Kochański’s Approximation

LaTeX facsimile of the Kochański’s approximation published in Acta Eruditorum in 1685

About the Project

The project is a proof of concept for creating digital replicas of old scientific texts. Here, as an example, a page from Acta Eruditorum was used, presenting Adam Adamandy Kochański’s approximation.

Requirements

To compile the code the following requirements must be met

• TeX distribution with XeLaTeX installed (see e.g. TeXLive)
• Fell Types fonts installed (at least IM FELL DW Pica PRO)

Output

Original typesetting – various digitizations

There are two versions:

• Version A, where the last line of the first paragraph is “dere, minus quam 23 centesimis.”
• Version B, where the last line of the first paragraph is “23 centesimis.”

Version A

Additionally Acta Eruditorum 1685 is available as DJVU digitization prepared by Opole Digital Library.

Version B

Further reading

• A. A. Kochański, Observationes cyclometricae ad facilitandam praxin accomodatae, Acta Eruditorum 4 (1685) 394–398.
• H. Fukś. Observationes cyclometricae by Adam Adamandy Kochański – Latin text with annotated English translation, 2011.
• H. Fukś. Adam Adamandy Kochański’s approximations of π: Reconstruction of the algorithm. The Mathematical Intelligencer, 34(4): 40–45, 2012.
• Wikipedia contributors. Acta Eruditorum [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Wikipedia contributors. Adam Adamandy Kochański [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• A. Żaba, Commentary on history of Adam Kochański’s circle rectification popularization. Journal Biuletyn of Polish Society for Geometry and Engineering Graphics 23 (2012).
• Z. Pawlikowska, Adam Adamandy Kochański i jego prace matematyczne, 11, 1 (1969), 19–48