EUCLIDE Elementa [en Grec].

Thomas-Stanford, 7; Norman, 730.

Editio princeps in Greek of Euclid’s Elements.

The first printing of Euclid was a latin translation after an Arabic manuscript in 1482, but the original Greek text had to wait 55 years to be published. It also contains the first edition of Proclus’s commentary on the first book of the Elements.

This edition was edited by Simon Grynaeus, a German protestant theologian and philologist. Grynaeus used two manuscripts: one sent by Lazarus Bayfius from Venice and the other supplied by John Claymond, president of Magdalen and later of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The Elements occupy 268 pages, followed by 115 pages containing the four books of the commentary of Proclus on the first book of the Elements.

This commentary “is of considerable value for the study of ancient Greek geometry because of the historical information which it contains, derived from the lost works of Eudemos . . . and Geminos.” Sarton, I, p. 403. “Because of his interest in the principles underlying mathematical thought and their relation to ultimate philosophical principles, Proclus’ commentary is a notable -and also the earliest- contribution to the philosophy of mathematics. Its numerous references to the views of Euclid’s predecessors and successors, many of them otherwise unknown to us, render it an invaluable source for the history of science.” D.S.B.

Grynaeus dedicated this edition to Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham and the author of the first English arithmetic.

A fine crisp copy, title page reinforced at the time of binding with upper margin cropped not touching text.