Sir 'Thomas Little Heath' (
October 5,
1861 -
March 16,
1940) was a British civil servant,
mathematician,
classical scholar,
historian of ancient
Greek mathematics, translator, and
mountaineer. He translated works of
Euclid of Alexandria,
Apollonius of Perga,
Aristarchus of Samos, and
Archimedes of
Syracuse into
English.
It is primarily through Heath's translations that modern English-speaking readers are aware of what Archimedes did. His translation of the celebrated
Archimedes Palimpsest, however, had
lacunae that scholars hope to fill in by modern scientific methods not available in Heath's time.
When Heath's ''Works of Archimedes'' was published in 1897, the Archimedes Palimpsest had not been extensively explored. Its significance was not recognized until 1906, when it was examined by the
Danish professor
Johan Ludvig Heiberg. The palimpsest contained an extended version of ''Stomachion'', and a treatise entitled ''The Method of Mechanical Theorems'' that had previously been thought lost. These works have therefore been the focus of research by modern scholars.
Translations and other works
Note: Only first editions are listed - many of these titles have been reprinted several times.
★ ''
Diophantus of Alexandria: a Study in the History of Greek Algebra'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1885)
★
Apollonius of Perga: ''Treatise on Conic Sections'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896)
★
Archimedes: ''Works'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897)
★
Euclid ''The thirteen books of
Euclid's Elements'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908)
★ ''
Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernicus'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913)
★ ''A History of Greek Mathematics'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921)
★ ''A Manual of Greek Mathematics'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931)
★ ''Greek Astronomy'' (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1932)
★ ''Mathematics in Aristotle'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949)
External links
;Online texts of Heath's books
★ ''A History of Greek Mathematics'':
vol. 2
★
''The Works of Archimedes''
★
★
Archimedes' ''Quadrature Of The Parabola''
★
★
Archimedes' ''On The Measurement Of The Circle''
★
''Diophantus Of Alexandria: A Study In The History Of Greek Algebra''
★ ''The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements'':
vol. 1,
vol. 2,
vol. 3
;About T.L. Heath
★