Considered to be one of the oddest yet most beautiful books of the 19th century, the Six Books of Euclid portrays the color diagrams of Euclidian geometry as art. It is a 1847 printing of author Oliver Byrne's Euclid's Elements, in which yellow, red, blue, and black diagrams replace letters and symbols for the greater ease of learners. 

An absolutely gorgeous reproduction of Byrne's unique thinking, this book is as formidable and as unique as its intellectual content. 

The author:

Werner Oechslin (born 1944) studied art history, archaeology, philosophy, and mathematics. After doctoral studies in Zurich in 1970 he taught at MIT and Harvard University. Since 1985, he has been a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he led the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture from 1986 to 2006. His research focuses on architectural theory and the cultural history of architecture. His most recent publication is Palladianismus: Andrea Palladio Werk und Wirkung (2008). He is the founder of Bibliothek Werner Oechslin in Einsiedeln.