Note 2818 — Chapter XXX · GERBERT AND THE INTRODUCTION OF ARABIC ASTROLOGY

It has always been so printed: by Pez, Olleris, Curtze, and Bubnov, and seems to be ascribed to him in most MSS, for which and other evidence pointing to the bishop of Utrecht as author see Bubnov (1899), 300-309, 41-45, 384, etc. Bubnov, however, failed to note Digby 83 either in connection with this letter or at all in his long list of mathematical MSS (XVII-CXIX). It may therefore be well to note that the letter as given in Digby 83 differs considerably from the version printed by Bubnov. It in general omits epistolary amenities which do not bear directly on the mathematical question in hand, notably the entire first paragraph of Bubnov’s text and the close of the second and third paragraphs. It also abbreviates portions of the fifth paragraph and the last sentence of the eighth and last paragraph. On the other hand after the first sentence of the fifth paragraph of Bubnov’s text it inserts the following passage which seems to be missing in Bubnov’s text of the letter: “Si quis ergo vult invenire quadraturam circuli dividat lineam in VII partes spatiumque unius septime partis semotim ponat. Deinde lineam in VII divisam in duo distribuat et spatium alterius duorum separatim ponat. Post hoc lineam in VII partitam triplicet cui triplicate spatium unius septime quod semoverat adiciat. Ipsa denique totam in IIII partiatur quarum quarta angulis directis per lineam quadrangulam metiatur. Ad ultimum sumpto spatio alterius duorum quod prius reposuerat deposito puncto in medio quadranguli eodem spatio circumducat circinum (circulum) et sic inveniet circuli quadraturam.”