In the following introductory chapters to the translated text of Elements, Heath offers an overview of Euclid's life; provides a brief survey of his writings; and reviews early commentary on Elements.

In the following essay, Knorr explores, through Elements, the role of authorial meaning in critical analysis and argues that mathematical historians often make the mistake of reading ancient texts in "the context of modern notions. "

In the following essay, Seidenberg challenges the assumption that Euclid, in Elements, developed geometry on an axiomatic basis. Seidenberg argues that, by insisting on this assumption, the work is viewed "from a false perspective" and its accomplishments are thus displayed "in a bad light."

In the following essay, delivered as a paper in 1972 and published in 1974, Mueller examines the nature of Euclidean reasoning (as evidenced in Elements), and its relationship to Aristotle's syllogistic logic (a type of logical argument). Mueller concludes that Euclid demonstrates no awareness of syllogistic logic or of the basic concept of logic—that is, that an argument's validity depends on its form.

In the following excerpt, Eves and Newsom review the formal nature and significance of Elements, arguing that the work offers the earliest extensive development of the axiomatic method, and that the impact of this form of analysis on the development of mathematics has been tremendous.

In the following essay, Berggren and Thomas discuss the objectives and content of Phaenomena, suggesting that Euclid's application of spherics to questions of astronomy implies that some study of spherics and astronomy had been done before. While there is no evidence of this, the critics state that perhaps, as in the case of Elements, the appearance and success of Phaenomena resulted in the disappearance of earlier texts on the subject.

In the following excerpt—with translation by Drabkin and notes by Cohen and Drabkin, Proclus offers a brief overview of geometry, from that of the ancient Egyptians up to that of Euclid's Elements.