Oliver Byrne's edition of Euclid

One of the most intriguing books of the nineteenth century is Oliver Byrne's edition of Euclid. It was published in 1847 by William Pickering and printed by Chiswick Press, called by Ruari McLean the foremost name in Victorian book design and synonomous with good typography and printing throughout the [Victorian] period. Chiswick Press was operated by Charles Whittingham, nephew of its founder, and Pickering and Whittingham collaborated in a number of innovative publications around that time. Pickering was particularly known for elegant title pages.

Ruari McLean calls Byrne's book one of the oddest and most beautiful books of the century. It was one of a very small number of British books displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (no surprise, perhaps, since Whittingham was on one of the Juries of the exhibition). He goes on to say The result is a decided complication of Euclid, but a triumph for Charles Whittingham. Whether or not Byrne's efforts complicate or simplify Euclid is an interesting and debatable point. Its title page, at any rate, illustrates the basic concept of the book rather nicely with a single figure illustrating Euclid's Proposition 47 (Pythagoras' Theorem).

The copy from which this image was taken is in the Colbeck collection of the Library of the University of British Columbia. It was purchased in auction in 1974 for about $300. Byrne's edition may have become well known when extracts from it were included in the second of Edward Tufte's books on graphical design. A copy of Byrne's book was auctioned in November, 1996 for US $3220.

References

Ruari McLean, Victorian book design & colour printing, Faber & Faber, 1963.

Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning information, Graphics Press, 1990.

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