| It has often been pointed out that three of the greatest masterpieces of science created during the Rinascimento appeared in print almost simultaneously: Copernicus, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543) ; Vesalius, De Fabrica Humani Corporis (1543), and finally Girolamo Cardano, Artis Magnae Sive de Regulis Algebraicis (1545). But while the two first works have been readily available in magnificent editions and excellent translations, Cardano's Ars Magna has remained relatively obscure, its material confined to early and now rare Latin editions. The Ars Magna has always been highly praised as a milestone in the history of mathematics, yet it is true that the number of modern scholars who can claim to have examined it in detail is extremely small. Thus the present translation, making it available to a much wider circle of readers, is a most significant addition to the literature of the history of science.
The creation of a modern version of an ancient scientific text poses a number of problems-the suitable choice of new or old technical terms, the rendering and interpretation of obscure or confused passages, and also, peculiar to mathematics, the decision to which extent one should introduce present-day symbolism. These matters of judgment seem to have been happily resolved in this translation. Cardano's work, cumbersome as it is in its original form, complicated by the rudimentary mathematical language of the period, now emerges as a book which can be studied by any college undergraduate. The systematic use of ordinary school algebra in Cardano's reasonings contributes greatly to this simplification. |
