In hoc opere contenta Epitome.... Liber de quadratura Circuli....
Paris, 1503, folio.
The quadrator is Charles Bovillus,[35] who adopted the views of Cardinal
Cusa,[36] presently mentioned. Montucla is hard on his compatriot, who, he
says, was only saved from the laughter of geometers by his obscurity.
Persons must guard against most historians of mathematics in one point:
they frequently attribute to _his own_ age the obscurity which a writer has
in _their own_ time. This tract was printed by Henry Stephens,[37] at the
instigation of Faber Stapulensis,[38] {45} and is recorded by Dechales,[39]
etc. It was also introduced into the _Margarita Philosophica_ of 1815,[40]
in the same appendix with the new perspective from Viator. This is not
extreme obscurity, by any means. The quadrature deserved it; but that is
another point.
It is stated by Montucla that Bovillus makes [pi] = [root]10. But Montucla
cites a work of 1507, _Introductorium Geometricum_, which I have never
seen.[41] He finds in it an account which Bovillus gives of the quadrature
of the peasant laborer, and describes it as agreeing with his own. But the
description makes [pi] = 3-1/8, which it thus appears Bovillus could not
distinguish from [root]10. It seems also that this 3-1/8, about which we
shall see so much in the sequel, takes its rise in the thoughtful head of a
poor laborer. It does him great honor, being so near the truth, and he
having no means of instruction. In our day, when an ignorant person chooses
to bring his fancy forward in opposition to demonstration which he will not
study, he is deservedly laughed at.
{46}