Editing Robert Simson (section)

==Works==
[[File:Simson - Opere, 1776 - 4704659.tif|thumb|''Opera quaedam reliqua'', 1776]]
Simson's contributions to mathematical knowledge took the form of critical editions and commentaries on the works of the ancient [[geometer]]s.<ref name="Simson, Robert"/>  The first of his published writings is a paper in the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions]]'' (1723, vol. xl. p.&nbsp;330) on [[Euclid]]'s ''[[Porism]]s''.

Then followed ''Sectionum conicarum libri V.'' (Edinburgh, 1735), a second edition of which, with additions, appeared in 1750.  The first three books of this [[treatise]] were translated into English and, several times, printed as ''The Elements of the [[Conic section|Conic Sections]]''.  In 1749, was published ''Apollonii Pergaei locorum planorum libri II.'', a restoration of [[Apollonius of Perga|Apollonius]]'s lost treatise, founded on the [[lemma (mathematics)|lemma]]s given in the seventh book of [[Pappus of Alexandria|Pappus]]'s ''Mathematical Collection''.

In 1756, appeared, both in [[Latin]] and in English, the first edition of his ''[[Euclid's Elements]]''.  This work, which contained only the first six and the eleventh and twelfth books, and to which, in its English version, he added the ''[[Euclid's Data|Data]]'' in 1762, was for long the standard text of Euclid in England.

After Simson's death, restorations of Apollonius's treatise ''De section determinata'' and of Euclid's treatise ''De Porismatibus'' were printed for private circulation in 1776, at the expense of [[Earl Stanhope]], in a volume with the title ''Roberti Simson opera quaedam reliqua''.  The volume contains also dissertations on ''[[Logarithms]]'' and on the ''Limits of Quantities and Ratios'', and a few problems illustrating the ancient geometrical analysis.<ref>{{cite book | title = Opera quaedam reliqua etc. | last1 = Simson | first1 = Robert | last2 = Clow | first2 = James | location = Glasguae| publisher = Andreas Foulis | date = | url = https://catalog.lindahall.org/discovery/delivery/01LINDAHALL_INST:LHL/1290366960005961 |access-date = 1 May 2023}}</ref>