Zeh Sefer Uklidus ha-Haham (Elements), Euclid, Italy: 1704

186 leaves (12 x 9 in.; 305 x 230 mm), f. 2 blank. collation: (*)², 1-46⁴. Written in brown ink on paper in Italian semicursive Hebrew script; initial words in square script. 30 lines; pricked; ruled in hardpoint. Quires signed in ink using Hebrew letters, top gutter; modern foliation in pencil, top fore-edge. Architectural title page with decoration. Numerous blank spaces designed for insertion of diagrams, with diagrams drawn in, by several hands, through end of Book VI (f.61r),some pasted in (see f.15r); remainder of volume with spaces blank. Books I & II ff. (1r-24v) Hebrew manuscript annotations; also in Italian on f.1r. Lightly soiled ff11-14, otherwise only very light stains in first few quires only. Contemporary quarter vellum over paper boards, paper lettering piece with title in manuscript. Defects to spine. Well-worn. 

David Ruderman, Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe, New Haven, 1996.

The earliest Hebrew translation of Euclid’s Elements was created sometime in the thirteenth century. Although it remains uncertain whether the first such Hebrew translation was written by Jacob Anatoli (ca. 1194-1258) or by Moses ibn Tibbon (fl. 1240-1283), we can reasonably assume that the version found in the present manuscript reflects the translation by Jacob ben Machir (ca. 1236-1304); as Jacob’s Hebrew translation was the first to include, in addition to the standard Books I-XIII of the Elements, the two final pseudoepigraphic Books (XIV-XV), often attributed to Hypsicles.

The involvement of Jews in the translation and transmission of ancient scientific writings has been thoroughly documented and attests to the important place of the sciences within the cultural milieu of Jewish intellectuals throughout the medieval period and well into early modernity, as they attempted to integrate science into their more traditional religious worldview. The absence of a printed version of Euclid’s teachings necessitated the creation of manuscript versions such as the present example. It would be more than three quarters of a century after this handwritten copy was produced before the first printed Hebrew edition of Euclid's Elements, would appear in Amsterdam in 1780, translated by Barukh Schick of Shklov, at the urging of Rabbi Elijah of Vilna, better known as the Vilna Gaon.