Michael Masi

If one expects a book dealing with arithmetic in the more modern sense, one will either be disappointed, or possibly relieved, that that isn't the focus of Boethius' work. What this really is is a study of numeric relations found within certain magnitudes through particular algorithms. At the most basic level, it's a study of the relationship between primes (or more accurately "one" as a base unit) and evens and odds. A good part of the work translates extracts of Nicomachus' work on numbers, but either Boethius added to it using his own studies, or he had access to other works no longer extant. It hints at some of the mystical speculations of the Pythagoreans, but on the whole, it doesn't deal with that sort of thing directly.

It is definitely an interesting work. I plan to read Archimedes, Nicomachus, Apollonius and Euclid at some point, so this probably serves as a good introduction.… (mehr)