Euclid's Elements

Euclid's Elements is a mathematical and geometric treatise, consisting of 13 books, written by the Hellenistic mathematician Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BC. It comprises a collection of definitions, postulates (axioms), propositions (theorems and constructions), and proofs of the theorems. The 13 books cover Euclidean geometry and the ancient Greek version of elementary number theory.

The Elements form one of the most beautiful and influential works of science in the history of humankind. Its beauty lies in its logical development of geometry and other branches of mathematics. It has influenced all branches of science but none so much as mathematics and the exact sciences. The Elements have been studied 24 centuries in many languages starting, of course, in the original Greek, then in Arabic, Latin, and many modern languages

The frontispiece of Sir Henry Billingsley's first English version of Euclid's Elements, 1570