Book request : Geometry before Euclid

Question

Are there any books about the history of geometry, before Euclid? I can't seem to find any.

Answer 1

Euclid was born in 323 BC and his Elements was one of the earliest compilation of geometrical results until that point of time and including his own results. It will be very difficult to find a complete single book on geometry before Elements. However you can find several instance of geometry book on specific topics evolving before 323 BC. Here are some geometry books from the Vedic Age:

1. Budhyana Sutra 800 BC: Includes chapters on circling the square, other general area preserving transformations, calculating square root of 2 to 4 decimal places and Pythogoras theorem
2. Shulba Sutra750 BC: Improvements on the above, general method of constructing the square root of a number to 5 decimal places