Isaac Newton

The highly regarded first Glasgow edition of the “Jesuits” text of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

• Sold as a set of 4 volumes.
• Isaac Newton (English).
• Edited by John Wright.
• Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Perpetuis commentariis illustrata, communi studio pp. Thomae le Seur et Francisci Jacquier... Editio nova.
• Glasgow: for the academic press by Andrew and John M. Duncan, 1822.
• Octavo.
• Includes diagrams within the text.
• Bound in contemporary tan calf, spine elaborately gilt in compartments with the arms of Gonville & Caius College, and the contemporary ownership inscription of John Spedding of Newcastle-on-Tyne (1806-1884), who earned his BA there in 1828, black morocco labels, blind roll and gilt arms to boards, marbled endpapers and edges.

“Another useful work, containing extended notes that expand the proofs and help make them intelligible, is the so-called ‘Jesuits edition’, actually produced by two Minim fathers, Thomas le Seur and François Jacquier (1739-1742, 1760, 1780-1785, 1822, 1833), of which the best edition is the one published in Glasgow in 1822 and in 1833, corrected by J.M.F. Wright, whose two-volume Commentary on Newton’s ‘Principia’ is also a useful work” (Newton, The Principia, edited by Cohen & Whitman, 1999, p. 294).

John Spedding (signature and bookplate), L.A. Gowie (signature), & Leonard A. Cowcill (bookplate).