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. BOVILLUS ON THE QUADRATURE PROBLEM. 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}