First Edition in English and the Second English Edition of Halley's Synopsis on Comets. With One of the Earliest English Translations of a Work by Newton
Elements of Astronomy, Physical and Geometrical. Done into English, with additions and corrections. To which is annex'd, Dr. Halley's synopsis of the astronomy of comets. In two volumes.
London: printed for J. Nicholson... and sold by J. Morphew, 1715.
Full Description:
GREGORY, David. [NEWTON, Isaac, contributor]. The Elements of Astronomy, Physical and Geometrical. Done into English, with additions and corrections. To which is annex'd, Dr. Halley's synopsis of the astronomy of comets. In two volumes. London: printed for J. Nicholson... and sold by J. Morphew, 1715.
First edition in English, originally published in Latin in 1702. This also contains the second edition in English of Halley's Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets (pp.881-905). ESTC sites another variant with the imprint "for John Morphew''. Two octavo volumes (7 1/4 x 4 inches; 185 x 115 mm). [2], xii, [2], 512; [1,blank], [1, ads], [2], 465-905, [5, index], 2, ads] pp. Volumes match pagination of British Library copy. With 79 engraved plates. Title-pages in a double-rule border. Woodcut head pieces.
Full contemporary paneled calf, rebacked. Newer leather spine labels, lettered in gilt. Boards and corners a bit rubbed and bumped. Inner hinges reinforced. Plate 3 of book 3 bound after plate 4. Plate 18 of book 4 with top margin torn, no loss. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown of each volume. Some minimal marginalia. Overall very good.
Gregory's textbook of astronomy is notable because in addition to incorporating Halley's theories about comets, this is the first work to use Newton's theory of gravity in his astronomical calculations. Newton's "Theory of the Moon's Motion" was first published in Gregory's 1702 Latin edition of this present book. Gregory then further published it separately in English the same year (1702). Our present copy which contains this theory pg 563 in Volume II) is the next time it appears in English and comes 14 years before it is featured in the English version of Newton's "Mathematical Principles" of 1729.
"In 1702 Gregory published his major work, Astronomiae physicae et geometricae elementa, the first textbook on astronomy to integrate Newton's gravitational theory with standard findings. It was dedicated to Prince George of Denmark. Newton contributed to the book the first publication of his lunar theory and a preface that asserted the antiquity of the concept of universal gravitation, known, he said, to the prisca sapientia. Gregory's work was an influential textbook, and was translated into English in 1715" (Oxford DNB).
ESTC N1387. Houzeau & Lancaster 9240. Norman Library 979. Wallis 88.
HBS 69660.
$3,500.
Price: $3,500.00
Item #69660