A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential
mathematical books ever written
Euclid's Elements of Geometry is one of the fountainheads of
mathematics--and of culture. Written around 300 BCE, it has traveled
widely across the centuries, generating countless new ideas and
inspiring such figures as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, Abraham
Lincoln, and Albert Einstein. Encounters with Euclid tells the story
of this incomparable mathematical masterpiece, taking readers from its
origins in the ancient world to its continuing influence today.
In this lively and informative book, Benjamin Wardhaugh explains how
Euclid's text journeyed from antiquity to the Renaissance, introducing
some of the many readers, copyists, and editors who left their mark on
the Elements before handing it on. He shows how some read the book as
a work of philosophy, while others viewed it as a practical guide to
life. He examines the many different contexts in which Euclid's book and
his geometry were put to use, from the Neoplatonic school at Athens and
the artisans' studios of medieval Baghdad to the Jesuit mission in China
and the workshops of Restoration London. Wardhaugh shows how the
Elements inspired ideas in theology, art, and music, and how the book
has acquired new relevance to the strange geometries of dark matter and
curved space.
Encounters with Euclid traces the life and afterlives of one of the
most remarkable works of mathematics ever written, revealing its lasting
role in the timeless search for order and reason in an unruly world.
