Aristotle, treating of the category of relation, denies that the quadrature
has been found, but appears to assume that it can be done. Boethius,[26] in
his comment on the passage, says that it has been done since Aristotle, but
that the demonstration is too long for him to give. Those who have no
notion of the quadrature question may look at the _English Cyclopaedia_,
art. "Quadrature of the Circle."
Tetragonismus. Id est circuli quadratura per Campanum, Archimedem
Syracusanum, atque Boetium mathematicae perspicacissimos adinventa.--At
the end, Impressum Venetiis per Ioan. Bapti. Sessa. Anno ab
incarnatione Domini, 1503. Die 28 Augusti.
{43}
This book has never been noticed in the history of the subject, and I
cannot find any mention of it. The quadrature of Campanus[27] takes the
ratio of Archimedes,[28] 7 to 22 to be absolutely correct; the account
given of Archimedes is not a translation of his book; and that of Boetius
has more than is in Boet_h_ius. This book must stand, with the next, as the
earliest in print on the subject, until further showing: Murhard[29] and
Kastner[30] have nothing so early. It is edited by Lucas Gauricus,[31] who
has given a short preface. Luca Gaurico, Bishop of Civita Ducale, an
astrologer of astrologers, published this work at about thirty years of
age, and lived to eighty-two. His works are collected in folios, but I do
not know whether they contain this production. The poor fellow could never
tell his own fortune, because his father neglected to note the hour and
minute of his birth. But if there had been anything in astrology, he could
have worked back, as Adams[32] and Leverrier[33] did when they caught {44}
Neptune: at sixty he could have examined every minute of his day of birth,
by the events of his life, and so would have found the right minute. He
could then have gone on, by rules of prophecy. Gauricus was the
mathematical teacher of Joseph Scaliger,[34] who did him no credit, as we
shall see.