THE BEST SOFTWARE WRITING I

COLOPHON

We adopted the cover of this book from the title page of the first complete English edition of Euclid's Elements, published in 1571. Interestingly enough, that book was translated from the Greek by Sir Henry Billingsley, who became the Lord Mayor of London. (We aren't sure whether any politicians since then would have the knowledge of both mathematics and Greek needed to do such a wonderful job.) Also noteworthy is that Billingsley relied on John Dee for help in the translation; this is the same John Dee who became famous in fantasy literature—for example, in H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Dunwich Horror." (Actually, most scientists of his time, including Newton himself, straddled the worlds of science and magic.) Anyway, John Dee ...