Introduction to Newton's 'Principia'

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Cloth. Near Fine/Very Good +. A sharp, very presentable copy of the 1971 1st edition of this sweeping study of Isaac Newton's 'Principia'. Clean and Near Fine in a crisp, price-clipped, VG+ dustjacket, with very light chipping at the spine crown and fading along the spine. Thick quarto, 16 full-page, photographic plates complementing Bernard Cohen's text. From the dustjacket front flap: "In 1956 the noted Newton scholars Alexandre Koyre and I. Bernard Cohen conceivede the idea of an edition with various readings of Newton's great treatise, 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'. Their aim was to exhibit the stages of growth of this fundamental treatise from the first manuscript (1685-1687) to the final edition (1726). Professor Cohen's 'Introduction' serves a dual purpose. It is a guide to the edition, but it is also a biography of the book itself, providing an analytic history of how Newton came to write the book, the printing of the several editions, the critical receptions given to each edition, and --above all-- how Newton continually corrected, revised, and enlarged the text over four decades.