The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.

NEWTON, Isaac.

Item Number: 122898

London: Printed for H.D. Symonds, 1803.

First complete edition in English of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia, the greatest work of physics, in the exceedingly rare original boards. Octavo, 3 volumes, bound in original boards, uncut, 54 folding copper-engraved plates of diagrams and figures, all but one folding; 2 folding tables. with 22 folding. In near fine condition with light toning to the text.  This edition incorporates Andrew Motte’s first translation of the first two books into English, which first appeared in 1729, together with the third book, which was published separately in 1728; it also includes a Life of Newton, and other material. An exceptional example, rare and desirable in the original boards. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

"Newton’s 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 greatest 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, with a single physical theory. With him the separation of the 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, equaled perhaps only by that following Darwin’s Origin of Species [Newton] is generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time and the founder of mathematical physics" (PMM 161). "It is perhaps the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make" (Einstein).