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EUCLID -- BYRNE, Oliver (c.1810-c.1880). 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. London: Charles Whittingham at the Chiswick Press for William Pickering, 1847. 4° (233 x 186mm). Half-title. Diagrams throughout printed in red, blue, yellow and black. (Spotting throughout, occasional dampstain in the top margin.) Publisher's original blue cloth, upper side stamped in gilt, edges gilt (rebacked in blue morocco, sides scuffed, rear endpaper repaired). Provenance: R.W. Quibell (signature).
FIRST EDITION, in the original cloth, of Byrne's spectacular rendering of Euclid's geometry using four-colour printing: 'the page is a unique riot of red, yellow and blue... attaining a verve not seen again on book pages till the days of Dufy, Matisse and Derain'. In a technical tour-de-force, Whittingham skillfully aligned the different colour blocks for printing to produce 'one of the oddest and most beautiful books of the whole century' (McLean). Ing, Charles Whittingham Printer 46; Keynes, Pickering, pp. 37, 65; McLean, Victorian Book Design, p.51.
FIRST EDITION, in the original cloth, of Byrne's spectacular rendering of Euclid's geometry using four-colour printing: 'the page is a unique riot of red, yellow and blue... attaining a verve not seen again on book pages till the days of Dufy, Matisse and Derain'. In a technical tour-de-force, Whittingham skillfully aligned the different colour blocks for printing to produce 'one of the oddest and most beautiful books of the whole century' (McLean). Ing, Charles Whittingham Printer 46; Keynes, Pickering, pp. 37, 65; McLean, Victorian Book Design, p.51.