Milestones of Science Books

NEWTON, Isaac.

Arithmetica universalis; sive de compositione et resolutione arithmetica liber [edited by W.J.S. van s'Gravesande].

Leiden: Joh. and Herm. Verbeek, 1732.

3rd Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #001967

4to (247x193 mm.), [8], 344 pp., including title-page with engraved device, printed in red and black and 13 folding engraved plates. Little occasional spotting and browning to text and plates, a few ink stains and annotations in pencil, little worming to lower gutter of first pages not affecting text. Contemporary calf (board corners, hinges and spine ends restored, boards scratched and rubbed). Provenance: Ticket of S. Kearney, bookseller to front pastedown, old inscription "John Seymoure" to title page. Good copy. ----

Babson 204; Wallis 279; Honeyman 2330. Third latin edition, published of Newton's lectures on algebraic notation, arithmetic, the relationship between geometry and algebra, and the solutions of polynominal equations delivered while Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University (1669-1702). The first edition was edited by Newton's successor in the Chair, William Whiston, from Newton's manuscript notes. Newton objected to Whiston's publication, principally to the running titles "Algebrae" (versos) and "Elementa" (rectos), refused to have his name appear in association with the book, and threatened to buy up the entire edition in order to destroy it. When he published his own edition in 1722 (the second edition), he altered the running titles, omitted Halley's section on finding the roots of equations, and made greater use of italic type. The third edition was edited by s'Gravesande and also contains works by Halley, Colson, de Moivre, MacLaurin and Campbell, all previously published in the Philosophical Transactions and translated into Latin by J.P. Bernard. The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics is one of the oldest and arguably the most famous academic chair of mathematics in the world. Isaac Newton was the second incumbent, holding the post from 1669-1702.

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