Note * — Front matter
Reading edition
Terminology Corrections Illustrations Notes Greek
This information is for readers who know more about geometry than about mid-16th-century English.
The letters u and v follow the conventional “initial v, non-initial u” pattern except in numbers (xv, iv). The lower-case j form occurs only as the last digit of a number (ij, xxj); upper-case I and J share a form, always read as I. Italic double s was printed as an ſ+s ligature, similar to the German ß; it is shown as simple “ss”. Capital and lower-case w were often used interchangeably. Words split across line breaks may or may not have a hyphen.
The word “other” is used interchangeably with both “or” and “either”; similarly, “nother” is used in place of “nor” and “neither”. The expression “an other” is almost always written as two words.
The spellings “then(ne)” and “than(ne)” are used interchangeably; “than(ne)” is rare. The spelling “liyng”, both by itself and as the end of a longer word, is used consistently.
Explanations of these terms are scattered through the book. They are grouped here for convenience.
right line straight line
gemow (line) parallel gemew = twin
square (squire, squyre) quadrilateral also means angle square as described under hexagons (“siseangles”)
likeiamme parallelogram iam(me) = jamb = limb, side
longsquare rectangle
touch line tangent
cantle segment of a circle cantle = slice
Unless otherwise noted, spelling, punctuation and capitalization are unchanged. Forms were regularized only where there was a very large disparity between the expected form and the apparent errors (for example, a thousand “A.B” against a dozen “A,B”), or a flagrant misprint such as “cnt” for “cut”.
Number forms such as “those. ij. last” or “line. A.B.” were silently regularized to “those .ij. last” and “line .A.B.” Missing sentence-final periods at the end of a printed line were silently supplied.
Unusual forms or combinations—especially phrase breaks where a comma is followed by a capital letter, or a period by a lower-case letter—are unchanged but noted with popups.
A number of illustrations contain errors such as unmarked or mislabeled points (“circle B.C.D” where only C and D are labeled). Labels added by the transcriber are shown in grey; moved or transposed labels are shown in red, with mouse-hover explanation.
1) if they can with their wysedome ouercome all vyces. Of the firste of those three sortes
Text reads “... their rwysedome ... / ... those th ee sortes ...” on consecutive lines:
2) Pagination as shown by signature numbers demands another leaf (two pages) between the end of the Preface and the beginning of the body text. But no text is missing, and the facsimile has no blank pages.
3) and yet the ij. lesser sides togither ar greater then it.
Text reads “... yet thr / ... ar greate” at consecutive line-ends:
All Greek is shown as printed. Errors or anomalies include missing, misplaced or incorrect diacritics; the letterform σ for ς; and word-final μ (mu) for ν (nu).
ἐίπερ γὰρ ἀδικεῖμ χρὴ, τυραννΐδος περῒ κάλλιστομ ἀδικεῖμ, τ’ ἄλλα δ’ ἐυσεβεῖμ χρεῶμ
eiper gar adikeim chrê, turannidos peri kallistom adikeim, t’ alla d’ eusebeim chreôm.
Φΐλιππος Αριστοτέλει χαίρειμ.
ἔσθι μοι γεγονότα ὑομ. πολλὴμ οὖμ τοῖσ θεοῖσ χάριμ ἔχω, ὀυχ ὅυτωσ ἐπῒ τῆ γεννήσει του παιδόσ, ὡσ ἐπῒ τῷ κατὰ τὴμ σὴμ ἡλικῒαμ αὐτόμ γεγονέναι ἐλπΐζω γὰρ αὐτὸμ ὑπὸ σοῦ γραφέντα καὶ παιδευθέντα ἄξιομ ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἑιμῶμ καὶ τῆς τῶμ τραγμάτωμ διαδοχῆσ.
Philippos Aristotelei chaireim.
esthi moi gegonota huom. pollêm oum tois theois charim echô, ouch houtôs epi tê gennêsei tou paidos, hôs epi tô kata têm sêm hêlikiam autom gegonenai elpizô gar autom hupo sou graphenta kai paideuthenta axiom esesthai kai heimôm kai tês tôm pragmatôm diadochês.
Ἄλέζανδρος Αρισοτέλει εὖ πράττειμ.
Ὂυκ ὀρθῶσ ἐπόιησασ ἐκδοὺσ τοὺσ ἀκροαματικόυσ τῶμ λόγωμ, τΐνι γὰρ διοισομην ἡμεῖσ τῶμ ἄλλωμ, ἐι καθ’ οὕσ ἐπαιδεύθημεν λόγουσ, ὅυτοι πάντωμ ἔσονταιν κοινόι, ἐγὼ δὲ βουλοί μημ ἅμ ταῖσ περι τὰ ἄριστα ἐμπειρΐαισ, ἢ τὰισ δυνάμεσι διαφέριμ. ἔρρωσο.
Alezandros Arisotelei eu pratteim.
Ouk orthôs epoiêsas ekdous tous akroamatikous tôm logôm, tini gar dioisomên hêmeis tôm allôm, ei kath’ hous epaideuthêmen logous, houtoi pantôm esontai koinoi, egô de bouloi mêm am tais peri ta arista empeiriais, ê tais dunamesi diapherim. errôso.