Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton
First Edition. London, 1687
Trinity’s copy of Newton’s own first edition of his Philosophiae Naturalis Prinicipia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) of 1687, contains Newton’s handwritten corrections for the second edition.
In the Principia, Newton states for the first time the three laws of motion, and the law of universal gravitation. The book is undoubtedly his masterpiece, and a fundamental work for the whole of modern science.
The title page carries the Imprimatur, dated 5th July 1686, of Samuel Pepys as President of the Royal Society. As Newton’s corrections point out, by the time the second edition was published in 1713, Newton himself had become President of the Royal society and thus the patriarch of English science.
