2017-02-05

Euclid's Optics

Another of the fantastically important science manuscripts of the Vatican Library has just come online: Vat.gr.204 is the oldest and best manuscript of a collection of early Greek astronomical works, mostly elementary, by Autolycus, Euclid, Aristarchus, Hypsicles and Theodosius, as well as mathematical works. While the Vatican's most priceless Euclid volume came online a year ago, this was the supplementary one so many have been waiting for.

Following Rome Reborn, I show above Proposition 13, which is accompanied by many scholia, concerned with the ratio to the diameters of the moon and sun of the line subtending the arc dividing the light and dark portions of the moon in a lunar eclipse. The work is thus a basis for Euclidean optics.

The following list of 64 items comprises new scans at high-resolution, and briefly interrupts the multi-part list of low-res black-and-white scans from the Vat.lat. series that I will continue in the next few days.

This is, by the way, Piggin's Unofficial List number 100. Given the enormous rush of manuscripts recently, I am not sure how to keep up the pace. I can no longer cover every new arrival. But we will find some kind of ad-hoc solution to keep most readers of this blog happy.
  1. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.111
  2. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.112
  3. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.113
  4. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.114
  5. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.115
  6. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.116
  7. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.117
  8. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.118
  9. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.119
  10. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.120
  11. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.121
  12. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXV.fasc.122
  13. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.146
  14. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.147
  15. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.148
  16. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.149
  17. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.150
  18. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.151
  19. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.152
  20. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.153
  21. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.154
  22. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.155
  23. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.156
  24. Borg.copt.109.cass.XXVIII.fasc.157
  25. Ott.lat.2911 , in Hebrew with psalms
  26. Ross.600
  27. Sbath.201
  28. Urb.lat.1177
  29. Urb.lat.1279
  30. Urb.lat.1415: Medical, with Isaac Israeli (a.k.a. Isaac Iudaeus): De Urina, translated from Arabic to Latin by Constantine the African. This copy made at Montecassino Abbey is the earliest extant manuscript of the work (HT to @monicaMedHist)
  31. Urb.lat.1466
  32. Urb.lat.1467
  33. Urb.lat.1506
  34. Urb.lat.1512
  35. Urb.lat.1521
  36. Urb.lat.1524
  37. Urb.lat.1547
  38. Urb.lat.1554
  39. Urb.lat.1638
  40. Urb.lat.1643
  41. Urb.lat.1686
  42. Urb.lat.1731
  43. Urb.lat.1732
  44. Urb.lat.1733
  45. Urb.lat.1734
  46. Urb.lat.1736
  47. Urb.lat.1739
  48. Vat.gr.1 , Early (9th or 10th century) copy of Plato's Laws with contemporary scholarly notes (HT to @LatinAristotle).
  49. Vat.gr.204 (above)
  50. Vat.lat.236
  51. Vat.lat.490
  52. Vat.lat.601
  53. Vat.lat.976 , Treatises against heretics: @LatinAristole points to fol ccviii, "Scriptum per me Egbertum Noet manu sinistra".
  54. Vat.lat.1119
  55. Vat.lat.1145
  56. Vat.lat.1155
  57. Vat.lat.1168
  58. Vat.lat.1182
  59. Vat.lat.1205
  60. Vat.lat.1252
  61. Vat.lat.1298
  62. Vat.lat.1596
  63. Vat.lat.3617
  64. Vat.lat.15415: a a book of the lapidary inscriptions of Rome. This volume has one of the highest shelfmarks if not the last in the Vat.lat. series, and, along with Vat.lat.1, subject of a fun post in 2015, forms a bookend for this part of the digitization programme: All they have to do is fill in with color hi-res scans of everything else that lies in between.

We also have several new collections, currently only available in digitized black-and-white microfilms. I will simply list these:
  1. Pap.Vat.gr.11
  2. Pap.Vat.lat.6
  3. Ruoli.31
  4. Raineri.22
  5. Vat.ind.14
  6. Vat.ind.19
  7. Vat.ind.43
  8. Vat.ind.44
  9. Vat.ind.45
  10. Vat.ind.46
  11. Vat.mus.53
  12. Vat.mus.54
  13. Vat.mus.187
  14. Vat.mus.405
  15. Vat.mus.426
  16. Vat.mus.440
  17. Vat.mus.459
  18. Vat.mus.460
  19. Vat.mus.502
  20. Vat.mus.544
  21. Vat.mus.569
  22. Vat.mus.571
If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

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