368 
EUCLID 
time; the philosophers ot‘ his day, he says, despised geo 
metry, languages, &c., declaring that they were useless; 
people in general, not finding utility in any science such as 
geometry, at once recoiled, unless they were boys forced to 
it by the rod, from the idea of studying it, so that they 
would hardly learn as much as three or four propositions; 
the fifth proposition of Euclid was called Elefuga or fnga 
miser ovum} 
As regards Euclid at the Universities, it may be noted that 
the study of geometry seems to have been neglected at the 
University of Paris. At the reformation of the University in 
1336 it was only provided that no one should take a Licentiate 
who had not attended lectures on some mathematical books ; 
the same requirement reappears in 1452 and 1600. From the 
preface to a commentary on Euclid which appeared in 1536 
we learn that a candidate for the degree of M.A. had to take 
a solemn oath that he had attended lectures on the first six 
Books; but it is doubtful whether for the examinations more 
than Book I was necessary, seeing that the proposition I. 47 
was known as Mugister matheseos. At the University of 
Prague (founded in 1348) mathematics were more regarded. 
Candidates for the Baccalaureate had to attend lectures on 
the Tractatus de Sphaera viateriali, a treatise on the funda 
mental ideas of spherical astronomy, mathematical geography 
and the ordinary astronomical phenomena, but without -the 
help of mathematical propositions, written by Johannes de 
Sacrobosco (i. e. of Holy wood, in Yorkshire) in 1250, a book 
which was read at all Universities for four centuries and 
many times commented upon ; for the Master’s degree lectures 
on the first six Books of Euclid were compulsory. Euclid 
was lectured upon at the Universities of Vienna (founded 1365), 
Heidelberg (1386), Cologne (1388); at Heidelberg an oath was 
required from the candidate for the Licentiate corresponding 
to M.A. that he had attended lectures on some whole books and 
not merely parts of several books (not necessarily, it appears, 
of Euclid); at Vienna, the first five Books of Euclid were 
required; at Cologne, no mathematics were required for the 
Baccalaureate, but the candidate for M.A. must have attended 
1 Roger Bacon, Opus Tertium, cc. iv, vi.