I wouldn't call an Euclid written in any other language than
Latin a "first edition.">>
Thank you Professor Mohammed ABATTOUY for your letter.
This was very ignorant on my part. I should have said "printed" not written.
However, I was thinking of vernacular languages, such as mine. Obviously, I
should have thought more before I wrote the above sentence. I am very aware
of the contributions of Arabic and Persian scholars to mathematics,
especially in a time when Western mathematics was dormant in most places.
I am very fortunate to have a beautiful Euclid from 1744. It is Elementa
Euclidea Geometriae, Plane Ac Solidae; et selecta Ex Archimede Theoremata,
quibus Accedit Trigonometria, auctore Andrea Tacquet... It is bound in white
velum and has very nice pull-out pages of constructions. I'm not sure why it
has an etching of Ferdinando Vincentio Spinello on one of the first pages.
Karen Dee Michalowicz