CFP: Workshop "Euclid in the vernacular" (Wuppertal, 10-11 September 2026)

  CFP: Workshop "Euclid in the vernacular" (Wuppertal, 10-11 September 2026)

Call for Papers

The German part of the ANR-DFG project Euclid in the Modern Age. A History of Cross-Cultural Transmissions, Translations and Transformations of the Elements, conducted at the University of Wuppertal / Interdisciplinary Centre for Science and Technology Studies (IZWT), invites paper proposals for the workshop:

Euclid in the vernacular. Cross-cultural transmissions, adaptations and transformations of Euclid’s Elements in early modern Europe

taking place on 10-11 September, 2026 at the University of Wuppertal / IZWT (Germany).

Organizers: Angela Axworthy & Volker Remmert

Key-note speaker: Benjamin Wardhaugh, University of Oxford

Objectives of the workshop:

The Elements, composed in Greek by Euclid in the third century BC, is the mathematical treatise that was most widely circulated, commented, printed, but also translated, worldwide. In Europe, Euclid’s work was first rediscovered in full in the twelfth century thanks to its Latin translation from the Arabic by Adelard of Bath and was first circulated in the vernacular in 1543 through Niccolò Tartaglia’s Italian translation from Latin. The latter was followed over the next three decades by the first translations of the Elements in German, French, English and Spanish. Although Latin versions of the Elements remained numerically dominant in the sixteenth century, a greater balance was reached between Latin and vernacular editions in the seventeenth century, as Euclid’s text became more widely circulated beyond academic contexts. The number of different languages used in this framework also increased, as the Elements was also made available in Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Swedish and Portuguese up to the eighteenth century. In the early modern period, partial vernacular translations of Euclidean principles and/or propositions were also proposed in elementary courses of geometry, general introductions to mathematical courses, practical geometry treatises or artisans’ handbooks.

The aim of this workshop will be to explore the effects of the circulation of the Elements in vernacular languages in early modern Europe both on Euclid’s text itself and on the transmission of geometrical knowledge. The questions which this workshop intends to answer are (but not limited to):

How did the translation of the Elements into vernacular languages impact its textual and visual content, its logical and editorial structure, as well as its mode of elucidation?

Were there any transformations specific to translations of Euclid into a particular vernacular language?

Conversely, were there any transformations specific to vernacular translations from a particular language (from Greek, Latin or another vernacular language)?

What was the social, cultural, professional or institutional background of those who translated Euclid in the vernacular?

What were their motivations for translating Euclid in the vernacular?

Which public did they address?

Were there any cultural, social or institutional contexts in which the diffusion of Euclid in the vernacular became more important than in others (in terms of number of editions, status and uses)?

What does the progressive increase of vernacular translations in early modern Europe say about the Elements’ contexts of diffusion, its public and uses?

Did these vernacular editions of the Elements accompany particular changes in the educational system?

To which extent did these vernacular editions of Euclid have an impact on mathematical literacy in their contexts of circulation?

Submission instructions and practical information:

Please send a title and max. 250 words abstract, as well as a short biography, to axworthy@uni-wuppertal.de <mailto:axworthy@uni-wuppertal.de> by 31 January, 2026.

The papers held at this workshop will be published and should be designed as preliminary drafts of published articles.

We welcome paper proposals for this workshop from researchers at all career stages, including PhD students. Due to budgetary constraints, priority will be given to speakers based in Germany or Europe.

This workshop is funded by the DFG as part of the Franco-German ANR-DFG project EUCLIDES. Euclid in the Modern Age. A History of Cross-Cultural Transmissions, Translations and Transformations of the Elements (https://euclides.hypotheses.org <https://euclides.hypotheses.org/>), Project number 530000455.

Link to the CFP on the project’s blog: https://euclides.hypotheses.org/565