Miscellany of Euclidian Geometry (16th century)
MS 145
Euclid’s Elements edited by the great Persian astronomer Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī
This undated Arabic codex from the 16th century contains three works. The main text, Taḥī Kitāb Uṣūl al-handasah li-Uqlīdis (fols 1b-203a), is a complete copy of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry as edited by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (1201-1274). It is followed by an addendum to this work by al-Ṭūsī himself (fols 204a-208a), and excerpts from the commentary of Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965 – c. 1040) on Euclid’s geometry (fols 208a-213b, 214b-215a). St John’s copy is one among many still extant today. Interestingly, not all of its diagrams were drawn into the spaces provided for them, which were instead often used for annotations next to a considerable number of marginalia and interlinear annotations, which stop abruptly after folio 100a, however (Savage-Smith, pp. 57-8).
Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī is one of the most renowned Islamic scientists of the medieval period, known today especially for his astronomical work, which also influenced early modern Europeans (Ragep). Finding patronage at Islamic courts, al-Ṭūsī became the advisor to the Īlkhānid ruler Hūlāgū Khan after the Mongol conquest in the 1250s. In this capacity, he oversaw the construction of the celebrated astronomical observatory in Marāgha, the Mongol capital in Azerbaijan, and became its first director (Ragep). Together with a library and school, it was one of the ‘most ambitious scientific institutions up to that time [and possibly] the first full-scale observatory’ (Ragep). Before he served the Mongols, al-Ṭūsī had been working on new editions of ‘all the school texts of mathematics and astronomy, i.e., [Euclid’s] Elements, Ptolemy’s Almagest and the Kutub al-Mutawassiṭāt (the Middle Books [read before Elements and after Almagest])’ (Brentjes, pp. 452-3). His new edition of Euclid’s Elements replaced the works on which all Euclidian geometry had been based in the previous Abbasid Caliphate, which existed between 750 CE and 1261 CE (Brentjes, p. 446).
Further Resource
Descriptive catalogue records available at our Digital Library (scroll down to MS 145)