Exploring manuscript phylogeny through diagrams

What is it about?

This article explores the possibility of establishing the stemma codicum of a handwritten tradition from geometric diagrams alone. This exploratory method is tested on Ibn al-Haytham’s Epistle on the Shape of the Eclipse. Separate stemmata were constructed on the basis of the diagrams and the text, and a comparison showed no major differences. The greater reliability of a stemma codicum constructed on the basis of the diagrams rather than the text is discussed.

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Why is it important?

This is the first stemma of geometric diagrams ever to be published. The stemma codicum of diagrams reveals previously unknown information about the phylogeny of mathematical manuscripts.