Lot Details
Lot 229
NEWTON, ISAAC, Sir A treatise on the System of the World ... translated into English. London: F. Fayran, 1728. First edition...
. London: F. Fayran, 1728. First edition in English (this the variant with the catchword "portional" on p. vii). Contemporary panelled brown calf, mottled edges, housed in a modern clamshell case. 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches (19 x 12 cm); xxiv, 154, [2] pp., collating A^(8) *B^[4] B-K^(8) L^(4) M^(2), with two plates and the final errata leaf. Binding neatly restored retaining original spine with front endpaper replaced, stain in upper margin (well clear of text) touching ten leaves. The title shows four names, in approximate order Ja[son?] Rowse; Thomas Bullocke; John Panter; and William Canter R.N., dated 1906. Bullocke has appended verse to the foot of the errata and terminal blanks, apparently an extract from Beilby Porteus's poem "Death." There is a little finger-soiling, occasional unenlightening marginalia, overall this is a good large copy on thick paper.
Translated (anonymously) by Motte from the Latin of De Mundi Systemate, this work was originally intended to form the third part of the Principia, also translated by Motte into English the following year. The Preface, which appears only in the first edition, contains an interesting account of the state of astronomy at the time Newton wrote the Principia. Babson notes "Newton points to the possibility of Terrestrial Tidal effects, which were discovered by Michelson in 1919, and another passage indicates the existence of the planet Uranus, which was actually first seen by Herschel in 1781." Babson 18; Norman 1593; Wallis 30.
C
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