The Works of Archimedes

Archimedes was the greatest scientist of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time. This book is Volume I of the first authoritative translation of his works into English. It is also the first publication of a major ancient Greek mathematician to include a critical edition of the diagrams and the first translation into English of Eutocius' ancient commentary on Archimedes. Furthermore, it is the first work to offer recent evidence based on the Archimedes Palimpsest, the major source for Archimedes, lost between 1915 and 1998. A commentary on the translated text studies the cognitive practice assumed in writing and reading the work, and it is Reviel Netz's aim to recover the original function of the text as an act of communication. Particular attention is paid to the aesthetic dimension of Archimedes' writings. Taken as a whole, the commentary offers a groundbreaking approach to the study of mathematical texts.

• First fully-fledged English translation of these masterpieces by the greatest scientist of antiquity
• The scientific edition of the diagrams and the running commentary provided put the work at the forefront of the contemporary history of science
• Includes a translation of the Commentary by Eutocius, which contains some of the most valuable information we possess on the history of Greek mathematics