Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. DOI 10.1007/s00407-015-0173-9 The development of Euclidean axiomatics The systems of principles and the foundations of mathematics in editions of the Elements in the Early Modern Age Vincenzo De Risi1 Received: 4 August 2015 © The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The paper lists several editions of Euclid’s Elements in the Early Modern Age, giving for each of them the axioms and postulates employed to ground elementary mathematics. Contents 1 Introduction .................................... 1.1 The Euclidean tradition ........................... 1.2 Axioms and postulates ........................... 2 The principles ................................... 2.1 The principles of Euclid ........................... 2.2 Further principles in the Greek tradition .................. 2.3 Additional common notions and the foundations of the theory of magnitudes 2.4 Principles on mereological composition and multiples of magnitudes ... 2.5 The theory of ratios and proportions .................... 2.6 The Axiom of Archimedes and the theory of indivisibles ......... 2.7 Principles of arithmetic and number theory ................. 2.8 General principles of space, situation, and givenness ............ 2.9 Principles of intersection, incidence and connection ............ 2.10 Principles of continuity ........................... 2.11 Principles of congruence, motion, and transportation ........... Communicated by: Jeremy Gray. B Vincenzo De Risi
[email protected] 1 MPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany 123 V. De Risi 2.12 Principles of the equality and the comparison of measure ......... 2.13 The parallel postulate ............................ Hilbert’s Axioms of geometry .......................... 3 The editions of the Elements ........................... 3.1 Greek manuscripts of the Elements used by Heiberg ............ 3.2 Medieval translations in Latin manuscripts ................