Isaac Newton/Andrew Motte - Newton's Principia. The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - 1848

First American edition of the famous Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, one of the foundational works in the history of science, in which Newton develops the laws of motion and the theory of universal gravitation.

The title page bears the inscription First American Edition, Carefully Revised and Corrected.

The volume includes the three books of the Principia, the complementary treatise Newton's System of the World, and numerous geometric, mathematical, and astronomical diagrams in the text.

Bibliographic peculiarities

Copy from the issue with a title page lacking a date and editorial address 107 Fulton Street, corresponding for these characteristics to variant EE(7) described by I. Bernard Cohen in The American Editions of Newton's Principia (Harvard Library Bulletin, 1970).
Portrait engraving of Sir Isaac Newton on the frontispiece, bearing the date 1848 and the editorial imprint New York, Daniel Adee.
The title page shows a blank verso.

Completeness and characteristics

Complete copy according to the owner's verification, with portrait, title page, preliminaries, main text up to page 572 and the concluding index up to page 581.
Red cloth binding with gilt titles on the spine, probably a later library binding.

Provenance

Copy from the Central Public Library of St. Helens, England, with the original Reference Department label, stamps and library markings.
The shelfmark 510.1 F is present on the spine and inside the label.

Condition report

Solid binding, with wear to edges, corners and the ends of the spine. Decorated endpapers and reinforcements to the hinges; the front endpaper damaged.
Internals generally in good condition and legible, with foxing, browning and scattered stains, more evident on some pages.
Old paper repairs, already present at the time of purchase: in particular, tears consolidated with tissue at pages 277–278, partially affecting text and geometric figures. Another page shows paper reinforcements at the bottom, with partial text involvement.
Library stamps and cataloging notes.

Repairs and main defects are documented in the photographs.

Bibliographic reference

I. Bernard Cohen, The American Editions of Newton's Principia, Harvard Library Bulletin, 1970, variant EE(7), probable attribution.

Important testimony to the early American editorial diffusion of Newton's Principia, of particular interest to collectors of the history of mathematics, physics, astronomy and ancient scientific books.