"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."
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Pappus of Alexandria
Pappus of Alexandria (c. 290 - c. 350 AD) was one of the last great Greek mathematicians of Antiquity, known for his Synagoge (Συναγωγή) or Collection (c. 340), and for Pappus's hexagon theorem in projective geometry. Nothing is known of his life, except (from his own writings) that he had a son named Hermodorus, and was a teacher in Alexandria. Collection, his best-known work, is a compendium of mathematics in eight volumes, the bulk of which survives. It covers a wide range of topics, includin
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