The first three books of the Conica deals with the basic elements of the theory of conical sections, before Apollonius turns to particular problems in the following books. Until recently these three books were only known from Eutocius' text. However, they were known to be part of an Arabic translation of a Greek version independent of Eutocius' text.

A close study of the Arabic texts of books 2 and 3 leads to the same conclusion as that which, as a result of the new edition, was reached for the first book: that the Greek version provides a better and sounder text. This volume provides a first critical edition of the Arabic text, the first translation of it into a modern language and a detailed historical and mathematical commentary.

Les trois premiers livres des Coniques sont consacrés aux fondements de la théorie des sections coniques. Ces trois livres étaient connus jusqu'à une date récente par la recension d'Eutocius. Mais on savait aussi qu'ils font partie d'une traduction arabe d'un manuscrit grec indépendant de cette recension. L'examen montre que ce manuscrit grec présente un texte meilleur et plus sûr, comme on l'a déjà montré pour le premier livre. Le lecteur trouve dans ce tome l'editio princeps de la traduction arabe, sa première traduction dans une langue moderne et un commentaire historique et mathématique détaillé.

Autorentext

Roshdi Rashed, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Paris VII, Frankreich und Universität Tokio, Japan.

Klappentext

The first three books of the Conica deals with the basic elements of the theory of conical sections, before Apollonius turns to particular problems in the following books. Until recently these three books were only known from Eutocius' text. However, they were known to be part of an Arabic translation of a Greek version independent of Eutocius' text.

A close study of the Arabic texts of books 2 and 3 leads to the same conclusion as that which, as a result of the new edition, was reached for the first book: that the Greek version provides a better and sounder text. This volume provides a first critical edition of the Arabic text, the first translation of it into a modern language and a detailed historical and mathematical commentary.