Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
"One's thoughts cannot but turn to this shining spirit, who pointed out, as none before or after him did, the path of Western thought and research and practical construction... The whole development of our ideas concerning natural phenomena may be conceived as an organic development of Newton’s thought.” — Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton (1927).
EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE GREATEST WORK IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE.
"The Principia is generally described as the greatest work in the history of science. Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had certainly shown the way; but where they described the phenomena they observed, Newton explained the underlying universal laws. The Principia provided the great synthesis of the cosmos, proving finally its physical unity. Newton showed that the important and dramatic aspects of nature that were subject to the universal law of gravitation could be explained, in mathematical terms, within a single physical theory. With him the separation of natural and supernatural, of sublunar and superlunar worlds disappeared. The same laws of gravitation and motion rule everywhere; for the first time a single mathematical law could explain the motion of objects on earth as well as the phenomena of the heavens. The whole cosmos is composed of inter-connecting parts influencing each other according to these laws. It was this grand conception that produced a general revolution in human thought, equalled perhaps only by that following Darwin's Origin of Species. It was the final, irrevocable break with a medieval conception based on Greek and Roman cosmology and a scholastic system derived from the medieval interpretation of Aristotle... Newton's universe, almost independent of the spiritual order, ushered in the age of rationalism, scientific determinism and the acceptance of a mechanistic view of nature" (Printing and the Mind of Man 161).
On the history of the first edition:
The first edition was financed almost entirely by Newton’s friend, the astronomer Edmund Halley, and it is estimate that only about 300-400 copies were printed.
There are two issues of the first edition, most easily identified by the state of the title page. The “English issue” (for domestic distribution) has a two-line publisher’s imprint (after “Londini”). In the “Continental” issue (as in this copy), printed to be distributed throughout the rest of Europe, the title page is a cancel and has a three-line publisher’s imprint (with the name of the bookseller Samuel Smith added).
London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society [at the expense of Edmond Halley], to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687. Quarto (243 x 189 mm), contemporary vellum, tan calf lettering-piece gilt; quarter brown morocco folding case. 252 leaves and folding plate. Title with the three-line imprint, cancelled; P4 cancel correcting orientation of the diagram on verso; errata inserted at end (+/- Ooo4); engraving of cometary orbit inserted before B1. Numerous woodcut diagrams in text. Complete.
Title-page with outer margins restored and a portion of rule border in pen facsimile; internal tear or paper flaw crossing text on Ll1; marginal paper flaws on three leaves; 13 leaves with small wormtrack in lower margin; moderate patches of dampstaining, most notable towards rear, and extending sometimes into text (text legible); binding with possible re-sewing or reinforcement and some minor soiling.
Provenance: H. Pelham (signature on pastedown); Easton family, presumably Walter Easton or his family, Osborne Road, East Fremantle, Australia (signature on pastedown). Crossed out signature on front free endpaper recto.
Price: $525,000 .