Euclid's Elements - A 2,500 Year History
Bob Gardner
East Tennessee State University
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Johnson City, TN 37614
The Local History of The Elements
The Johnson City Public Library
Image from: http://www.jcpl.net/photographs/library.jpg
The Elements in the Tri-Cities.
A search of online catalogs reveals:
The Johnson City Public Library, Kingsport Public Library, Northeast State Community College Basler Library, and the Unicoi County Public Library each have:
The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements, translated by Sir Thomas L. Heath, in the Great Books of the Western World, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952.
ETSU in Kingsport has the 1956 Dover editions of Heath’s translation.
Neither the Bristol Public Library nor the Elizabethton-Carter County Public Library seem to have copies of The Elements.
ETSU's Sherrod Library
Image from: ETSU website
ETSU was founded in 1911. The current university catalog indicates that ETSU now has three copies of The Elements.
Robert Simson
Image from The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
The oldest version of The Elements in the ETSU library is:
The Elements of Euclid, viz. The First Six Books Together with the Eleventh and Twelfth. The Errors by which Theon, or Others, Have Long Ago Vitiated these Books are Corrected and Some of Euclid's Demonstrations are Restored. Also the Book of Euclid's Data, in Like Manner Corrected. By Robert Simson. To this edition and also annexed, Elements of plane and spherical trigonometry. This is an 1838 book which the Sherrod Library has on microfilm.
Stanford University’s 1882 copy of Todhunter
Image from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q1QSAAAAIAAJ
Probably the first copy of The Elements owned by ETSU was
The Elements of Euclid for the Use of Schools and Colleges; Comprising the First Six Books and Portions of the Eleventh and Twelfth Books; With Notes, an Appendix, and Exercises by Isaac Todhunter, 1903. This book was "withdrawn" in 2002. Concerning the withdrawal, Katy Libby, Sherrod Library Catalog Librarian, says:
"I suspect it was damaged beyond our ability to repair, and the pages were too brittle to replace the binding."
ETSU’s 1926 Copies of The Elements
Photo by Bob Gardner
ETSU has volumes 2 and 3 of the second edition (1926) of the Cambridge University Press copy of Thomas Heath's
The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements. Since this is a three volume set, apparently volume one has disappeared. Ms. Libby says "As for volume 1 of the 1926 edition... I suspect it was withdrawn before we automated the catalog in 1994, probably because it was missing."
ETSU’s 1956 Copies of The Elements
Photo by Bob Gardner
The Sherrod Library has all three volumes of the 1956 Dover Publications reprints of Heath's translations. The original paperback copies are now hardbound.
ETSU’s Copies of The Elements on the shelf
Photo by Bob Gardner
ETSU therefore only has two paper copies of The Elements - both are the 1926 Cambridge versions and the first volume of the original printing is missing.
Dr. Bob’s Personal Dover Copies of The Elements
Images by Bob Gardner
I bought my copies of The Elements while an undergraduate in the early 1980s. They are by Dover Publications and the cover art is the same as the original 1956 Dover editions.
Dr. Bob’s Personal Encyclopedia Britannica Copies of The Elements
Photo by Bob Gardner
Earlier this year (2009), I bought a copy of Volume 11 of the Great Books of the Western World from 1952, which includes Heath’s translation of The Elements and The Works of Archimedes, along with Apollonius' Conics, and Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic. The Great Books series by Encyclopedia Britannica is a very nice source for many classical works of science, philosophy and culture. For example, Volume 16 contains Ptolemy's Almagest and Copernicus' On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. These books can be found for around $10 on E-Bay.
Photo by Bob Gardner
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Photo by Bob Gardner
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I also bought an 1825 copy of Simson’s English translation. This is probably the 19th or 20th edition of his book. The cover is badly worn, but the text is in great shape. It was $10 on E-Bay. Similarly dated editions in better condition sell for much more. If you are interested...
The Elements on E-Bay
Image from: E-Bay (9/23/2009)
There is currently (October 2009) a copy of Simson's book for sale on E-Bay. The date is unclear, but it seems to be from the late 1700s. The price is over $1,100, though!
Go to the next section: The Elements Today.
Last revised November 14, 2009.
