Bancroftiana, Number 123 Fall 2003: Math Majors Chill with Rare Editions

Math Majors Chill with Rare Editions

$Euclid. Elementa Mathematica in Libros XV Distributa. Italy, E Greco in Latinum cum Commento Hieronymi Campani: ca. 1460.$

Euclid. Elementa Mathematica in Libros XV Distributa. Italy, E Greco in Latinum cum Commento Hieronymi Campani: ca. 1460.

“Old books are cool,” remarked one undergraduate math major after examining part of Bancroft’s collection of rare editions of Euclid. She was one of some 30 students who studied “History of Mathematics” (Math 160) with Professor Robin Hartshorne last spring.

The course covered the origins of algebra, geometry, analytic geometry, and calculus from ancient times through the 19th century. It is generally regarded as one of the department’s more rigorous classes because it requires students to read some Greek or Latin and understand math as Classical and Renaissance mathematicians practiced it.

In keeping with this objective, Hartshorne eschews modern textbooks and requires, instead, that his students study early math from the historical texts themselves.

For one of the class exercises, Hartshorne assigned each of his students a different edition of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, the landmark book in which he invented geometry and the axiomatic method of instruction. Still relevant to the curriculum, the Elements may well be the earliest textbook in use today.

Bancroft was ideal for the assignment because the history of science and technology collection holds more than 50 rare Euclid editions. These include a unique manuscript copy, beautifully inscribed and illustrated on lambskin (“vellum”) in Italy about 1460, and two copies of the first printed edition of Euclid, which was published by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice in 1482. In addition, the collections include 15 editions from the 16th century, 13 from the 17th century, and 13 from the 18th century.

Elia Van Lith, a senior math major who plans a career in librarianship, was especially excited about the Bancroft exercise.

“Usually the class is taught from a modern textbook in a classroom,” she remarked. “What I loved about Prof. Hartshorne’s approach was his use of the original texts and The Bancroft Library. Reading the original editions in the austere, almost monastic, reading room gave my classmates and me an indescribable sense of the time in which these important mathematical discoveries were made. Holding these beautiful old objects, I could see and feel the historicity of mathematics.”

Prof. Hartshorne, a collector of rare Euclid editions himself, readily concurred with his students’ enthusiasm.’“We are indeed fortunate to have such an excellent collection of early mathematical texts at Bancroft. Many of the students had never set eyes on a really old book before, and I think for many it was a transformative experience.”

Some of the students made another important discovery when they realized that the edition they were studying didn’t match the catalog record. They reported the error, and the record has been corrected, to the benefit of the Library and future scholars.

—David Farrell