List of Web Sites

This is a list of unsorted links to various Euclid-related pages and some further commentary. I've singled out the first four links which I consider to be four of the most important extant manuscripts.

These are the 888 AD Theon manuscript, the Pre-Theon Vatican 190 manuscript, and the Greek to Latin translation from Sicily (translation made in the 12th, but this copy is 13/14th century)

I've also added some links and discussion on Adelard I manuscript as well as one link to an early Arabic manuscript.

As far as I can tell, there is, surprisingly, no complete early Adelard I manuscript available online in the UK. Balliol College MS 257 is digitized but not very well, with a number of pages cropped. The only fully digitized copies are in Belgium and the Vatican and possibly elsewhere that I haven't checked. Given that Adelard is one of the most famous early British scholars, it is quite surprising that no online copy is available in the UK. The British Library may have something, such as the MS Burney 275, but I've found the British Library website to be very unreliable to access. Burney MS 275 is also a somewhat mixed-up manuscript. It contains parts of Adelard II, III, and I, with only fragments of each. For example, it only contains 6 folios of Adelard I (302-308)

NOTE

The British Library suffered a major cyberattack in 2023, which made its online manuscript service unavailable. As of May 2024, this valuable service is still unavailable. Certain links given below will, therefore, not work.

Important Early Manuscripts

Bodleian D'Orville 888 AD Copy of Euclid (Greek)

The Vatican 190 PEYRARD Manuscript (Greek)

The 7373 Greek to Latin Edition by Sicilian Annonymous Translator (Latin)

Arabic Manuscripts

I couldn't find any early online Arabic editions of Euclid except for this one which is a little later by al-Tusi. I wasn't able to determine what is was based on.

Euclid.; Ṭūsī, Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, 1201-1274 translator; This copy dated 1594

Adelard I Manuscripts - Translation from Arabic to Latin

Fully Digitized:

Balliol College MS 257, 12th century, appears to be fully digitized. Mentioned by Heath, 1925 as Ball. Coll. 257I, Chap 8. The digitized copy is, however, not well photographed, with a number of pages heavily cropped. Surprisingly the photographs are stored on flickr.

Vatican Reg Lat. 1137, fully digitized (listed by Folkerts) - it looks like only a very small part of this is Adelard I. Folkerts suggests f.73-74 to include X 24, X 27

Bruges MS 529 designated B by Busard, fully digitized (listed by Folkerts). The writing is neat enough that it is possible to read the text in this manuscript with enough patience. It appears that many of the figures at least for Book I were not included in this manuscript. They disappear around proposition 6 and reappear in proposition 44.

Bodleian Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. B. 13, 13th century, late, 111 folios are available online at

Harley MS 5404 - Currently not available due to a cyber attack. As mentioned by Heath 1926 as Herleian No. 5404, Chap 8

Partially Digitized

Glasgow, Latin, Sp Coll MS Gen. 1115, dated 4 December 1480

MS. Arch. Selden. B. 13

Not Digitized

Oxford, Trinity College MS. 47, Latin, this is the designed 'O' manuscript by Busard and perhaps the oldest (Folkerts). Probably 13th/14 century.

Further information on MS 47 can be found here, but the information doesn't look correct as it suggests this copy is "now tentatively attributed to Robert of Ketton". Robert of Ketton is also more commonly called Robert of Chester who is considered to have written the Adelard II manuscripts not Adelard I manuscripts since most, if not all other literature states the Adelard I manuscripts are based on Adelard's own personal translation. It also claims there are only 5 manuscripts in existence but Menso Folkerts lists 7, although some of these are very incomplete. The Folkerts list doesn't include the Glasgow manuscript possibly because it's too late (1480)

D-OrvilleBodleian Library 70, located at Oxford (Latin, this is the designated 'D' manuscript by Busard), 14th century

Of this list, the Belgium manuscript (MS 529), is by far the most accessible.

Two things I came across that appear distinctive about the Adelard I books is in Book III on circles:

a) The first is that Proposition 12 is missing from copies of Adelard I. This is a small proposition that proves that when two circles touch, their centers pass through the point of contact.

b) The second difference is Adelard I merges proposition 35 and 36 which he numbers 34.

As a result of these differences, Adelard I has 35 propositions in Book II, while Heath's Euclid has 37. There has been a suggestion that Preposition 12 was inserted by Heron. This comes from a remark one can find in Gerard Cremona's translation of the commentary of Al-Nayrizi. Al-Nyrizi says in what we would call Proposition 12, but he calls "The Eleventh Figure of the Third Treatise" because he merges 11 and 12 together, that "Heron said: Lo, in this figure the mathematician fixed the two circles...". Maybe Adelard didn't add the proposition to his translation because he thought it didn't belong, and Al-Nyrizi didn't pull it out as a separate proposition. John Casey, in his 1885 edition of Euclid (p120), actually says that Prop XI and XII can be combined into one general proposition.

References:

1, Heath, 1926 EUCLI, D The Thirteen Books of The Elements. https://archive.org/details/EuclidsElementsBooksIIIVolume1Heath/Euclid%27s_Elements_Books_I-II_Volume_1-Heath/

2 Busard, The first Latin translation of Euclid's Elements commonly ascribed to Adelard of Bath, 1983, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_first_Latin_translation_of_Euclid_s/o2QPsb-IjgwC?hl=en

Manuscripts used by Heiberg:

From Heiberg's book EUCLIDIS OPERA OMNIA, Volume 1, 1883 we have the following manuscripts listed on page VIII-IX:

P - Peyrard Gr. 190 copy (9th century)

B - Bodleian 888AD (9th century)

F - Floirentine Laurentian MS. XXVIII (Plut. 28.3, Greek)
Note the library recently changed the URL, the above is current and works as of 4/28/2025

V - Viennese MS. Philos. Gr. No. 103; (Greek)

b - MS. numbered 18-19 in the Comunal Library at Bologna (Greek)

p - Paris Gr. 2466 (12th century)

Heath adds to this list:

q = Paris MS. 2344, folio; (12th century)