Voltaire - Elémens de philosophie de Newton - 1828

Œuvres complètes de Voltaire avec des remarques et des notes

Physique - Complete in 2 Volumes, volumes 41 & 42 of the complete works. The works are abundantly illustrated in the text with diagrams and mathematical figures.

I. Elémens de philosophie de Newton
II. Pièces relatives à la physique de Newton

At the time when Voltaire was writing his letters from England, the French intellectual world was Cartesian. Newton’s physics would definitively supplant those of Descartes during the 1750s thanks to the publication of the Eléments de la philosophie de Newton (1738), a text intended for the general public, in which Voltaire illustrates the English scientist’s theories of physics and metaphysics.

The readers Voltaire addresses are the future readers of the Encyclopédie. As a popularizer, he was the first to tell the story of the apple.

In writing the Eléments, Voltaire ushered in a new way of presenting science: it isn’t just a matter of entertaining and amusing the Marquises, but to educate them by making them aware that we are only wise if we choose to be.”

Half leather bindings, good condition overall, 21 x 13 cm, edges g
yellow, quite fresh, good condition inside, 394 pps, 396 pps.

Paris, 1828 published by Baudouin Frères.

Beautiful and rare copies.