The First Six Books of The Elements of Euclid: In Which Coloured Diagrams and Symbols Are Used Instead of Letters for the Greater Ease of Learners »

Werner Oechslin (b.1944) studied art history, archaeology, philosophy and mathematics. After doctoral studies in Zurich in 1970 he taught at MIT and Harvard University. Since 1985 he has been a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he led the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture from 1986 to 2006. His research focuses on architectural theory and the cultural history of architecture. His most recent publication is Palladianismus: Andrea Palladio - Werk und Wirkung (2008). He is the founder of Bibliothek Werner Oechslin in Einsiedeln.

Red, yellow, blue – and of course black – are the colours that Oliver Byrne employs for the figures and diagrams in his most unusual 1847 edition of Euclid, published by William Pickering and printed by Chiswick Press, and which prompt the surprised reader to think of Mondrian. The author makes it clear in his subtitle that this is a didactic measure intended to distinguish his edition from all others: "The Elements of Euclid in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners." Byrne is not content to trust solely in the supposed intuitive “logical” structure of Euclid’s axioms and theorems – who doesn’t know the first famous sentences of Euclid’s Elements: “I. A point is that which has no parts. II. A line is length without breadth”? –, but translates them into colourful diagrams and symbols. He thereby thinks in terms of the school classroom: he compares his colours to the dyed chalks in which figures are drawn on the blackboard.

The New York Times - Steven Heller

…stunning…Sure, the book may have one of those lengthy old-fashioned titles, but The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid is so rationalist, minimalist and aesthetically pure, every graphic designer, book lover and math nerd will be as awe-struck as I was…The time has long passed since I was forced to learn Euclidean geometry, but I believe this masterpiece of beautifully functional book design is so effective it could even help recalcitrant students today—perhaps as an iPhone app.