek and Arabic
diagrams, however, failed to uncover any consistent patterns. Thus at present there is no evidence
to corroborate this speculation (De Young 2005, 159–62).
10 G. De Young
Fig. 9 The diagram for Elements V, 5 in the Latin translation of Adelard. Diagram edited from
Busard (1983, 150).
Fig. 10 Diagram for Elements VII, 3. Diagram edited from Escurial, ms arabe 907, folio 69a.
Adelard’s Euclid 11
Fig. 11 The diagram for Elements VII, 3 which is ascribed to al-H.ajjāj by an anonymous
scholiast. In this diagram, the lines were omitted by the scholiast. Diagram edited from Bayerische
StaatsBibliothek, Hss Cod.arab. 2697, folio 74b. The numbers are written with red ink in the
manuscript (De Young 2014, 197).
6 Concluding thoughts
We have been able to present only a small fraction of the available data that reveals
an Arabic transmission different from that of Ish.āq-Thābit and which is explicitly
ascribed to al-H.ajjāj. Much of this evidence concerning the Arabic transmission
of al-H.ajjāj has already been described elsewhere. In this brief paper, we have
examined the assertion by Busard, the editor of the Latin translation of Adelard,
that this earliest Latin translation was based on one or more manuscripts containing
the version of al-H.ajjāj. Based on our analysis of several lines of evidence that
provide evidence about the transmission of al-H.ajjāj, we conclude that Busard’s
interpretation of the earlier evidence is frequently corroborated by the additional
evidence that has become available.
Acknowledgements All diagrams have been edited using DRaFT, a software tool developed
under the leadership of Professor K. Saito (Osaka Prefecture University). The software is JAVA-
based and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. The software allows users to capture
essential geometric information from mathematical diagrams and processes them as EPS files. For
more information about the functioning of DRaFT or to obtain a gratis copy of the software, see
Dr. Saito’s website: http://www.greekmath.org/index.html.
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The Arc Rampant in 1673: Abraham Bosse,
François Blondel, Philippe de la Hire,
and conic sections
Christopher Baltus
1 Introduction
The tracing of the arc rampant is the second problem of Résolution des quatres
principaux problèmes d’architecture, 1673, by (Nicolas)-François Blondel (1618 -
1686):
to find a Conic Section tangent to three given straight lines, in one plane, at a given point on
two of these lines: in other words, to describe geometrically the arcs rampans of all types
of foot segments (pieds droits) and heights.
In his Cours d’Architecture (p 424, 1683) [also see Gerbino (2005)], Blondel
explained that these oblique arcs are used “rather frequently in architecture, as in
passage ways, arches of vaults, lunettes . . . , and especially in ramps of staircases.”
We begin our account with Abraham Bosse (1604? - 1676), a master of the art of
etching, who, under the influence of Girard Desargues, in Paris, sought to bring
geometry to various technical arts, including stone cutting and architecture. He
sought practical rules for finding and tracing an arc rampant. We note in Figure 1,
C. Baltus ()
Department of Mathematics, SUNY College at Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126, USA
e-mail: christopher.baltus@oswego.edu
le blitidæ ch’erano della razza più vile, abbrutite dal vino e dalla
dissolutezza, giusta il medesimo Plauto;
Blitea et lutea est meretrix, nisi quæ sapit in vino ad rem suam [203].
ARGIRIPPUS
CLEÆRETA
DIABOLUS
Abbiamo, o paziente lettore, assistito insieme alla vita, anzi alla vita
più rigogliosa del mondo romano, interrogando più spesso gli scavi e
i monumenti pompejani: ora, percorso quanto fu disumato della
infelice città, visitiamo l’ultima parte che ci siam di essa riserbata, la
Via delle Tombe che faceva parte del Pagus Augustus Felix, e quindi
tocchiamo di tutto quanto riguarda la morte, le pompe funebri, cioè, i
sepolcri ed i riti. Non sarà certo privo d’interesse l’argomento, se
l’esempio antico rammemorato a’ presenti da Foscolo nel suo carme
immortale de’ Sepolcri, potè condurre la generazione attuale egoista
a più onesta e dicevole religione e venerazione delle tombe.