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Mathematical Treasure: Euclid's Elements in Both Greek and Latin

Author(s): 
Frank Swetz, The Pennsylvania State University

The first printed edition of Euclid's Elements in both Greek and Latin was published in 1558. The 1573/1574 edition of that volume is featured here, beginning with the title page shown above.

Problem 14 of Book I requires the construction of a square given the length of its side, while Theorem 33, Proposition 47 supplies a demonstration of a proof of “The Pythagorean Theorem.” Note the use of floral embellishment in the diagrams to call attention to the relevant results.

This excerpt from Book IV discusses the construction of various inscribed regular polygons.

The images above are provided courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

For images from the original 1558 edition of this book, see Mathematical Treasure: First Euclid's Elements in Greek and Latin here in MAA Convergence.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank Swetz, The Pennsylvania State University, "Mathematical Treasure: Euclid's Elements in Both Greek and Latin," Convergence (January 2015)