“The only work of Pappus still extant is his Mathematical Collections. This was originally in eight books, but the first and portions of the second are now missing. The Mathematical Collections seems to have been written by Pappus to supply the geometers of his time with a succinct analysis of the most difficult mathematical works and to facilitate the study of them by explanatory lemmas. But these lemmas are selected very freely, and frequently have little or no connection with the subject on hand. However, he gives very accurate summaries of the works of which he treats. The Mathematical Collections is invaluable to us on account of the rich information it gives on various treatises by the foremost Greek mathematicians, which are now lost. Mathematicians of the last century considered it possible to restore lost works from the résumé by Pappus alone.”
“The so called άναλυόμϵνος ('Treasury of Analysis') is... a special body of doctrine provided for the use of those who, after finishing the ordinary Elements, are desirous of acquiring the power of sol...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“Analysis... takes that which is sought as if it were admitted and passes from it through its successive consequences to something which is admitted as the result of synthesis: for in analysis we assum...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“But in synthesis, reversing the process, we take as already done that which was last arrived at in the analysis and, by arranging in their natural order as consequences what were before antecedents, a...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“Now analysis is of two kinds, the one directed to searching for the truth and called theoretical, the other directed to finding what we are told to find and called problematical. (1) In the theoretica...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“waives the customary distinction between a circle, and ellipse, a parabola, and a hyperbola; these curves are simply conics, all alike. Although conics were studied by , Euclid, Archimedes and Apollon...”
Pappus of Alexandria