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Στοιχειων βιβλ. ιε εκ των θεωνος συνουσιων. Εις του αυτου του πρωτον, εξηγηματων Προκλου βιβλ. δ. Adiecta praefatiuncula in qua de disciplinis Mathematicis nonnihil. Basel, Johannes Herwagen, September 1533. Folio, pp. [xii], 268, 115, [1]; text in Greek, woodcut printer’s device to title-page and final verso, woodcut initials, α1r within woodcut border, woodcut diagrams, woodcut headpieces, skilful repair to title-page where an old inscription removed, old ink stains to lower margins of κ4–6 and ξ4–5, very slight dampstain to outer margin of final leaves, nonetheless a very good copy; bound in eighteenth-century Italian vellum, gilt red morocco lettering-piece to spine, edges speckled red; manuscript diagrams in brown ink to the margins of a few leaves and a few notes and corrections in Greek (e.g. on π2–3 and σ5), eighteenth-century Italian shelfmark to front pastedown ‘Pluteus octavus capsula prima’ below erased inscription, later note in German, modern collector’s bookplate.
Editio princeps of Euclid, the ‘oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today’ (PMM), a work which ‘has exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible’ (DSB). The ‘decisive influence of Euclid’s geometrical conception of mathematics is reflected in two of the supreme works in the history of thought, Newton’s Principia and Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft’ (DSB). The text was edited by Simon Grynaeus, professor of Greek at the University of Basel, who dedicated the work to Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of Durham. During a visit to Oxford in 1531, Grynaeus found the manuscript of Proclus’ commentary which he appended to his edition of Euclid. ‘Because of his interest in the principles underlying mathematical thought and their relation to ultimate mathematical principles, Proclus’ commentary is a notable – and also the earliest – contribution to the history 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’ (DSB). This is a wide-margined copy, with additional manuscript diagrams and annotations in Greek. On pages 8–9 the Greek numeral for each diagram has been translated into an Arabic number, with five ink manuscript diagrams added in the margins. In the second half of the volume there are occasional additions and amendments to the text in Greek, mostly correcting typographical errors. VD 16 E 4142; Steck III.29. See PMM 25 for the first Latin edition of 1482.
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