Research Guides: HNRC 4013H: EUCLID: Finding Books

Core Books for Historical and Textual Analysis Discussion

Encounters with Euclid by Benjamin Wardhaugh
ISBN: 9780691219813
Publication Date: 2021-07-06
A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential mathematical books ever written Euclid'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 continuing 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 artisans' studios of medieval Baghdad to the Jesuit mission in China and the workshops of Restoration London. 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 lasting role in the timeless search for order and reason in an unruly world.
The Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book by Leslie Howsam (Editor)
ISBN: 9781107023734
Publication Date: 2014-12-11
Throughout human history, the world's knowledge and fruits of the creative imagination have been produced, circulated and received through the medium of the material text. This Companion provides a wide-ranging account of the history of the book and its ways of thinking about works from ancient inscription to contemporary e-books, discussing thematic, chronological and methodological aspects of this interdisciplinary field. The first part considers book cultures from local, national and global perspectives. Part two, organized around the dynamic relationship between the material book and the mutable text, develops a loosely chronological narrative from early writing, through manuscript and early printing, to the institution of a mechanized book trade, and on to the globalization of publishing and the introduction of the electronic book. A third part takes a practical turn, discussing methods, sources and approaches: bibliographical, archival and reading experience methodologies, as well as pedagogical strategies.
The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam by Victor J. Katz (Editor); Annette Imhausen (Contribution by); Eleanor Robson (Contribution by); Joseph Warren Dauben (Contribution by); Kim Plofker (Contribution by); J. Lennart Berggren (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9780691114859
Publication Date: 2007-08-05
In recent decades it has become obvious that mathematics has always been a worldwide activity. But this is the first book to provide a substantial collection of English translations of key mathematical texts from the five most important ancient and medieval non-Western mathematical cultures, and to put them into full historical and mathematical context. The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam gives English readers a firsthand understanding and appreciation of these cultures' important contributions to world mathematics. The five section authors--Annette Imhausen (Egypt), Eleanor Robson (Mesopotamia), Joseph Dauben (China), Kim Plofker (India), and J. Lennart Berggren (Islam)--are experts in their fields. Each author has selected key texts and in many cases provided new translations. The authors have also written substantial section introductions that give an overview of each mathematical culture and explanatory notes that put each selection into context. This authoritative commentary allows readers to understand the sometimes unfamiliar mathematics of these civilizations and the purpose and significance of each text. Addressing a critical gap in the mathematics literature in English, this book is an essential resource for anyone with at least an undergraduate degree in mathematics who wants to learn about non-Western mathematical developments and how they helped shape and enrich world mathematics. The book is also an indispensable guide for mathematics teachers who want to use non-Western mathematical ideas in the classroom.

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Finding that Book

So... you've got the call number for a book, now what?

The video below will help you learn how to read a call number and find books on the shelf.

You can also consult our call number guide for Mullins Library.

Finding History by Place and Period

Search for books by geographic place, history, time period. Depending on the topics covered by a book, subject headings can be very broad or very specific. Examples:

East -- Asia History
East -- Asia History -- 19th Century
World War, 1939-1945 -- China

You may find subjects for more specific topics:

Women -- Korea
Women in Confucianism -- Korea -- History
Philippines -- Social Conditions
Manchuria (China) -- History -- 1931-1945
China -- Foreign relations -- Japan
Japan -- Foreign relations -- China
China -- Foreign relations -- 1912-1949

Keyword vs. Subject

Keywords--terms that can appear anywhere in a record--are the quick and easy way to search.
Using keywords, you can combine multiple ideas, or locate specific essays inside collective works.

Connectors: Use "and" or "or" to specify multiple words in any field, any order. Use "and not" to exclude words. Examples:

china and japan
china or japan
asia and not "asia minor"

Wildcards: Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk or question mark:

* for any number of characters
? to replace a single character anywhere within a word

Examples : theat*, wom?n

Adjacency: "And" is assumed between words. Place phrases in quotes. Example:

"ottoman empire"

Subject Headings--terms applied by catalogers or indexers--describe the content of the item. Often, subject headings are divided by geographic place, by time period, by ethnic group, or other aspects. Subject headings are searched as phrases.

Using subject headings will pull together related records with terminology you may have not considered in your keyword search.

Examples:

keywords	Subject Headings
colombian exchange	america--discovery and exploration
mughul india	mogul empire
athenian democracy	greece--politics and government--to 146 B.C.

Rare Books in Special Collections

The first six books of the elements of Euclid, in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners by Euclid, edited by Oliver Byrne.
Call Number: QA451.B99 1847
ISBN: 1354061
Publication Date: 1847
Text illustrated with geometric diagrams printed from woodblocks in red, blue, ochre, and black; four-line ornamental white woodcut initials on black criblé background, probably made for this ed. by Mary Byfield, a Chiswick Press wood-engraver.
"Byrne ... considered that it might be easier to learn geometry if colors were substituted for the letters usually used to designate the angles and lines of geometric figures. Instead of referring to, say, 'angle ABC,' Byrne's text substituted a blue or yellow or red section equivalent to similarly colored sections in the theorem's main diagram."--Friedman. Each proposition is set in Caslon italic, with a four line initial engraved on wood by Mary Byfield: the rest of the page is a unique riot of red, yellow and blue: on same pages letters and numbers only are printed in colour, sprinkled over the page like tiny wild flowers, demanding the most meticulous register: elsewhere, solid squares, triangles, and circles are printed in gaudy and theatrical colours, attaining a verve not seen again on book pages till the days of Dufy, Matisse and Derain."--McLean, Victorian book design and colour printing.
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... by Euclid, ed. Robert Simson
Call Number: QA31 .E873 1811
Publication Date: Philadelphia : Published by Johnson and Warner, 1811.
Evclidis Elementorvm libri XV : Accessit XVI. de solidorum regularium cuiuslibet intra quodlibet comparatione.... by Euclid, edition from Christophoro Clavio.
Call Number: QA31.E88 S731 1607
Publication Date: Francofvrti : Ex officina typographical Nicholai Hoffmanni, sumptibus Ionae Rhodij, 1607
Euclidis Megarensis mathematici clarissimi Elementorum geometricorum libri xv.... by Euclid, Campanus edition
Call Number: QA31 .E83 1537
Publication Date: Basileae : Per Iohannem Heruagium, MDXXXVII.
Euclidis Megarensis mathematici clarissimi Elementorum geometricorum libri xv : cum expositione Theonis in priores xiii à Bartholomæo Veneto latinitate donata, Campani in omnes, & Hypsiclis Alexandrini in duos postremos. His adiecta sunt Phænomena, Catoptrica & Optica, deinde Protheoria Marini & Data, postremùm uerò, Opusculum de leui & ponderoso, hactenus non uisum, eiusdem autoris.
Easy lessons in geometry : intended for infant and primary schools, but useful in academies, lyceums and families. by Holbrook, Josiah, 1788-1854.
Call Number: QA462 .H71 1831
Publication Date: Boston : Carter, Hendee and Babcock, 1831.