In Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries

Euclid, fl. ca. 300 B.C.

Elementa geometria.

[Venice]: Erhardus Ratdolt Augustensis impressor solertissimus Venetiijs impressit, anno salutis M.cccc.lxxxij octauis calen[darum] Iun[ii] [25 May 1482].

First edition of the first mathematical book ever printed, and the first major work to be illustrated with geometric diagrams. Euclid’s Elements “has exercised an influence on the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible”—Dictionary of Scientific Biography.

The text used is the thirteenth-century edition of Campano da Novara (d. 1296), an edition based on a twelfth-century translation from the Arabic by Adelard of Bath (ca. 1116-1142). Not only does this edition present an important text, it does so in a particularly pleasing manner, and stands as one of the loveliest books printed in the Renaissance. Erhard Ratdolt (ca. 1447-ca. 1527), the printer, is famous for producing the first known printer’s specimen sheet; his remarkable innovation for this edition of Euclid was in the use of geometric designs. Traditionally described as woodcuts, these geometric designs were in fact made in metal, perhaps through the method known as sandcasting. In the vellum dedication copy that Ratdolt prepared for the Doge of Venice, the ink was done in gold, Ratdolt having substituted gold dust for lampblack in the preparation.

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