Discovering Elements: A Rhetoric of Visual Presentation

This one presents a study of the visual appearance of twenty-one editions of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry printed between 1482 (which was when Erhadt Ratdolt printed the very first math book) and 1847 (when Charles Whittingham printed Oliver Byrne’s 4-color edition). Why? Because these editions illustrate the changes in the transmission of Euclidean geometry through history—and about developments in type- and book design, too. This massive book presents full-size facsimiles of a page in each edition covering Proposition 47, the Pythagorean Theorem. (You’ll remember this as A² + B² = C² which we don’t have to tell you is useful when working with right triangles.) Every element is illustrated, defined, and compared. It is a fascinating study and a model of book design (aside from the fact that it’s huge and weights a good 15 pounds in its clamshell box). Seriously, though. This thing is so beautiful. Also, it is a marvel of printing. The whole thing was screen-printed in more colors than we can count. (The equation to figure out how many colors were printed is probably something like A² + B² = C².)

Watch a 2-minute flip-through »