Talk:Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
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An event in this article is a July 5 selected anniversary (may be in HTML comment)
Location of Copies
I think I added most of the original information in this section, but I have come across a possible confusion concerning Newton's own copy of Principia.
Having added the photograph of the Principia on the Wren Library, Cambridge, I came across a news item saying that Newton's Principia was currently in a touring exhibition at the New York City Library between October 8, 2004 through February 5, 2005 [1] (http://www.nypl.org/research/calendar/exhib/hssl/hsslexhibdesc.cfm?id=331). Indeed, the good online version of the exhibition includes a photo of a better page [2] (http://www.nypl.org/research/newton/ref/cambridgeprincipia.html) with copious notes for the second edition (it looks like the page shown is on gravity and orbits).
Initially I worried about how the book could be in two places at once, but this can easily be satisfied since the book is actually three volumes. However, the book in NYC is identified as coming from the Portsmouth Collection in Cambridge University Library. And this reminded me that indeed most of Newton's best scientific papers were found in the Portsmouth library and are now securely kept at the University Library [3] (http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Newton.html). The edges of the bindings of the books in the two photos look quite different and they both seem to have very different catalogue numbers, which would imply that the one in the Wren Library isn't on loan from the Portsmouth collection.
Does anyone know if there is more than one set of Newton's 'own' copy of Principia around? -- Solipsist 07:49, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)