HNRC 4013H: EUCLID

This guide assists Honors Program students and other researchers access rare book, circulating, electronic books, and other resources for the study of the long textual and mathematical history of the author of the Elements. More information on the Honors

Elements Available from Library Catalog

The university of Arkansas Libraries provide access hundreds of volumes of Euclid's Elements.These included numerous print edition collected since the 1800s and electronic access to a wide variety of editions, from 18th century English language editions to examples from other languages.

Open Source Electronic Editions of Elements

For your individual transcription from book I of Elements, and together in group collaboration, you have been asked to select any one of the thousands of editions produced over hundreds of years.

Through prominent libraries such as the Library of Congress and many nonprofit and scholarly databases and websites, there are many digital facsimiles of editions of Elements available.

Note: quality web sources for digitized material will provide robust description and metadata. This information should included origin of the copy digitized, as well as other aspects of book description (especially for historically significant editions) such as provenance, or the chain of custody of certain volume. These editions are primary sources and you should approach analysis with an intentional strategy that allows you to record your observations and questions. One such strategy is provided through the Library of Congress's "Primary Source Analysis Tool." 

What are Primary Sources?

Collage of primary source documents

Here's a great definition of primary sources from the American Library Association

"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include:
  • letters,
  • manuscripts,
  • diaries,
  • journals,
  • newspapers,
  • speeches,
  • interviews,
  • memoirs,
  • documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President,
  • photographs,
  • audio recordings,
  • moving pictures or video recordings,
  • research data,
  • and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons.
These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research."

--Using Primary Sources on the Web, rev. 2008.

Primary Sources Help

Not sure how to work with primary sources? Here are some great tips:

Primary Sources Online

These are a few primary sources available to you online.