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.