Euclid's Elements

you love literature, but also, because of the keenness of mind you have always possessed, you make such great progress in those studies that all who know you are moved to incredible admiration and joy. For, to speak of myself, how often have I admired, with great pleasure, the supreme excellence of your genius and your skill in understanding the elements of Euclid! Inflamed by this most honorable and never sufficiently praised study of the liberal arts, you recently entrusted to me the burden of translating and explaining Euclid, because you, excellent Prince, were pained to see that he—easily the first among all geometricians—had been neither correctly translated in many places nor skillfully adorned with figures. Moreover, he was so corrupted by the negligence of printers that he could not be read, let alone understood, without great offense to students. I, however, undertook this task, hindered by so many difficulties, with a cheerful spirit: both to comply with your command, which I have always striven to obey, and also to help the lovers of this discipline, as my long-standing practice dictates, by any means possible. For it is not many years ago that I said a long farewell to medicine, to which I had entirely devoted myself, so that I might delight only in these studies and find rest in their knowledge, little concerned with others. I wished to rescue the most excellent writings of the ancients in this field from neglect and darkness, and—illustrated by my commentaries—bring them into the light and view of all, to the some satisfaction of students. This, in part, we have already achieved, and in part, we strive for day and night with the greatest vigilance. For we have already published, as accurately as possible, some works of Archimedes, Ptolemy, Apollonius, and Serenus, excellent men, which were translated and explained by us in previous years. At this time, we were putting much labor and diligence into Pappus, Heron, Theodosius, Autolycus, Aristarchus, and others—of whom a great part is held neither in Greek nor Latin—when, at your command, we set these aside and turned all our study, effort, labor, and care to Euclid alone, so that, with God's help, we might bring to an end a matter attempted by many. For, to speak briefly: Orontius Phinaeus, an author of no obscure name, published only the first six books, without regard for the Greek codex. The labor of Jacobus Peletarius in the same matter is even less approved, because he preferred to follow Campanus's edition, translated from the Arabic language, rather than the Greek. Other men of truly sharp genius have written geometric ἀναλύσεις analyses on the first six books, yet they did not pursue the rest. But Candalla, a man distinguished both by the nobility of his lineage and by his knowledge of things, although he made all the books of the Elements Latin, which seemed to be demanded by the Latins, and enriched them, is nevertheless (as I hear) little commended for this, because he strayed too far from Euclid and rejected the demonstrations found in the Greek codices as if they were inelegant and incomplete, replacing them with his own. Whether we have performed what we say is required by all, will be the judgment of others.