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: William Pickering, 1847. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first printing. Bound in contemporary half calf single ruled in gilt over marbled boards; compartments richly tooled in gilt, six raised bands with red morocco spine labels lettered in gilt; all edges marbled. Illustrated with geometric title page vignettes and diagrams printed in red, yellow, and blue, ornamental initials by Mary Byfield at Chiswick Press. Very Good, neatly rebacked and repaired at tips, light rubbing to covers. Ex-libris Ampleforth Abbey with their shelf number label to front pastedown and their nineteenth-century purple gothic-style stamp on the recto of the (truncated) flyleaf; additional monastic purple stamp at recto of front flyleaf and rear pastedown. Contents lightly toned with scattered foxing throughout. Nearly a century before Dutch painter Piet Mondrian took the world by storm with his 1930 painting Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, 19th century Irish mathematician and civil engineer, Oliver Bryne, produced this highly unusual and starkly illustrated Euclidean academic textbook. Celebrated for its brilliant arrangement of primary colors the text is scattered with a myriad of geometrical combinations and complex numerical figures, "the stark use of primary colors was envisaged by Byrne as a teaching aid" in which "each 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" (McLean). It was one of a small number of books displayed at the World Exhibition in 1851, favored for its pleasing and attractive printing style. Unfortunately, costing nearly 25 shillings, the work remained out of reach for the academics Byrne intended it to. The extortionate production used newly invented four color printing methods and subsequently bankrupted the firm in 1853. The work remains a cornerstone of academic textbooks heralded for its graphic elements and is truly a masterpiece of Victorian illustrated books. (Inventory #: 140947806)