Footnotes

FIRST EDITION OF THE BOOK "GENERALLY DESCRIBED AS THE GREATEST WORK IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE" (PMM), with the 2-line imprint on title. The Principia elucidates the universal physical laws of gravitation and motion. Newton establishes the mathematical basis for the motion of bodies in unresisting space (the law of inertia), the motion of fluids and the effect of friction on bodies moving through fluids, and, most importantly, sets forth the law of universal gravitation and its unifying role in the cosmos. "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 the Species" (PMM).

The printing history of the Principia is well documented. "The first edition was very small (perhaps 250 copies) and... sold out quickly" (Babson). There are two states of the title-page: one with 2-line imprint, and one a cancel with 3-line imprint naming the bookseller Samuel Smith—each reflecting domestic versus foreign distribution (undertaken by Smith) of the work. Variants in the rest of the text do not appear to indicate priority and do not correspond to one particular state of the title; the present copy agrees with those enumerated in the Norman Library catalogue (p.576). Folios P3 and P4 are in their corrected state, those leaves having been reset and the entire sheet reprinted.

Provenance: Professor G.D.E. Weyer of Kiel, bequeathed to his son, Lieutenant Bruno Weyer, inscription dated 1896; Robert Honeyman, autograph notes dated 1929 on front pastedown ("One of the greatest books ever written in the field of scientific literature"), red leather booklabel; his sale Sotheby's, 10 November 1980, lot 2301; Christie's, Printing and the Mind of Man, 20 October 1999, lot 35.