This paper examines the diagrams in the Greek manuscripts of the Aristotelian Mechanics. I argue that the diagrams are significant for a reconstruction of the authentic text as many readings can be recovered by means of the diagrams. Furthermore, critical assessment of the diagrams contributes to our understanding of the mechanical principles described in the text. A comparison between the diagrams in the Greek manuscripts and the ones contained in the Latin translation of the Mechanics by Niccolò Leonico Tomeo shows altered diagrammatic practices in the Renaissance. A study of the diagrams from the Renaissance further plays an important role in understanding the processes of transmission and transformation of mechanical knowledge.
The present article examines the textual transmission of the Aristotelian Mechanics, a treatise on mechanical questions now generally ascribed to the Peripatetic School. The treatise was edited three times in the nineteenth century, namely by Johannes van Cappelle (1812), Immanuel Bekker (1831) and Otto Apelt (1888); most recently, an edition was produced in the twentieth century by Maria Elisabetta Bottecchia (1982). Bottecchia's edition is a clear improvement over the previous editions in the extent of its research. Whereas the other editors of the Mechanics altogether consulted a total of nine manuscripts, Bottecchia considered nearly the complete manuscript material for her critical edition of the text. When I started my project I did not expect to find significant new results which would make a completely new critical edition of the text necessary.
Archimede Latino. Iacopo da San Cassiano e il Corpus Archimedeo alla metà del quattrocento con edizione della Circuli dimensio e della Quadratura parabolae. Edizione critica, traduzione, introduzione e note di Paolo d’Alessandro e Pier Daniele Napolitani. Paris: Les Belles Lettres 2012. 371 S. 24 Abb. 75 Euro. (Sciences et Savoirs. 1.).
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