Encounters with Euclid : how an ancient Greek geometry text shaped the world / Benjamin Wardhaugh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wardhaugh, Benjamin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Euclid. Elements.

Euclid.

Elements (Euclid).

Geometry.

Mathematics.

Genre:

Early works.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.) : 34 b/w illus.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential mathematical books ever writtenEuclid's Elements of Geometry is one of the fountainheads of mathematics—and of culture. Written around 300 BCE, it has traveled widely across the centuries, generating countless new ideas and inspiring such figures as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein. Encounters with Euclid tells the story of this incomparable mathematical masterpiece, taking readers from its origins in the ancient world to its lasting influence today.In this lively and informative book, Benjamin Wardhaugh explains how Euclid’s text journeyed from antiquity to the Renaissance, introducing some of the many readers, copyists, and editors who left their mark on the Elements before handing it on. He shows how some read the book as a work of philosophy, while others viewed it as a practical guide to life. He examines the many different contexts in which Euclid's book and his geometry were put to use, from the Neoplatonic school at Athens and the workshops of Restoration London to the Jesuit mission in China and the artisans' studios of medieval Baghdad. Wardhaugh shows how the Elements inspired ideas in theology, art, and music, and how the book has acquired new relevance to the strange geometries of dark matter and curved space.Encounters with Euclid traces the life and afterlives of one of the most remarkable works of mathematics ever written, revealing its continuing role in the timeless search for order and reason in an unruly world.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue

I: AUTHOR

Alexandria

Elephantine

Hypsicles

Theon of Alexandria

Stephanos the scribe

Al-Hajjaj

Adelard

Erhard Ratdolt

Marget Seymer her hand

Edward Bernard

Interlude

II: SAGE

Plato

Proclus Diadochus

Hroswitha of Gandersheim

Rabbi Levi ben Gershom

Christoph Clavius

Xu Guangqi

Blame not our author

Baruch Spinoza

Anne Lister

III: HERO

Petechonsis

Dividing the monochord

Hyginus

Muhammad Abu al-Wafa al-Buzjani

Lady Geometria

Piero della Francesca

Euclid Speidell

Isaac Newton

IV: SHADOW AND MASK

Mary Fairfax

François Peyrard

Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii

Maggie and Tom

Simson in Urdu

His modern rivals

Thomas Little Heath

Max Ernst

Euclidean designs

Lambda

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Image Credits

Notes on Sources

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691219813

0691219818

OCLC:

1252422304