TY - JOUR
T1 - What we can learn from a diagram
T2 - The case of aristarchus's on the sizes and distances of the sun and moon
AU - Sidoli, Nathan
N1 - Funding Information:
My research on Aristarchus’s On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon was carried out in collaboration with Len Berggren. The material on diagrams was prepared for a workshop on manuscript diagrams organized by Ken Saito in Osaka, Japan. It was initially during discussions with the other participants at this workshop that I was led to consider a number of details that I had overlooked as trivial. The paper itself has benefited from the careful readings of Alan Bowen and the referees for this journal. Tom Archibald has supported my research by giving me a place at the Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Center at Simon Fraser University. Vera Yuen at the Bennett Library helped me locate a number of the obscure works necessary for this study. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0431982. These individuals and institutions have my thanks.
PY - 2007/10
Y1 - 2007/10
N2 - By using the example of a single proposition and its diagrams, this paper makes explicit a number of the processes in effect in the textual transmission of works in the exact sciences of the ancient and medieval periods. By examining the diagrams of proposition 13 as they appear in the Greek, Arabic, and Latin traditions of Aristarchus's On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, we can see a number of ways in which medieval, and early modern, scholars interpreted their sources in an effort to understand and transmit canonical ancient texts. This study highlights the need for modern scholars to take into consideration all aspects of the medieval transmission in our efforts to understand ancient practices.
AB - By using the example of a single proposition and its diagrams, this paper makes explicit a number of the processes in effect in the textual transmission of works in the exact sciences of the ancient and medieval periods. By examining the diagrams of proposition 13 as they appear in the Greek, Arabic, and Latin traditions of Aristarchus's On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, we can see a number of ways in which medieval, and early modern, scholars interpreted their sources in an effort to understand and transmit canonical ancient texts. This study highlights the need for modern scholars to take into consideration all aspects of the medieval transmission in our efforts to understand ancient practices.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=35348879252&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=35348879252&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00033790701336841
DO - 10.1080/00033790701336841
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:35348879252
SN - 0003-3790
VL - 64
SP - 525
EP - 547
JO - Annals of Science
JF - Annals of Science
IS - 4
ER -