The University of Macau (UM) held a ceremony yesterday to mark its library’s acquisition of a 1491 incunabulum of Euclid’s Elements.
The copy is now the only incunabulum – a term referring to a book printed before the 16th century – in China and is on display at the “manuscript corner” on the first floor of the UM Library. Members of the public are welcome to see it.
The edition of Euclid’s Elements acquired by the UM Library is a revised version based on earlier Latin translations and newer translations of various Arabic sources. It is a reprint edition, produced toward the end of the 15th century by the publishers Leonardus de Basilea and Gulielmus de Papia in Vicenza, Italy.
[See more: The first phase of Macao’s new Central Library will be finished next December]
A more legible Roman font used in the edition acquired by UM, as opposed to the Gothic of the original. The decorative Arabic border on the original’s first page was also changed to motifs of Cupid, plants and animals in the later edition.
The 13 books of Euclid’s Elements together constitute one of the most influential texts in the history of science and mathematics and contain 465 formulas and proofs.
Only 84 libraries in the world have a copy of the 1491 incunabulum.
