Visual Agency in Euclid’s Elements: A Study of The Transmission of Visual knowledge

My PhD dissertation, “Visual Agency in Euclid’s Elements: A study of the transmission of visual knowledge,” explores the ways diagram makers have reproduced and translated Euclid’s diagrams over two millennia stretching from antiquity to the modern period. My visit to CNRS will allow me to investigate a core question of my project through discussions and workshops with French scholars: what is the nature of visual agency, that is, the ability of diagram makers to draw diagrams according to their discretion? This question is important because only the textual transmission of Euclid’s Elements has been studied and, as a result, visual agency was assumed to be subordinate to textual agency. Recognizing the agency of diagram makers (scribes, translators, readers, and printing presses), I look at variants of diagrams in Greek, Arabic, and Latin manuscripts to explore how mathematical diagrams were transmitted and transformed as they were copied from antiquity to the modern period (from papyri to manuscripts, manuscripts to manuscripts, and manuscripts to print). At the CNRS I will be collaborating with Dr. Chemla who has worked on mathematical diagrams in ancient traditions. Moreover, my archival research at the BNF will allow me to access manuscripts and early printed editions of Euclid’s Elements, which are key resources for my doctoral research.