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Varenius, Bernhardus, and Newton, Isaac.
Geographia Generalis, In qua Affectiones Generales Telluris, explicantur Summâ curâ quam plurimis in locis Emendata, & XXXIII. Schematibus Novis, Aeri incisis una cum Tabb. aliquot quae desiderabantur Aucta & Illustrata Ab Isaaco Newton, Math. Prof Lucasiano apud Cantabrigienses. Editio Quarta Auctior & Emendatior Cum Indice Capitum Et Propositionum Cum Privilegio Eletoris Saxoniae. [The first German edition of Newton’s earliest published work].
Publisher: Heinr. Chirstoph. Crokeri [i.e. Heinrich Christoph Cröcker (d. 1727)], Ienae [i.e. Jena];
Date of Publication: 1693
Stock Code: 14641
The stated fourth edition, and the first recorded edition published in Germany. Octavo, pp., [30], 864, sig. *⁸ 2*⁷ 3*¹ A-Z⁸ 2A-2Z⁸ 3A-3H⁸, with engraved frontispiece plus four folding engraved diagrammatic plates, numerous tables within text. Title-page printed in black and red, printer’s device to centre. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine on three bands, triple fillet borders in blind to boards; all edges speckled red. Ownership inscription of ‘Gottlieb Schuyl’ to front paste-down, partially obliterated, numerous other numerical marks of ownership in ink to the same; inscription to half-title dated 1778 ‘Pro Coirtu Hradistiensi // Fruim Minor Reformator. // Provicie Hungarie [???] poe // uatoris’ i.e. ‘For the council of Hradcany, minor reformer of the province of Hungary, poet of the poets’. Scuffs and gouge to boards, brown paint and historic paper shelf label to spine. Lacks preliminary and final blanks, text-block and plates collated and complete; loss to third plate affecting one quarter of area (see photo); light foxing and some intermittent heavier toning commensurate with the famously poor quality of German paper of the seventeenth century throughout. A fair copy. Newton published this edited and revised edition of the German Bernhardus Varenius’ (1622-1650) textbook on the mathematics of geography and navigation for his students at Cambridge in 1672, making this Newton’s first publication, mere months before the publication of the Opticks. While the English editions were much reprinted in Cambridge, and then London, this first German edition is scarce outside of continental Europe. Published while Newton was Luasian Professor of Mathematics of Cambridge (1669-1702), Newton’s version became the standard text on the subject for over a century. This edition reproduces Newton’s Latin text with copies of the plates seen in the earlier Elsevier edition of 1650. While Newton’s works were read and received within Germany from their first publication, this is the first of his works published in Germany. £750.00