the treatises previously known, (1) a considerable portion of the work, in two books, On Floating Bodies, which was formerly supposed to have been lost in Greek and only to have survived in the translation by Wilhelm of Mörbeke, and (2) most precious of all, the greater part of the book called The Method, treating of Mechanical Problems and addressed to Eratosthenes. The important treatise so happily recovered is now included in Heiberg’s new (second) edition of the Greek text of Archimedes (Teubner, 1910-15), and some account of it will be given in the next chapter.
The order in which the treatises appear in the MSS. was not the order of composition; but from the various prefaces and from internal evidence generally we are able to establish the following as being approximately the chronological sequence:—
- On Plane Equilibriums , I. 2. Quadrature of a Parabola. 3. On Plane Equilibriums , II. 4. The Method. 5. On the Sphere and Cylinder , I, II.