Books

Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1482. First edition. PMM 25 - the oldest textbook in the history of science. First edition of the "oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today" (PMM), This book "has exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible" (DSB). Euclid's Elements is the only work of classical antiquity to have remained continuously in print, and to be used continuously as a textbook from the pre-Christian era to the 20th century. It is the foundation work not only for geometry but also for number theory. Euclid's Elements of Geometry is a compilation of early Greek mathematical knowledge, synthesized and systematically presented by Euclid in ca. 300 BC. Books I-IV are devoted to plane geometry, Book V deals with the theory of proportions, and Book VI with the similarity of plane figures. Books VII-IX are on number theory, Book X on commensurability and incommensurability, Books XI-XII explore three dimensional geometric…