6 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEWTON 



Collation : as previous issue. The guards of the new title-page and the 

 fourth leaf are shown, and thus prove this edition to be the re-issue. 



I have the rubbing of the binding of a copy of this edition, which was bound in red 

 morocco, with sides and back elaborately tooled and inlaid with dark green leather, with a 

 leather label inside the cover 



Ex Dono 



Sam: Smith 



Bibliop. Lond. 



John Dunton (Life and Errors, 1818, I. 207) says of him, 'Mr Samuel Smith, book- 

 seller to the Royal Society deals very much in Books of a Foreign growth, and speaks French 

 and Latin with a great deal of fluency and ease. His Shop is very beautiful, and well fur- 

 nished . . . His Partner, Benjamin IValford, is a very ingenious man, and knows Books 

 extraordinary well.' 



The years 1685 and 1686 will ever be memorable in the life of Newton and the history 

 of science. It was in these two years, and in the early months of 1687, that the Prindpia 

 was composed and given to the world. On the 2 1st of April, 1686, Edmund Halley 

 announced to the Royal Society 'that his worthy country-man, Mr Isaac Newton, has an 

 incomparable Treatise of Motion almost ready for the press,' and at the next meeting, 28th 

 April, 'Dr Vincent presented to the Society a manuscript treatise entitled Philosophies 

 Naturalis Prindpia Mathematica, and dedicated to the Society by Mr Isaac Newton.' This 

 was the first book, and the printing of it was referred to the consideration of the Council, 

 Mr. Halley in the meantime was to make a report of it to the Council. At the next meet- 

 ing, igth May, it was ordered ' that Mr Newton's book should be printed forthwith in quarto, 

 and that Mr Newton's opinion be desired as to printing, volume, cuts, and so forth.' It was 

 again ordered, 2nd June, ' that Mr Newton's book be printed, and that Mr Halley undertake 

 the business of looking after it, and printing it at his own charge, which he engaged to do, ' 

 The first sheet in proof was sent to Newton, June 7th, 1686. Halley undertook the labour 

 of editing, and the expense of printing the Prindpia^ and thus earned the gratitude of 

 Newton and posterity. On the 3Oth of June the President (Samuel Pepys) was desired by 

 the Council to license the work, and after having obtained Newton's leave, in July, to sub- 

 stitute wooden cuts for copper-plates, the printing was commenced. The Second Book, 

 though ready for the press in the autumn, was not sent to the Society until March, 1687 ; 

 the Third Book was presented to the Society on the 6th of April, and the complete work 

 was published in midsummer of 1687, Newton's copies being sent him on the 5th of July. 



' R. T. G.' in the Dictionary of National Biography says, ' The Prindpia was published* 

 but without a date, about Midsummer, 1687.' I have not heard of any undated copies of 

 the Pnncipia. 



From Halley's letters to Newton it would seem that he contemplated using two or 

 three printers to expedite the printing. On Feb. 24th, 1687, he said, 'I will employ 

 another press to go on with the second part, which I understand you have ready.' On 

 March 7th, ' I received . . . your Second Book, which this week I will putt to the press 

 having agreed with one that promises me to get it done in 7 weeks . . . the first book will 

 be finished about the same time.' Then, April 5th, he says, 'the first part will be finished 

 within this three weekes, and considering the shortness of the third over the second, the 

 same press that did the first will get it done as soon as the second can be finished by another 

 press ; but I find some difficulty to match the latter justly.' 



