PR1NCIPIA 7 



After examining the book, it seems unlikely that the First and Second Books were 

 printed by different printers. There is nothing to indicate this. The paging and signatures 

 run on correctly, the First Book ending on p. 235 and the Second Book commencing on 

 p. 236 ; and these pages are signature Gg 2 of the sheet. It seems most likely that both 

 Books were printed by the same printer. With the Third Book it is different; this was 

 undoubtedly printed by another printer. The general heading is in a different type, and not 

 printed uniformly with the headings of the other Books. Then there is the omitted paging 

 between the Second and Third Books, though the last page of the Second Book was altered 

 from 384 to 400 to show the omission was known, and the *% used as signature to the last 

 sheet of the Second Book, to avoid the overlapping of signatures. 



The price of the work was fixed by Halley (Letter to Newton, 5th July, 1687) 'to be 

 9 shillings bound in calves leather and lettered.' To booksellers his terms were, 'in quires 

 at 6 shillings to take my money as they are sold, or at 5 sc h- a piece certain for ready, or else 

 at same time ; for I am satisfied that there is no dealing in books without interesting the 

 Booksellers, and I am contented to let them go halves with me, rather than have your 

 excellent work smothered by their combinations.' 



The edition was small, and we know that besides giving copies away, he sent Newton 

 twenty copies to give to his friends, and forty for him to place with the Cambridge Book- 

 sellers. Cotes, in his Preface to the second edition of the Prindpia, states that copies of the 

 first edition were scarce, and could only be obtained at an immense price. Sir Wm. Browne, 

 when at college, gave more than two guineas for a copy, and owing to the difficulty of pro- 

 curing one at a reasonable price, the father of Dr. John Moore, of Glasgow, transcribed the 

 whole work with his own hand. Brevrster's Newton, I. 337. 



Philosophise | Naturalis | Principia | Mathematica. | 

 Auctore | Isaaco Newtono, | Equite Aurato. | 

 Editio Secunda Auctior et Emendatior. | 

 Cantabrigiae MDCCXIII. | 4*0. [8 



Collation: Title, Dedication to the Royal Society, Auctoris Praefatio ad 

 Lectorem, Maii 8, 1686. Auctoris Praefatio, Mar. 28, 1713. Editoris 

 Praefatio, Maii 12, 1713. 12 11. + Index Capitum, i 1. + pp. i 484, 

 + Index Rerum Alphabeticus, 4 11. (Corrigenda on verso of last leaf). 

 Sigs. a c*d*B Qqq 4 Rrr 2 . One plate opposite p. 465. 



750 copies were printed by Cornelius Crownfield, the printer to the University of 

 Cambridge. 



Many alterations were made in this edition, the date May 4, 1686, being added to 

 Newton's Preface to the first edition. 



Cotes, in addition to editing the work, wrote a Preface, and also added the ' Index 

 Rerum Alphabeticus.' 



Dr. Richard Bentley was entrusted with the task of issuing this second edition, and on 

 the loth of June, 1708, he sent to Newton the first sheet set up as a specimen, and had 

 bought a hundred reams of paper, ' it being impossible to have got so good in a year or two 

 (for it comes from Geneva), if I had not taken this opportunity with my friend Sir Theodore 

 Jansen, the great paper merchant of Britain. I hope you will like it, and the letter to, 

 which upon trials we found here to be more suitable to the volume than a greater, and more 



