Monday, July 26, 2004

Been away at a lovely country retreat, without an internet link, so I can write some stuff for my thesis without distractions. It worked rather well and I am tempted to try the same thing again sometime. Sadly it meant my email box started to overflow to apologies for delays in replies.

There are plenty of efforts to assemble lists of texts available on line in different areas. A useful project might be to produce a list of all the translations of ancient, medieval and renaissance scientific texts easily obtained in modern additions. The list would be maintained on line but certainly should not restrict itself to texts only found on the web. I mention this because I have been pleasantly surprised at how much can be found in English of Archimedes, Boethius, Sacrobosco and other lesser known figures. As any understanding of early science requires the sources to be available, it can't be a bad thing to have a handy list for those whose Greek and Latin isn't what it might be (and while I'm happy with my Latin, my Greek is non-existant). No doubt, I should also be the one to do it, unless any readers know of it having been done already.

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