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Emerson, William; Bedford, Arthur.
A Short Comment on Sir I. Newton’s Principia. Containing Notes upon some Difficult Places of that Excellent Book. [Bound with] Horae Mathematicae Vacuae: Or, a Treatise on the Golden and Ecliptick Numbers [...]
Publisher: J. Nourse; J. Clarke; London;
Date of Publication: 1770
Stock Code: 11241
FIRST EDITIONS of both works. Octavo, pp., i-iv, 5- 157, [3] errata and publishers’ advertisement leaf. Complete with 5 illustrated folding plates. [Horae Mathematicae Vacuae] pp., [i-vi], [1]- 80, illustrated with astronomical tables. Bound in late eighteenth century tree-calf over boards, 5 raised spine bands. Joints cracked but holding well, light wear to corners, pages lightly toned commensurate with age. Neat ownership inscription in ink to title-page “Irving Carlyle M. S. University of Edin[burg]’h 1813”. Wanting front free endpaper to ‘A Short Comment’ and half-title leaf to ‘Horae Mathematicae Vacuae’. All folding plates present, tight, and free from tears. A good copy. A complementary pair of scarce eighteenth century treatises by two unabashedly eccentric and colourful figures from eighteenth century science. The first work, A Short Comment on Sir I. Newton’s Principia, is written by William Emerson, (1701-1782), a talented Darlington mathematician and latterly a central character in Thomas Pynchon’s 1997 postmodernist novel Mason and Dixie. Taking an egalitarian approach to the teaching of Newton’s Principia, it attempts to elucidate complex and difficult mathematical ideas for a common audience rather than the narrow niche of academics. The Second work is the first and only edition of Bedford’s rare and outlandish astronomical treatise written in response to Newton’s studies in chronology. With printer’s ledgers recording only 500 copies being printed. [ESTC]. There is an interesting inter-textual relationship between the two as Emerson dedicates a whole chapter to a comically scathing critique of Bedford’s work. The texts side by side offer an insight into the dissemination of and response to Newtonian ideas in the eighteenth century.



£850.00