Euclid’s Elements from the West to the East
Organizers:
Zhigang Ji | Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Kostas Nikolantonakis | University of Western Macedonia
Program
Chairs: Zhigang Ji & Kostas Nikolantonakis
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Afternoon Session | 15:30-17:30
Venue: Marasleio Room 4
Mao Dan | Study on 1533 Greek First Prints of Elements: Terminologies and Compares
Tian Chunzhi | Viewing Pacioli’s Study of Euclid’s Elements from Summa
Kostas Nikolantonakis | The Elements and their transmission
Evening Session | 18:00-20:00
Venue: Marasleio Room 4
Cao Jingbo | Studies on the commentaries in Billingsley’s English Element 1570
Ji Zhigang | How Did the Knowledge of Geometry Affect China: A Cultural Interpretation of Ricci’ Preface of Jihe yuanben
About the Symposium
One of the masterpieces of the History of Mathematics is Euclid’s Elements. This treatise has been translated into different languages of scientific work during different historical periods and in different cultures (Arabic, Latin, English, French, German, Chinese, etc.). Of course, we should also stress the use of the treatise for teaching purposes from Greek Antiquity to Modern times. The Elements was, in general, a monography of geometry and arithmetic (in the sense of the theory of numbers) and a model of axiomatic establishment of a scientific field which should be followed from all scientists (mathematicians, physicians, etc.) in their scientific treatises.
The ways of transmission of the treatise in different cultures and languages and the comparative studies between the original text and the transmitted text are two of the questions which could be discussed in the frame of this proposed Symposium. More precisely, we are going to examine the means of transmission of Euclid’s Elements in China and its relations with the transmission in different cultures and in the works of scientists written in different than the Chinese language. More specifically we are going to examine the ways of how Euclid’s Elements affect China, the language used in Chinese and in Greek and comparative studies on Pacioli’s Euclidean Elements and on commentaries in Billingsley’s English Elements (1574).