Hebrew texts on the regular polyhedra

Tzvi Langermann

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Abstract I offer here an edition and translation of a Hebrew text on the five regular polyhedra, the so-called Platonic solids, translated from the Arabic and, in my view, descending ultimately from a Greek original. The text survives in a single mansucript, now at Oxford; the translator is Qalonymos ben Qalonymos. Neither the Arabic nor the presumed Greek Vorlagen are extant. There are grounds for speculating that the Arabic original is due to al-Kindī, who reworked many Greek texts, but I find no finn evidence that this is the case. An Arabic text by Muḥlyī al-Dīn al-Maghribī draws on the same source; it has been published by J.P. Hogendijk. The author of another Hebrew geometry, extant only in a virtually unstudied Hebrew manuscript now preserved at Mantua, has had access to the text on polyhedra published here. The Hebrew text is collated to the other witnesses; some relevant materials found only in the Mantua manuscript are also edited and translated.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFrom Alexandria, Through Baghdad
Subtitle of host publicationSurveys and Studies in the Ancient Greek and Medieval Islamic Mathematical Sciences in Honor of J.L. Berggren
PublisherSpringer Berlin Heidelberg
Pages409-467
Number of pages59
ISBN (Electronic)9783642367366
ISBN (Print)9783642367359
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Hebrew texts on the regular polyhedra'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this