The Rare Books and Special Collections has cooperated with the UBC Department of Mathematics to produce a digitized version of Euclid's books on geometry, derived from the Division's copy of an unusual and attractive edition of Euclid published in 1847 in England, edited by an otherwise unknown mathematician named Oliver Byrne.
With the financial support of several undergraduate organizations at UBC - the Alma Mater Society of UBC, the Science Undergraduate Society at UBC, and the Undergraduate Mathematics Club - Byrne's edition of Euclid has been photographed, and the photographs digitally scanned and mounted on-line as part of the Department of Mathematics' Digital Mathematics Archive. It will serve as an interesting resource for geometry projects all over the world.
Byrne's edition covers the first 6 books of Euclid, which range through most of elementary plane geometry and the theory of proportions. What distinguishes it is that it presents Euclid's proofs in terms of pictures, using as little text as possible, and its use of colour.
The book has been called "one of the oddest and most beautiful books of the [19th] century", and "a decided complication of Euclid, but a triumph for Charles Whittingham [the printer]". Whether or not Byrne's efforts complicate or simplify Euclid is an interesting and debatable point. Parts of Byrne's attempt to design "colour-coded" mathematical proofs are more successful than others, but it is hoped that even the less successful parts can serve as themes for discussion if not models for imitation. The title page of Byrne's edition, at any rate, illustrates the basic concept of the book rather nicely with a single figure illustrating Euclid's Proposition 47 (Pythagoras' Theorem).