NEWTON, Isaac (1642-1727). A Treatise of the System of the World. London: F. Fayram, 1728.

Fine, uncut copy of the first edition in English; the work intended as the third book of the Principia. The Norman copy. The translator was probably Andrew Motte. The first edition, De mundi systemate, was also published in 1728. This work reflects Newton's typically ahead-of-his-time outlook, speculating on, among other things, the existence of the planet Uranus (first seen by Herschel in 1781) and the possibility of terrestrial tide effects (which would be discovered by A.A. Michaelson in 1919). Babson 18; Wallis 30; Norman 1593 (this copy). Exhibited: "The Heavens Revealed," Chapin Library, Williams College, 2003.

Octavo (217 x 138mm). Two engraved plates, woodcut diagrams in text (title-page lightly soiled). 18th-century morocco-backed vellum over boards, spine gilt, uncut (joints started at ends). Provenance: early shelf-mark on front pastedown – a very few instances of pencil marginalia noting errata – Haskell F. Norman (bookplate; his sale, Christie’s New York, 15-16 June 1998, lot 698).