Mathematical Treasure: Euclid’s Elements by Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples

Although he was better known as a theologian and colleague of Erasmus, in 1516 Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (Jacques Lefèvre from Étaples, ca 1450–1536) assembled the first edition of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry to be printed in France. The volume, which was written in Latin, also included treatises by the medieval astronomer Johannes Campanus of Novara, Theon, and Hypsicles.

The definitions for Book I were highly decorated.

The user of this copy traced over some of the diagrams and initial letters with red ink.

A full digitization of the copy owned by the Wellcome Library is available from the Internet Archive.

Index to Mathematical Treasures