NEWTON Sir Isaac
£14,000
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica ... 2nd edition, with the author's emendations, engraved titlepage, 1 fldg. diagram, contemporary gilt panelled calf, spine decorated gilt in compartments, wear to head and tail of spine and joints cracking, a little spotting to the paper of the fldg. diagr., otherwise a particularly clean and fresh copy, 4to., Cambridge, 1713
Note: Babson 12; Gray 8; PMM 161
Second edition of what has been called "the greatest work in the history of science" (PMM), it contains revisions by Newton himself as well as further revisions suggested by his editor, the Cambridge mathematician Roger Cotes (1682-1716) who worked with Newton over a period of some three and a half years to produce this second edition. Cotes contributed a lengthy preface in which he defends the Newtonian against the Cartesian system and notes,inter alia, that the law of gravity functions in America precisely as it does in Europe. Newton himself lists the main changes to the text at the end of the author's preface. These relate to the laws of orbiting bodies, the resistance of fluids, lunar declinations, and comets.
Provenance: With the bookplate, dated 1713, of Henry Grey, Duke of Kent (1664?-1740), one of the lords justices after the death of Queen Anne, and the bookplate of a descendant, Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey (1781-1859), the first president of the Institution of British Architects from its foundation in 1834 until his death. A note at the front records the present copy as "Donum editoris".