The Correspondence of Isaac Newton: Published for the Royal Society. VOLUMES 1 through 7

by Isaac Newton, J. F. Scott (Editor)

This seven volume set, published for the first time in paperback, is intended to give in as complete a form as possible the correspondence of Isaac Newton. The project to bring Newton's correspondence to the public domain began in 1947 when the Newton Letters Committee was founded at the Royal Society, with the following principles being adopted for the to include all letters written by Newton; all letters addressed to Newton (both to be published in extenso); extracts from contemporary letters referring to Newton; and shorter memorabilia illustrating the life of Newton, particularly minor and hitherto unpublished manuscripts of Newton. To supplement the correspondence, there are notes throughout the series which provide connecting links relating to any given letter, as well as those of a biographical and bibliographical nature. There are also elucidatory notes that contain explanations of language, symbols and obscurities. Mathematical formulæ are also explored, showing a richness and depth of analytical theory in Newton's letters even where more mundane matters are being discussed. Letters originally written in Latin are for the most part reproduced with a full translation, or else by a short paraphrase, in English. The spelling, punctuation, use of capital letters and abbreviations are retained, as far as possible, just as the author wrote them.

13000 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 1967

About the author

Sir Isaac Newton, FRS , was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.

In mechanics, Newton enunciated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. In optics, he invented the reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into a visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.

In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem, developed the so-called "Newton's method" for approximating the zeroes of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.

Newton was also highly religious (though unorthodox), producing more work on Biblical hermeneutics than the natural science he is remembered for today.

In a 2005 poll of the Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton was deemed much more influential than Albert Einstein.