Foundations of geometry different sets of axioms for Euclidean geometry, any of these can replace the Euclidean parallel postulate. The following partial list indicates some of these theorems that are of historical interest. Absolute geometry is a geometry based on an axiom system consisting of all the axioms giving Euclidean geometry except for the parallel postulate or any of its alternatives. The term was introduced by János Bolyai in 1832. It is sometimes referred to as neutral geometry, as it is neutral with respect to the parallel postulate. In Euclid's "Elements", the first 28 propositions and Proposition I.31 avoid using the parallel postulate,
Ptolemy Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , "Klaúdios Ptolemaîos" ; ; ) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, and held Roman citizenship. The 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes gave his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou () in the Thebaid (). This attestation is quite late, however, and, according to Gerald Toomer, the translator of his "Almagest" into English, there is no reason to suppose he ever lived anywhere other than Alexandria. He died there around AD 168. Ptolemy wrote several scientific