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Books about Euclid :
Euclid : The Creation of Mathematics
It has been said that, next to the Bible, the 'Elements' of Euclid is the most-translated, -published, and -studied
book in the Western world. Of the author himself almost nothing is known. It is recorded that he founded and taught
at a school of mathematics in Alexandria, Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled from 323 to about
283 BC. It is assumed from his books that he was not a first-class mathematician, but he was a first-rate teacher
of geometry and arithmetic. The 'Elements' remained unchallenged for more than 2,000 years. Not until the mid-19th
century was a non-Euclidean geometry devised.
To compile his 'Elements' Euclid relied on the work of several predecessors, so the book is of uneven quality.
Once it was published, the 'Elements' superseded all previous mathematical treatises and became the standard text.
During the Middle Ages three Arabic translations were made of the book, and it was through these that it became
known in Europe. The English traveler and philosopher Adelard of Bath went to Spain disguised as a Muslim student
and obtained an Arabic copy, from which he made a Latin translation in 1120. The first Latin translation of the
Greek without an Arabic intermediary was made by Bartolomeo Zamberti and published in Venice in 1505. There have
been several more recent translations into other languages. Among Euclid's other works on geometry were 'Data'
and 'On Divisions'. He also wrote 'Optics' and 'The Elements of Music'. Some of his writings have been lost, while
other works are wrongly credited to him.
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