Lot 35

[Newton, Isaac] - The Royal Society

The Philosophical Transactions

£2,394

Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs

Auction: 28 September 2022 from 10:00 BST

Description

and collections, to the end of the year MDCC, abridged... (vols 1-3) by John Lowthorp. The fifth edition; (vols 4-5) by Henry Jones. The third edition; (vols 6-7) by John Eames and John Martyn; (vols 8-11) by John Martyn. London: W. Innys and others, 1749; vols 6-7: J. Brotherton and others, 1736; vols 8-9: W. Innys and others, 1747; vols 10-11: Lockyer Davis and Charles Reymers, 1756, 11 volumes, 4to, 309 (of 317) folding engraved plates, 2 (unnumbered) folding tables, contemporary calf, morocco lettering pieces, occasional light spotting, head of a few spines slightly rubbed

Footnote

Note:

The Abridgements cover the Transactions from their beginning in 1665 to 1750, but in fact the most important papers are substantially complete. Chapter III of volume 1 is entitled 'Opticks' and includes all of Newton's founding papers on the subject as well as the debate generated thereby, commencing with the famous 'A New Theory About Light & Colours' of 1672. In his biography of Newton, Michael White notes that Newton's Opticks, published in 1704, was based largely on the manuscripts composed some thirty years earlier and published in the Philosophical Transactions. Further papers on optics appear in subsequent volumes.

'If all the books in the world except the Philosophical Transactions were destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be largely, although incompletely, recorded' (Huxley, quoted in Norman). It would be impossible to overestimate the historical importance of the Philosophical Transactions, which was first published and financed by Henry Oldenburg from March 1664-65 for the new Royal Society (founded in 1662), and, following his death, published by the Society itself. Nearly every contemporary British scientist and numerous foreign scientists contributed extensively to the Transactions in its first hundred years. Contributors include Thorbern Bergman, Edward Berkeley, Boerhaave, Boscovitch, Borelli, Boyle, Celsius, Euler, Fahrenheit, Ferguson, Flamstead, Franklin, Hales, Halley, Harvey, Hevelius, Hooke, Huygens, Leeuwenhoek, Leibnitz, Locke, Malpighi, Morgagni, Newton, Petty, Ray, Redi, Steno, Swammerdam, Wren, and numerous others. Sold as a periodical not subject to return