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Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement
NEWTON, Isaac (1642-1727)
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Edited by Edmond Halley (1656-1743). London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society [at the expense of Edmond Halley], to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687.
Details
NEWTON, Isaac (1642-1727)
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Edited by Edmond Halley (1656-1743). London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society [at the expense of Edmond Halley], to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687.
‘Perhaps the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make’ (Einstein).
The first edition of Newton’s Principia: a fine and fresh example in a contemporary binding, preserved within the same historic house library for centuries. The Principia elucidates the principle of universal gravitation and lays the foundations of classical mechanics, expressed by Newton in his three laws of motion. Building upon the work of Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus, Newton applies mathematical principles to explain the phenomenologically revealed world: Book One treats the movement of bodies without resistance; Book Two, the movement of bodies in a resisting medium; and Book Three is concerned particularly with the consequences of gravitational attraction in astronomy.
‘For the first time a single mathematical law could explain the motion of objects on earth as well as the phenomena of the heavens... It was this grand conception that produced a general revolution in human thought, equalled perhaps only by that following Darwin's Origin of Species’ (see lot 168). Principia marked the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the order Newton proposed for the universe remained unchallenged for over two centuries, until the development of Einstein's theory of relativity and Planck's quantum theory. Newtonian physics is still used extensively today, especially in engineering applications; his principles and methods provide an accurate and useful framework for the solution of many scientific problems.
The publication of the Principia owed much to Edmond Halley, who used frequently to boast that he had been ‘the Ulysses who produced this Achilles’. Following a discussion on orbital dynamics between Newton and Halley in 1684, the former was inspired to produce the nine-page tract De motu (Concerning motion), in which he sketched an idea virtually identical to that which appears in the Principia. Halley asked Newton to write more for the Royal Society to publish and for the following two and a half years Newton devoted himself solely to this project: closeted away from society, he pursued a problem which kept expanding in every direction and revealing new facets. Halley received the complete manuscript for the book in April 1687 and he himself saw the work through the press, even bearing the cost of printing, since the Royal Society’s funds had been depleted. The printing history of the Principia is well documented, and two issues are distinguished, based on the two states of the title-page: one with a 2-line imprint, and one with a 3-line imprint naming the bookseller Samuel Smith, respectively denoting domestic or overseas distribution. The present copy belongs to the latter, scarcer issue, which was largely turned over to Samuel Smith for distribution on the continent, and is more commonly found in a continental vellum binding rather than in calf, as here. The edition was divided between two compositors working concurrently, one setting the first two books, the other setting the third. W. Todd has identified a number of stop-press corrections, but they cannot be related to either issue.
Babson 10; Dibner 11; Grolier/Horblit 78 (‘the most influential scientific publication of the seventeenth century’); PMM 161; A.N.L. Munby, ‘The two title-pages of Newton's Principia’ in Notes and Records of the Royal Society 10 (1952); Norman 1586; PMM 161; Wallis 6.
Quarto (239 x 184mm). Folding engraved plate of cometary orbit, numerous woodcut diagrams, title in second state with 3-line imprint, P4 cancel correcting orientation of the diagram on verso, errata at end (paper flaw in X4 touching a few letters, another in margin of 2C3, 80mm closed tear into text on 3A, minor marginal stains at lower edge to final few quires, one or two tiny rust spots, some faint finger-soiling). Contemporary mottled calf, two-line blind-ruled borders with fleurons blind-stamped in corners, gilt roll along edges, spine decoratively gilt (slight splitting at upper joint, headcapss neatly repaired, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: ‘Hen. Hall’ (Henry Benedict Hall of High Meadow, Stanton, Gloucestershire, b.1623-d.1687, or his son of the same name, c.1655-1719, by descent to:) – Viscount Gage (bookplate, possibly that of Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount, 1791-1877) – thence by descent.
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Edited by Edmond Halley (1656-1743). London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society [at the expense of Edmond Halley], to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687.
‘Perhaps the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make’ (Einstein).
The first edition of Newton’s Principia: a fine and fresh example in a contemporary binding, preserved within the same historic house library for centuries. The Principia elucidates the principle of universal gravitation and lays the foundations of classical mechanics, expressed by Newton in his three laws of motion. Building upon the work of Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus, Newton applies mathematical principles to explain the phenomenologically revealed world: Book One treats the movement of bodies without resistance; Book Two, the movement of bodies in a resisting medium; and Book Three is concerned particularly with the consequences of gravitational attraction in astronomy.
‘For the first time a single mathematical law could explain the motion of objects on earth as well as the phenomena of the heavens... It was this grand conception that produced a general revolution in human thought, equalled perhaps only by that following Darwin's Origin of Species’ (see lot 168). Principia marked the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the order Newton proposed for the universe remained unchallenged for over two centuries, until the development of Einstein's theory of relativity and Planck's quantum theory. Newtonian physics is still used extensively today, especially in engineering applications; his principles and methods provide an accurate and useful framework for the solution of many scientific problems.
The publication of the Principia owed much to Edmond Halley, who used frequently to boast that he had been ‘the Ulysses who produced this Achilles’. Following a discussion on orbital dynamics between Newton and Halley in 1684, the former was inspired to produce the nine-page tract De motu (Concerning motion), in which he sketched an idea virtually identical to that which appears in the Principia. Halley asked Newton to write more for the Royal Society to publish and for the following two and a half years Newton devoted himself solely to this project: closeted away from society, he pursued a problem which kept expanding in every direction and revealing new facets. Halley received the complete manuscript for the book in April 1687 and he himself saw the work through the press, even bearing the cost of printing, since the Royal Society’s funds had been depleted. The printing history of the Principia is well documented, and two issues are distinguished, based on the two states of the title-page: one with a 2-line imprint, and one with a 3-line imprint naming the bookseller Samuel Smith, respectively denoting domestic or overseas distribution. The present copy belongs to the latter, scarcer issue, which was largely turned over to Samuel Smith for distribution on the continent, and is more commonly found in a continental vellum binding rather than in calf, as here. The edition was divided between two compositors working concurrently, one setting the first two books, the other setting the third. W. Todd has identified a number of stop-press corrections, but they cannot be related to either issue.
Babson 10; Dibner 11; Grolier/Horblit 78 (‘the most influential scientific publication of the seventeenth century’); PMM 161; A.N.L. Munby, ‘The two title-pages of Newton's Principia’ in Notes and Records of the Royal Society 10 (1952); Norman 1586; PMM 161; Wallis 6.
Quarto (239 x 184mm). Folding engraved plate of cometary orbit, numerous woodcut diagrams, title in second state with 3-line imprint, P4 cancel correcting orientation of the diagram on verso, errata at end (paper flaw in X4 touching a few letters, another in margin of 2C3, 80mm closed tear into text on 3A, minor marginal stains at lower edge to final few quires, one or two tiny rust spots, some faint finger-soiling). Contemporary mottled calf, two-line blind-ruled borders with fleurons blind-stamped in corners, gilt roll along edges, spine decoratively gilt (slight splitting at upper joint, headcapss neatly repaired, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: ‘Hen. Hall’ (Henry Benedict Hall of High Meadow, Stanton, Gloucestershire, b.1623-d.1687, or his son of the same name, c.1655-1719, by descent to:) – Viscount Gage (bookplate, possibly that of Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount, 1791-1877) – thence by descent.
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Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts