Price fetched by Newton book defies law of gravity
A GUERNSEYMAN’S rare first edition English translation of Sir Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy sold for more than double its estimate price.
Valued at between £8,000 and £10,000, the 291-year-old book sold for an ‘astonishing’ £24,000 to a private international telephone bidder.
Regarded as the most important work in the history of science, an anonymous Guernseyman posted it to Hansons Auctioneers in Staffordshire.
‘I couldn’t believe it,’ said Jim Spencer, Hansons Auctioneers’ book expert.
‘I was just thrilled to hold something of such significance in my hands – what an honour to catalogue this. It was a good example and deserved to smash the estimate.
‘It’s an astonishing amount but this is an incredibly scarce book, perhaps only a few hundred were printed.’
Originally a two-volume text printed in Latin in 1687, the translation came in 1729.
A first-edition Latin copy recently sold for millions of dollars.
‘This is the first edition in English, translated by Andrew Motte, and is such an important thing,’ said Mr Spencer.
English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, author and natural philosopher Sir Isaac Newton is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution.
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, to give the book its Latin title, laid the foundations of classical mechanics.
The anonymous seller said: ‘This book has been in my family’s possession for at least 60 years having been procured by my grandfather during the 1950s and left to me on his death in 1980.
‘I remember my grandfather well. I was 14 when he died. He was an amazing man, entirely self-made and educated, rising from extreme poverty and willing to do anything if he had to, including, but this may be apocryphal, shooting himself in the foot and digging out the bullet to get out of the Somme.’
n Visit: https://bit.ly/34WGwUv to watch a video of the auction.
