Citation
Alternate Title(s): Elements of Geometrie
Notes: trans. Henry Billingsley
Publication Location: London
Year: 1570
Item Location
Exhibit: An Artful Observation of the Cosmos
Section: Galileo and Perspective
Summary
Euclid was the starting point for any further study of optics and perspective. Optics combined geometry, experiment, vision and art. In the presentation of the geometrical solids, this copy retains the original pop-ups. Euclid worked in Alexandria at the time of the first king in the Ptolemy line, and allegedly informed him that there is “no royal road to geometry.” Yet this first English translation of Euclid contains a variety of pedagogical aids for young tradesmen who knew no Latin.