Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 29 (P. Oxy. 29) is a fragment of the second book of the ''
Elements
Element or elements may refer to:
Science
* Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom
* Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance
* Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of ...
'' of
Euclid in
Greek. It was discovered by
Grenfell and
Hunt in 1897 in
Oxyrhynchus
Oxyrhynchus (; grc-gre, Ὀξύρρυγχος, Oxýrrhynchos, sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian ''Pr-Medjed''; cop, or , ''Pemdje''; ar, البهنسا, ''Al-Bahnasa'') is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo ...
. The fragment was originally dated to the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth century, although more recent scholarship suggests a date of 75–125 CE.
[ Bill Casselman]
One of the oldest extant diagrams from Euclid
/ref> It is housed in the library of the University of Pennsylvania (in a ''University Museum'', E 2748). The text was published by Grenfell and Hunt in 1898.[P. Oxy. 29]
at the Oxyrhynchus Online
Description
The manuscript was written on papyrus in sloping irregular uncial letters, with no iota adscript
The iota subscript is a diacritic mark in the Greek alphabet shaped like a small vertical stroke or miniature iota placed below the letter. It can occur with the vowel letters eta , omega , and alpha . It represents the former presence of ...
, and with slight spelling errors. The fragment measures 85 by 152 mm.
The fragment provides a statement of the 5th proposition of Book 2 of the ''Elements'', together with an unlabelled diagram, and a tiny part of the preceding proposition. No part of the proof is provided. In translation, the statement is "If a straight line be cut into equal and unequal segments, the rectangle contained by the unequal segments of the whole together with the square on the straight line between the points of section is equal to the square on the half."
See also
* Oxyrhynchus Papyri
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 28
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 30
References
029
1st-century manuscripts
2nd-century manuscripts
3rd-century manuscripts
4th-century manuscripts
Euclid
{{OxyrhynchusGR-stub