International Perspectives on the Florentine Edition of Apollonius’ Conics. The Case of Michelangelo Ricci (1661)

In 1661 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli published his edition of the three hitherto lost books belonging to the treatise on Conics by the Hellenistic mathematician Apollonius of Perga. The long and complex editorial operation is here reconstructed drawing on an unpublished document which had not been redacted within the Florentine circles that promoted the editorial initiative, but rather in the Roman circles which provided indispensable support to the venture. The examined letter, written by the Roman intellectual Michelangelo Ricci to prince Leopoldo de’ Medici, allows us to assess the significance of the effort made by a large a team involving numerous scholars experts in geometry and philology; and it allows us also to emphasise the important international dimension of a work that—from its genesis to its dissemination—has been able to connect the whole Continent.