Euclidis Elementorum Libri XV. Graecè & Latinè

350, [2]pp., woodcut printers device to title, enlarged version on verso of final leaf, woodcut initials, head and tail-pieces, numerous text diagrams, library, manuscript note to title in Greek, annotations throughout in an old hand, stamp to title, marginal worm trail not affecting text, occasional light foxing, later half green calf over decorated boards, 8vo, Paris, Apud Hieronymum de Marnef, Gulielmum Cauellat, 1573

A very scarce copy of the second printing of the Cavellat Greek/Latin edition of the Elements, corrected from the 1557/1558 edition. The edito princeps of the Greek text was published by Simon Grynaeus in Basel in 1533.

Euclid’s Elements was widely used from the 15th century. Across Europe, the Elements was printed on average nearly once a year from the edito princeps of 1482 to the end of the seventeenth century. It is still considered a masterpiece in the application of logic to mathematics, and has been enormously influential in many areas of science. Scientists from Copernicus to Newton were influenced by the Elements, and applied their knowledge of it to their work.

This edition has over 300 woodcut diagrams “…curiously decorated with floral ornaments” – Thomas-Stanford, p12. Many of the diagrams of this copy have been redrawn in the margins in an old hand.

Provenance: contemporary inscriptions; Francis Brethren (inscription); unidentified stamp from a Jesuit Seminary

[Thomas-Stanford 32; Riccardi 1573.1; Adams E-1001]