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Fabrizio Serra, 2013, pp. 288 - MATHEMATICA GRAECA ANTIQUA Diretta da Fabio Acerbi e Bernard Vitrac. Paperback ---- Domninus of Larissa was a contemporary and a fellow student of Late Antiquity's arguably most influential philosopher, Proclus (5th c. AD). Domninus' niche today is that of a curiosity in manuals and encyclopedias, a scientifically-minded, possibly Jewish, maverick philosopher, whose advocacy of serious science brought him into conflict with his colleagues; his sophistication is supposed to be evidenced by his extant mathematical treatises, one of which allegedly possesses distinctive Euclidean overtones. A late antique intellectual who did not share the indifference to mathematical method characteristic of many of his philosophical peers, who, furthermore, allegedly voiced his disaffection with the general veneration of Nicomachus of Gerasa and canvassed a return to Euclidean rigor - such a person obviously deserves more than the few studies done on him so far. This is especially true since prior work lacks a secure footing. Domninus' name is usually connected with three works, a short and straightforward introduction to arithmetic (the Encheiridion), a step-by-step procedure for the operation we would call and conceptualize as «division of a fraction by a fraction» (ancient mathematicians called and conceptualized this as «removal of a ratio from a ratio»), and a set of scholia on Nicomachus of Gerasa. None of these treatises was published hitherto in a satisfactory way. Therefore, the present book includes editions of all of these three texts; in the case of the scholia, this is the editio princeps. An evaluation of these texts seemed possible only through a circumstantial analysis of their contents. One of the important results obtained through this analysis is that the Encheiridion is the only treatise we can assign today with any degree of confidence to Domninus. But the present book is much more than an edition. In order to firmly ground Domninus in his historic setting, it was mandatory to review the history of the philosophical School of Athens, its members, its doctrines, and, most notably, its mathematical activities. This provides a background not only for the historical figure of Domninus, but also for all of the three works contained in this book (even the two spurious ones which still give valuable insights in the mathematical work carried out in Late Antiquity). This historical introduction to the cultural backdrop occupies about one third of the whole book, which, aside from the editions with facing translations and the commentaries, furthermore offers extensive indices. Based on a careful reevaluation of all available evidence, this books offers a radically different picture of Domninus, who is - perhaps disappointingly - much less singular or «modern» than he was imagined so far. Domninus di Larissa è stato contemporaneo e seguace di Proclo, forse il più influente filosofo della tarda antichità (V sec. d.C.). L'immagine di Domninus oggi è quella di una 'curiosità' nei manuali e nelle enciclopedie; un filosofo dotato di mentalità scientifica, forse ebraico, anticonformista, in conflitto con gli studiosi suoi contemporanei a causa della difesa di una scienza metodologicamente rigorosa; si pensa che la sua raffinatezza fosse evidenziata da suoi trattati matematici, uno dei quali caratterizzato presumibilmente da peculiari connotazioni euclidee. Un intellettuale tardo-antico che non condivideva l'indifferenza al metodo matematico, caratteristica di molti suoi colleghi, e che, inoltre, avrebbe espresso la sua disaffezione nei confronti della generale venerazione di Nicomaco di Gerasa e avrebbe sostenuto un ritorno al rigore euclideo. Una figura del genere merita ovviamente più che i pochi studi fatti su di lui fino ad oggi. Questo è particolarmente vero in quanto il lavoro preliminare è privo di un appoggio sicuro. Il nome di Domninus è di solito collegato a tre opere, un'introduzione breve e dirett.
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