Category Archives: Seeing Euclid

Perspectives on Euclid and Geometry

We are happy to announce a series of public lectures tying in with the ‘Seeing Euclid’ display. The lectures will start at 7pm on Wednesdays through the month of June, and take place in Lecture Theatre 3 (lower floor) at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford (Andrew Wiles Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG).

6 June: Jeremy Gray (The Open University)
“Non-Euclidean geometry and the historian of mathematics”

13 June: Vicky Neale (University of Oxford)
“A mathematician reads Euclid”

20 June: Stephen Johnston (University of Oxford)
“The Body Beautiful: Euclid and Geometrical Solids in Renaissance Europe”

27 June: Lynn Gamwell (School of Visual Arts, New York)
“Geometry in Modern and Contemporary Art”

the schedule is available for download in pdf format or as a jpeg

MS. D’Orville 301 @ the Bodleian

While our research concentrates on printed editions of Euclid up to 1700, it bears mentioning that the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is home to some spectacular Euclid manuscripts. Among them is MS. D’Orville 301, written in 888 by the scribe ‘Stephanos the clerk’ with annotations added between 10th and 14th centuries. It is based on the Elements edited by Theon of Alexandria in the 4th century. Here is a detail of the Pythagorean theorem on the verso of folio 31; click to view it on the Digital Bodleian website.

Bodleian Library, MS. D’Orville 301, detail of fol. 31v