The Expanding World of Newtonian Research

In his “Newton in the light of recent scholarship”, Isis, li (1960) 489–514.

A printed catalogue, the work of a Syndicate appointed in November 1872, was printed in 1888. The project owed its origin and inspiration to the mathematicians, J. C. Adams and G. G. Stokes, who in the summer of 1871 visited Hurst-bourne Park to inspect the Newton papers in Lord Portsmouth's possession there, obtained permission for the catalogue to be made, and subsequently arranged for the scientific portion of the papers to be given to the University. This gap of a decade and a half (during which H. R. Luard and G. D. Liveing were coopted to deal with the non-mathematical papers) indicates the lack of contemporary interest shown in the project. The catalogue itself reflects an unbalanced enthusiasm for such topics as lunar theory, and is of surprisingly little practical use.

The Correspondence of Isaac Newton. Published for the Royal Society by Cambridge University Press. Vols, i–iii edited by Turnbull H. W. ; i (1959) for the years 1661–75; ii (1960): 1676–87; iii (1961): 1688–94. J. F. Scott has been appointed to edit vols. iv onwards. Hereafter cited as Correspondence.

See especially his Essay on Newton's Principia (London, 1893).

“Sir Isaac Newton's note-book, 1661–65”, Cambridge historical journal, ix (1948) 239–250; “Further optical experiments of Isaac Newton”, Annals of science, xi (1955) 27–43; (with Marie Boas Hall) “Newton's chemical experiments”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xi (1958) 113–152; “Newton's mechanical principles”, Journal of the history of ideas, xx (1959) 167–178; and “Newton's theory of matter”, Isis, li (1960) 131–144. Together also they have in press in Cambridge a volume of Unpublished scientific papers of Sir Isaac Newton (from originals in the Portsmouth Collection), suitably broken down into subject divisions for easier consultation.

Details may be had from their research report, “Critical edition of Newton's Principia”. Year book of the American Philosophical Society, 1960, 516–519, particularly 518.

“Newton's discovery of the law of centrifugal force”, Isis, li (1960) 546–553; “Interpretation of an early Newton manuscript” (the gravitational MS now published as No. 347 in Correspondence, iii), Isis, lii (1961) 410–416; “Halley's first visit to Newton”, “On the date of the first version of Newton's tract de motu”, and “Suggested identification of the missing original of a celebrated communication of Newton's to the Royal Society”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xiii (1960) 63–65, 67–70 and 71–78.

Even when subtly and painstakingly carried through, as most recently by Mary B. Hesse in her Forces and Fields (London, 1961).

In the preface to his edition of Isaac Newton's papers and letters on natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1958) which reprints in facsimile (with commentary by several authorities) all Newton's published work on natural science apart from the trio of Principia, Opticks and Lectiones opticae (and with the possible omission of Newton's—anonymous—review of his own Commercium epistolicum in Philosophical transactions for Jan./Feb. 1714–15).

Good recent discussions of these are to be found also in Cohen's I. B. Franklin and Newton (Philadelphia, 1956), ch. 6, 151–198; and in Koyré A. , “Les Queries de l'Optique”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xiii (1960) 15–29.

In his “Pour une édition critique des oeuvres de Newton”, Révue d'histoire des sciences, viii (1955) 19–37; and “Les regulae philosophandi”. Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xiii (1960) 3–14.

“Newton and recent scholarship”, 506–507.

“Newton on the calculation of central forces”, Annals of science, xiii (1957) 62–71.

In his “Interpretation of an early Newton manuscript” (see n. 7). Through a printing error Herivel's paper does not reproduce the manuscript, but separately he had published a photograph of its upper half in his “Newton at Cambridge: Development of a genius”. Times educational supplement, 9 June, 1961, 1194. The missing photograph has now been printed in Isis, lii (1961) pt. 4.

Koyré's A. “An unpublished letter of Robert Hooke to Isaac Newton”, (Isis, xliii, 1952, 312–337) filled the last gap in their sequence and gives an authoritative discussion of the whole set.

“Hooke versus Newton: An analysis of the documents in the case on free and planetary motion”, Centaurus, vii (1960) 6–52. The prehistory of the dispute is ably sketched in Koyré A. , “A documentary history of the problem of fall from Kepler to Newton”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, xlv (1955) 325–395.

Galileo and gravitation were to be discussed at a still later date in the rather different context of Newton's 1692 letters to Bentley, which speculate on the place of religion in the framework of Newtonian cosmology. Two interesting papers on the subject were presented in 1959 at the Xth International Congress of the History of Science (and are printed in the Actes, Barcelona-Madrid, 1960, 165–187 and 187–197 respectively): A. Koyré in his “Newton, Galiléo et Platon” analyses philosophical aspects, while I. B. Cohen in “The dynamics of the Galileo-Plato problem” gives modern mathematical backing to Newton's criticism of Galileo's point-creation theory of the planetary system with its hypothesis of ‘natural’ circular motion. A more concise mathematical treatment will be found in H. W. Turnbull's commentary on the letters where they are printed in volume iii of the Correspondence.

“Extrait de la Réponse de M. Bernoulli à M. Herman, datée de Basle le 7. Octobre 1710,” Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences, Année MDCCX (Paris, 1713), Mémoires, 521–533.

“Correcting the Principia”, Osiris, xiii (1958) 291–326. This partially expands an earlier account in his Ballistics in the seventeenth century (Cambridge, 1952), especially 134–143.

Lagrange J. L. , Théorie des Fonctions Analytiques (Paris, An V = 1797), §§ 202–205, pp. 244–251; revised in the second edition (Paris, 1813), 3* partie, ch. 4 = Oeuvres, ed. Serret J.-A. , ix (1881) 360–376.

Newton Isaac Sir , Opticks (New York, 1952), based on the fourth English edition, London, 1730, and with a preface by Cohen I. B. .

(Isaac Newton): Lekcii po optike (Moscow-Leningrad, 1946) translated from the (posthumous) Lectiones opticae (London, 1729) collated with the incomplete English translation (London, 1728) and edited by Vavilov S. I.

In his “Sir Isaac Newton's notebook, 1661–1665” and “Further optical experiments of Isaac Newton” (see n. 5).

Thoughtfully appraised by Cohen I. B. in “Versions of Isaac Newton's first published paper”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xi (1958) 357–375.

“Newton's first book”. Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xiii (1960) 39–61.

See especially his Studien zur Vorgeschichte des Prioritätstreites zwischen Leibniz und Newton um die Entdeckung der höheren Analysis. 1. Materialen zur ersten mathematischen Schaffensperiode Newtons (1665–1675) (Berlin, 1943); and Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Leibnizschen Mathematik während des Aufenthaltes in Paris (1672–1676) (Munich, 1949) which are both mines of information on Newton and his contemporary mathematical background. Hofmann has also issued these in more popular form as, respectively, “Der junge Newton als Mathematiker” Mathematisch-Physikalische Semesterberichte, ii (1951) 45–70, and “Leibniz' mathematischen Studien in Paris” in Leibniz zur seinem 300. Geburstag, 1646–1946, ed. Hochstetter H. (Berlin, 1948).

(Isaac Newton): Vseobschaya arifmetica (Moscow-Leningrad, 1948) translated from the 1732 Leyden edition of the Arithmetica, collated with Raphson's English translation (London, 1728) and commented on by A. P. Yushkevich.

“Newton, Aufzählung der Linien dritter Ordnung”, “Über die Analysis mit Hilfe unendlicher Reihen” and “Newtons Differenzmethode”, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Hochschule für Verkehrswesen Dresden, Dresden, i, 1 (1953) 5–32; ii, 2 (1954) 1–16; and ii, 3 (1954) 1–13 (Russian with German summaries).

“Newton's classification of cubic curves”, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, xxii (1891) 104–143.

“Zur Frage des Algorithmus der Newtonschen Fluxionsrechnung”, Bibliotheca mathematica, xii (1911–12) 56–60.

Newton's interpolation formulas (London, 1927).

Fleckenstein J. O. , Der Prioritätsstreit zwischen Leibniz und Newton (Basel and Stuttgart, 1956) which borrows widely from Hofmann's Studien; and La disputa Leibniz-Newton sull'analisi, ed. Colli Giorgio (Turin, 1958) which is largely an Italian translation of selections from J. B. Biot's and F. Lefort's variorum text of the Commercium epistolicum (Paris, 1856).

Memoirs of the life, writings and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (Edinburgh, 1855), especially vol. ii.

Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes (Cambridge, 1860) 169–189.

It is, in fact, an extract (beginning in mid-sentence) from a draft of Newton's letter to DesMaizeaux about August 1718, summarising and justifying historical remarks made in the preface to his De quadratura curvarum.

Above all Paul Tannery, who, in his editions of Descartes and Fermat (in collaboration with Charles Henry and Charles Adam), felt obliged to devote a great deal of space to such considerations in his various Avertissements.

Those, for example, at Correspondence, i, 231, and ii, 164.

Archive for history of exact sciences, i, 4 (1961), 389–405.

The Listener, lxvi (1961) 597–599.