History of geometry Euclid (c. 325-265 BC), of Alexandria, probably a student at the Academy founded by Plato, wrote a treatise in 13 books (chapters), titled "The Elements of Geometry", in which he presented geometry in an ideal axiomatic form, which came to be known as Euclidean geometry. The treatise is not a compendium of all that the Hellenistic mathematicians knew at the time about geometry; Euclid himself wrote eight more advanced books on geometry. We know from other references that Euclid’s was not the first elementary geometry textbook, but it was so much superior that the others fell into disuse and were
Pappus of Alexandria Pappus of Alexandria Pappus of Alexandria (; ; ) was one of the last great Greek mathematicians of Antiquity, known for his "Synagoge" (Συναγωγή) or "Collection" (), and for Pappus's hexagon theorem in projective geometry. Nothing is known of his life, other than, (from his own writings) that he had a son named Hermodorus, and was a teacher in Alexandria. "Collection", his best-known work, is a compendium of mathematics in eight volumes, the bulk of which survives. It covers a wide range of topics, including geometry, recreational mathematics, doubling the cube, polygons and polyhedra. Pappus was active in the 4th