Samuel Reyher und sein In Teutscher Sprache vorgestellter Euclides

Abstract.

In 1665 in the city of Kiel there was founded a new university called Christiana Albertina or Alma mater Chiloniensis. It was the only one in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. One of the leading scientists of this academy was the mathematician Samuel Reyher (1635–1714) who didn’t teach mathematics only but also physics, and astronomy, and engineering, and jurisprudence. He was the author of a comprehensive Historia iurium universalis (1711) and of an extraordinary work Mathesis Mosaica (1679). But he was best known for his In Teutscher Sprache vorgestellter Euclides (1697, 1699), one of the earliest translations of Euclid’s Elements into German. In this book Samuel Reyher tried to prove the euclidean 5th postulate (the postulate [axiom] of parallels) - believing that he was successful.