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Newton and his editors. (English) Zbl 0288.01011

After a brief glance at Newton’s other mathematical and scientific publications, notably his “Opticks” (London, 1704), the author devotes the main portion of his article (the text of his 1973 Wilkins Lecture at the Royal Society) to examining the respective contributions of the editors, Edmond Halley, Roger Cotes and Henry Pemberton, of the three editions (1687, 1713 and 1726) of his “Philosophies Naturalis Principia Mathematica” which appeared during Newton’s lifetime. While the style and tone of the piece is kept deliberately light and non-technical, it rests on a deep bedrock of thoroughly up-to-date scholarship, and a number of its insights into the complex relationships maintained by Newton with his first two editors will not yet be found otherwise recorded in print. (The author is the editor of the Royal Society’s “Correspondence of Isaac Newton”, whose Volume 5 – about to be published – will for the first time re-produce the full record of the 84 extant letters exchanged between Newton and Cotes during the period, 1709–1713, when the latter laboured to bring the “Principia’s” second version through press in Cambridge.) Anyone with an interest in the personalities behind the publication and contemporary revision of Newton’s “opus maximum” will read this polished, urbane essay with profit.
{Hall’s text is also to be found (without variation) in [Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond. 29, 29–52 (1974; Zbl 0359.01015)].}

MSC:

01A45 History of mathematics in the 17th century
01A50 History of mathematics in the 18th century

Biographic References:

Newton, Isaac

Citations:

Zbl 0359.01015
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