Legendre's Elements of Geometry

In the year 1794, André Marie Legrendre (1752 - 1833) published his Eléments de géométrie. In its preface, Legrendre says he tried to produce a geometry that will testify to the l’esprit of Euclid. The book became an immediate success in Europe and eventually went through 20 additions.  The first American translation appeared in 1819, a work by John Farrar (1779 – 1853), Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (Science) at Harvard. This is the title page of Farrar’s translation of Legendre's Elements, the second edition (1825). Farrar went on to translate five French mathematical classics of this time. The style and format of these books transformed American mathematics teaching, and they became models for the new mathematical textbooks employed in the U.S military academies.


The image above (click to enlarge) is of pages 106 and 107 of Legendre’s Elements of Geometry and discuss the construction and properties of planes. Note the use of the symbol for line segment. This is one of the first applications of this symbol in an American textbook.

Legendre's Elements of Geometry