Nicomachus
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Nicomachus of Gerasa (; ) was an Ancient Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from Gerasa, in the Arabia Petraea (now Jerash, Jordan). He is perhaps Hellenized of Arab origin from Jerash. Like many Pythagoreans, Nicomachus wrote about the mystical properties of numbers, best known for his works Introduction to Arithmetic and Manual of Harmonics, which are an important resource on Ancient Greek mathematics and Ancient Greek music in the Roman period. Nicomachus' work on arithmetic became a standard text for Neoplatonic education in Late antiquity, with philosophers such as Iamblichus and John Philo
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 18
Top works
- Specimen arithmeticae Nicomacheae e duobus codicibus mss
- Antiquae musicae auctores septem
- Nicomachus of Gerasa, Manual of Harmonics
- Nikomachou Gerasinou Arithmētikēs biblia dyo
- Tābit B. Qurra's arabische übersetzung der Arithmētikē eisagōgē des Nikomachos Von Gerasa zum ersten Mal hrsg. von Wilhelm Kutsch
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
1 total works indexed
- Introduction to Arithmetic
· 1926 · cited 21x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Two other sciences in the same way will accurately treat of 'size': geometry, the part that abides and is at rest, [and] astronomy, that which moves and revolves.”
- “If geometry exists, arithmetic must also needs be implied... But on the contrary 3, 4, and the rest might be 5 without the figures existing to which they give names. Hence arithmetic abolishes geometry along with itself, but is not abolished by it, and while it is implied by geometry, it does not itself imply geometry.”
- “Scientific number, being set over such things as these, should be harmoniously constituted, in accordance with itself; not by any other but by itself.”
- “Everything that is harmoniously constituted is knit together out of opposites...”
- “Number is limited multitude or a combination of units or a flow of quantity made up of units; and the first division of number is even and odd.”
- “The even is that which can be divided into two equal parts without a unit intervening in the middle; and the odd is that which cannot...”
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Key facts
- Philosopher.name
- Nicomachus of Gerasa
- Philosopher.image
- Plato-nicomachus.jpg
- Philosopher.caption
- Plato (left) and Nicomachus (right), as inventors of music, from a 12th-century manuscript
- Philosopher.birth_place
- Gerasa, Roman Syria
- Philosopher.notable_works
- Introduction to Arithmetic Manual of Harmonics
- Philosopher.era
- Ancient Roman philosophy
- Philosopher.school_tradition
- Neopythagoreanism
- Philosopher.main_interests
- Arithmetic, Music
- Philosopher.notable_ideas
- Multiplication tables
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Gerosinus Nicomachus. Line engraving by D. Cunego, 1785, aft Wellcome V0004298.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- date of birth
- 0060-00-00
- date of death
- 0120-00-00
- Commons category
- Nicomachus
- name in native language
- Νικόμαχος Γερασηνός
- birth name
- Νικόμαχος
- Commons Creator page
- Nicomachus
- P13311
- Katherine LaNasa
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~9 min read
Article
19 sectionsContents
- Life
- Philosophy
- Metaphysics
- Works
- ''Introduction to Arithmetic''
- ''Manual of Harmonics''
- Legacy
- Late antiquity
- Medieval European philosophy
- Nicomachus's theorem
- See also
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Editions and translations
- ''Introduction to Arithmetic''
- ''Manual of Harmonics''
- Primary sources
- References
- External links
Nicomachus of Gerasa (; ) was an Ancient Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from Gerasa, in the Arabia Petraea (now Jerash, Jordan). He is perhaps Hellenized of Arab origin from Jerash. Like many Pythagoreans, Nicomachus wrote about the mystical properties of numbers, best known for his works Introduction to Arithmetic and Manual of Harmonics, which are an important resource on Ancient Greek mathematics and Ancient Greek music in the Roman period. Nicomachus' work on arithmetic became a standard text for Neoplatonic education in Late antiquity, with philosophers such as Iamblichus and John Philoponus writing commentaries on it. A Latin paraphrase by Boethius of Nicomachus's works on arithmetic and music became standard textbooks in medieval education.
==Life== Little is known about the life of Nicomachus except that he was a Pythagorean who came from Gerasa. His Manual of Harmonics was addressed to a lady of noble birth, at whose request Nicomachus wrote the book, which suggests that he was a respected scholar of some status. He mentions his intent to write a more advanced work, and how the journeys he frequently undertakes leave him short of time.The approximate dates in which he lived () can only be estimated based on which other authors he refers to in his work, as well as which later mathematicians who refer to him. He mentions Thrasyllus in his Manual of Harmonics, and his Introduction to Arithmetic was apparently translated into Latin in the mid 2nd century by Apuleius,while he makes no mention at all of either Theon of Smyrna's work on arithmetic or Ptolemy's work on music, implying that they were either later contemporaries or lived in the time after he did.