LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 Feb Grand Format Book & Manuscript #682  / 

56605

Colin Maclaurin, An Account of Sir Isaac

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
Colin Maclaurin, An Account of Sir Isaac
<B>Colin MacLaurin. </B></I><B><I>An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries</B></I></B></I>, in Four Books...Published from the Author's Manuscript Papers, by Patrick Murdoch...London: Printed for the Author's Children: and Sold by A. Millar and J. Nourse..., 1748. <BR><BR>First edition, large quarto, xx, 392 pages, six folding engraved plates. Recent half calf over marbled boards. Spine lettered in gilt with five raised. Some interior professional archival restoration (including mounting of title page and other preliminary leaves, otherwise in very good condition. With an unobtrusive contemporary library stamp from the Inner Temple Library.<BR><BR>"Some time after Newton died in 1727 John Conduitt asked [Scottish mathematician Colin MacLaurin (1698-1746)] to collaborate in the writing of his biography; the project lost momentum with Conduitt's death in 1737 but MacLaurin continued with his part in it and the work was published posthumously in 1748 as <I>An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries</B></I>. MacLaurin discusses Newton's method of investigation and of 'philosophizing', as well as his discoveries, and begins with a long history of natural philosophy since the ancients, in which he again asserts the importance for religion of sound natural philosophy. Though a number of other general expositions of Newton's thought were published during the eighteenth century, MacLaurin's <I>Account</B></I> has long been recognized as the leading authoritative statement of mainstream Newtonianism. As with his prize-winning <I>Treatise on Percussion</B></I> of 1724, one of the priorities of his <I>Account</B></I> was to combat the rival natural philosophy promulgated by the followers of Leibniz" (ODNB).<BR><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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