Newton’s Principia may have been more popular than previously thought
Isaac Newton’s 17th century book, the Principia, gave the famed English scientist a reputation: “[T]here goes the man that writt a book that neither he nor any body else understands,” a Cambridge student is said to have remarked as Newton passed by one day. Likewise, historians have assumed that only a select few scientists and […]
200 more copies of Newton’s ‘Principia’ masterpiece found in Europe by scholar sleuths
A pioneering book of science theory published by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687 was long considered to be exceptionally rare; by the 20th century, only 189 first edition copies were known worldwide. But after years of sleuthing, a pair of historians tracked down nearly 200 additional copies of the book — and they suspect that […]
Findings suggest that Isaac Newton’s 17th-century masterpiece was more widely read — ScienceDaily
In a story of lost and stolen books and scrupulous detective work across continents, a Caltech historian and his former student have unearthed previously uncounted copies of Isaac Newton’s groundbreaking science book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known more colloquially as the Principia. The new census more than doubles the number of known copies of the […]
