The Commentary of Albertus Magnus on Book 1 of Euclid's Elements of Geometry

by Euclid, Albertus Magnus, Anthony Lo Bello (Editor)

The Commentary of Albertus Magnus on Book I of Euclid's Elements of Geometry is the third in Lo Bello's series on the Elements. Lo Bello provides the first modern translation of a key Latin text of the Elements in the Middle Ages, the commentary of the Dominican scholastic philosopher Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), the teacher of Thomas Aquinas. The volume includes a translation, notes on the translation, and a critical examination of the mathematical content of the three commentaries on Euclid's Elements of Geometry thus far treated in this series.

The Three Volumes are also available as set (ISBN 0 391 04197 5)

313 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Euclid (Ancient Greek: Εὐκλείδης Eukleidēs -- "Good Glory", ca. 365-275 BC) also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323–283 BC). His Stoicheia (Elements) is a 13-volume exploration all corners of mathematics, based on the works of, inter alia, Aristotle, Eudoxus of Cnidus, Plato, Pythagoras. It is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, presenting the mathematical theorems and problems with great clarity, and showing their solutions concisely and logically. Thus, it came to serve as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century. In the Elements, Euclid deduced the principles of what is now called Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory and rigor. He is sometimes credited with one original theory, a method of exhaustion through which the area of a circle and volume of a sphere can be calculated, but he left a much greater mark as a teacher.