Unabibliotheca mathematica: (Ms. Firenze, BNC, Conv. Soppr. J V 18)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis and a new description of the manuscript formerly belonging to the convent of San Marco and currently held by the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence (Conv. Soppr. J V 18). The MS, partially described at the beginning of the last century by the Danish scholar Axel Anthon Björnbo (1874-1911), is well known to modern historians of mathematics. The volume, datable to the end of the 13th century or the first decades of the 14th century, brings together works by Archimedes, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (9th century), Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf (835-912), Thābit ibn Qurra (836-901), Robert Grosseteste (c. 1168-1253) (Linconiensis) and Jordanus de Nemore (13th century), and, in the final section, by Māshā'allāh († c. 815), as well as fragmentary translations from Arabic, Greek, and others not yet identified. The initial project was to bring together ‒ in a single volume ‒ a bibliotheca mathematica as complete as possible. The enterprise did not have the desired results. To speed up the process, the transcription was entrusted to rather incompetent copyists and the result was somewhat chaotic, as scholars such as Marshall Clagett have not failed to point out.