You are here

Mathematical Treasure: John Keill’s Euclid’s Elements of Geometry

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (Pennsylvania State University)

John Keill (1671–1721) was a Scottish mathematician and an associate of Isaac Newton. His English-language translation of Euclid’s Elements was published in 1723. The following images are from the second edition of 1728.

Title page of 1728 second edition of John Keill's Euclid.

This edition contained pop-up plates. Some examples are shown here:

Pages 14-15 of 1728 second edition of John Keill's Euclid.

Pages 22-23 of 1728 second edition of John Keill's Euclid.

Pages 36-37 of 1728 second edition of John Keill's Euclid.

The images above were obtained through the courtesy of the British Library; the volume is available in digital form through the Eighteenth Century Collections Online database. The Internet Archive has a digitization of the first edition from the University of Michigan. Images from the most famous pop-up version of Euclid’s Elements, by Henry Billingsley, are also available in Mathematical Treasures.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: John Keill’s Euclid’s Elements of Geometry," Convergence (April 2021)