Pet Book Project #1 by Becka
Euclid, Geometry (1546) is how this book was listed for our class. My Latin is mostly non-existent, so I’m not quite sure how much of Euclidis Megarensis mathematici clarissimi Elementorum geo metricorum libri xv is the title. I also haven’t figured out how to type the symbol that is an s that sort of looks like an f.
I am unsure of what “Basileae, per Johannem Hervagium” means, but the location on the page makes me think it might be a publisher or location. Based of my basic knowledge of Spanish, I assume that “Mense August, Anno” means “month of August, year.” The Roman numerals M. D. XLVI are 1546, which must be the year of publication.
The cover of this book appears to be brown leather. I am unsure if it is the original binding or not. The front and back covers of this book are nearly identical, with no writing. The center of the front and back covers have a double-lined rectangle stamped into the cover. I examined the lines in the rectangles closely but was unable to ascertain whether they had once contained gold leaf or not. At each corner, there is a design stamped into the leather with gold-leaf on it. The gold leaf is more worn away on the front cover than the back cover. The back cover has some holes and dents in it, but they do not extend into the endpaper.
The spine of the book is coming off of this book on the top edge. The spine reads “Euclides ET.” Unlike all of the modern books that I own, the words appear upright when the book is in a bookshelf rather than running down its spine. Due to the five raised bands on the spine, you can tell that the pages of the book are bound together using the sewn-on cords method. The spine of this book is also decorated with stamping and gold leaf, but it is more elaborate than the front or back covers. None of the stamped designs are repeats of the ones on the front.
As you can see by my pointing, the leather is coming off of the spine at the top. This also allows you to see the cords and that the raised bands are due to the visible cords and are not fake.
This book is approximately 30 cm tall, 20.5 cm wide, and 6 cm deep. Based on these measurements and the sizes of paper, this book is folio-sized. The pages in the book are numbered and go through page 587.
On page 587 of the book, there is a section titled “Regestum,” with a listed series of letters. “a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t u x y z Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Vu Xx Yy Zz AA BB CC.” I find it interesting that there is no uppercase or lowercase J to be seen here, that there is only a lowercase u and no lowercase v, and that in the combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, it combines uppercase V with lowercase u. This alphabet at the end does have a meaning, which I will get into in my second pet book blog post.
I was surprised to find things pasted inside the book! The handwritten name that I can’t read was maybe a previous owner of the book? Then there are two papers pasted in – one to show that this is part of the Clarence Seymour Wadsworth Collection and one that this is part of the Wesleyan University collection. Since Wesleyan wasn’t opened until 1831, this book was already over 250 years before it came to the university. I don’t know when the university first collected this book, but it is now 477 years old.
What was even more surprising was finding this checkout card pasted into the back of the book! I could not imagine being able to check out such an old book from the library! There are no dates filled out though, so it appears as if this book was never checked out. I assume that this is because after Wesleyan opened, students preferred to study for their math classes in English rather than in Latin.
This is the page that drew me to this text and choosing it as my pet book. I love reading, but analyzing literature has never been a strong point or something that I’ve enjoyed. My bachelor’s degree is in physics, and I’ve been teaching math and science for close to 20 years now, with this being my 13th year right now of only teaching multiple levels of physics. While geometry is one of the few math classes that I have never taught, I am very familiar with Euclidian geometry. And while I only know a few words in Latin, I know enough to recognize what this codex is.
This page has multiple images of a variety of different shapes with their names. The lines on these shapes aren’t very fine, and that combined with the time period of the book, I think that they are wood cuts.
The inside of this book is entirely in black and white. The only color that exists is the gold leaf on the cover. Most of the pictures in this book are images that are useful for learning about Euclidean geometry. But, there are some other pictures that have nothing to do with the text in this book as well. I beleive that they are wood cuts as well, but I need to do some more research. At the beginning of sections. of book, there are images across the top of the page. Here on page one, we see what is possibly angels or cherubs. They have some baskets, and they are holding ropes or cloth ties for a sign. The sign has a head with wings which reminds me of images I’ve seen on gravestones. One of the angels/cherubs is holding a sword. And none of this has anything to do with geometry.
In addition to the images at the tops of sections, we also have miniature images making up letters. On page 8 above, we have an uppercase letter A. It looks like there is a person kneeling down and holding a sword. On page 1, we have an uppercase letter P. Here is a person who looks a bit like a naked baby blowing a horn, holding something with their other hand, while a second person in a jester’s hat lies on the ground with their eyes closed and something in their left hand on the ground.
I have plenty more to say about this book and my time with it, but I’m already at double the recommended word count for today, so I shall sign off for now.
Physical description: 30 cm x 20.5 cm x 6 cm
Material: Laid paper, black ink, leather, gold leaf
Signature Statement: unsure