On Friday, October 31, from 9 am-3 pm, Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center will host a show and tell in the Physics Library in Small Hall. Newton's Principia will be on display as well as some other rare scientific texts and documents. Don't miss this chance to see some of the treasures held in Special Collections!
The William & Mary Principia, an 1869 gift of the Rev. Thomas S. Savage to the College, is remarkable for two reasons. It's a first edition, one of fewer than 200 known copies in the world, and it has annotations written in the margins, an aspect that makes it absolutely unique.
As was the practice with scientific books of the era, the Principia was printed in Latin, a language common to educated people throughout Europe. The annotations are in Latin as well. The identity of the annotator remains a mystery. The annotator was some learned person, educated enough to both make notes in Latin and to deal with Newton's content in a way that was obviously decisive.
"Many people have remarked that they seem to be editorial comments, not just somebody's notes as they were reading it and trying to understand it," Ute Schechter, Warren E. Burger Archivist said. It's not in Newton's hand, though, she added.