The Principia, from Conception to Publication

Abstract

Abstract We lack a complete manuscript record covering the development of the Principia from the time Newton took the initial steps toward it with the short tract De motu corporum in gyrum sent to Halley in November 1684 until Halley received the final parts of the manuscript for the first edition in March 1687. What we have, beside occasional correspondence, are fragmentary manuscripts plus one complete manuscript composed in the spring and summer of 1685, De Motu Corporum, Liber Secundus—the forerunner in “popular” style of Book 3. The many deletions and revisions Newton made to these manuscripts and the evolution of his terminology from one of them to the next allow a reconstruction of the sequence of both them and the steps he went through over this nearly two-and-a-half-year period. This chapter presents such a reconstruction, describing each manuscript that we have from the period in sequence along with pertinent correspondence, with emphasis on the steps displayed in each that Newton took in his progress toward the first edition.