Complete Works of Euclid, Vol. 1 (Elements I-IV)

...it is clear that almost all manuscripts came from the revision by Theon Theon of Alexandria was a 4th century scholar whose edited version of Euclid's Elements became the standard text for centuries., and only Peyrard's Vatican manuscript preserved a nearly older form. I have explained at length what benefit may be gained from this unique situation, and what method of criticism I believe should be followed, in my book titled Studies on Euclid original: "Studien über Euklid" on page 177 and the following pages.

This immediately became clear: first of all, the Vatican manuscript must be carefully compared again. Peyrard had only noted those things which seemed memorable to him, although he himself claimed otherwise. Furthermore, a sufficient number of other manuscripts must be examined so that a probable judgment can be made about Theon's writing. For this task, I thought the Bodleian A library at the University of Oxford., Laurentian The Medicean-Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy., and Vienna manuscripts were enough. I chose these especially because I noticed they do not differ much from a palimpsest A manuscript page, often parchment, from which the text has been scraped off so that it can be used again. manuscript from the 7th or 8th century which is kept in the British Museum.

I used these manuscripts as my foundation. To these, others were added for certain parts of the work, and I hope more will be added in the future. For example, in this first volume I used a certain Paris manuscript, and in the first book I used a Bologna manuscript. Shortness of time prevented me from comparing the Bologna manuscript entirely, but I hope that I can compare the remaining part soon. This manuscript is of the greatest importance for the books on solid geometry original: "stereometricis," referring to the study of three dimensional shapes.. Regarding other new resources, such as the manuscripts of the minor works, I will speak in the prefaces of the individual volumes.

I confess it is possible that some treasure lies hidden among the manuscripts not yet compared. Not all of them are of recent date, and recent ones should not always be ignored. Such a treasure might equal or even surpass my own resources. However, since this is not very likely, these results, whatever they may be...