The Works of Euclid, Vol. 1

You did not have this resource in Latin; your version, being too literal, would often have been obscure. Following the example of those who preceded you, you permitted yourself the use of the pronoun ipse, ipsius, ipsi. You know that I had some scruples in this regard; instead of ipsi AB, ipsi ABG, I would have preferred lineæ AB, angulo ABG, which is somewhat longer.

But all the translators of the Greek geometers have already given you the example of such intercalations, and you did well to choose the shortest means to extricate yourself from an embarrassment that recurs at every moment, etc.

To express that two angles, which have the same vertex and a common side, are placed upon the same straight line, the Greek says: αἱ ἐφεξῆς γωνίαι. Following the example of Commandin, of Torelli, etc., I have translated these three Greek words as deinceps anguli. Several people had invited me not to use the word deinceps, because, they said, the word deinceps never expressed the order of things in Latin. I did not yield to their opinion. For, having read in the Thesaurus of the Latin Language by Robert Étienne, 1739 edition: duo deinceps reges. Tit. Liv. Funera deinde deinceps duo duxit. Tit. Liv. His perfectis collocatisque alias deinceps rates jungebat. Cæs. Morem apud majores hunc epularum fuisse ut deinceps qui occubarent canerent. Cic., etc., it appeared to me demonstrated that Titus Livius, Caesar, Cicero, etc., gave the word deinceps the same meaning as I did.

As for the French translation, it is as literal as the genius of that language permits.

I have placed at the end of each volume an exact list of all the variants of my edition with manuscript 190 and the Oxford edition. By means of these variants, one could, if desired, obtain a copy of manuscript 190 that would be perfectly consistent with it.

The last volume, which will appear in the course of 1814, will be concluded by observations on the most remarkable variants, and on some passages of Euclid.

I have made every effort to ensure that my edition was of the greatest accuracy; the proofs, after having been read by me, were read by M. Jannet, by M. Patris, publisher of my work, and reread again by