The method of fluxions

London: Henry Woodfall, 1736. FIRST EDITION. With engraved frontispiece, interpolated leaf [143-144], and leaf containing errata on the recto, publisher’s advertisements on the verso. Paneled sprinkled calf in a contemporary style; a large paper copy with very wide margins, a few contemporary annotations. First edition of Newton’s treatise on the calculus, a work of great importance and rarity. Ready for publication in 1671, Newton circulated the manuscript among his friends who urged him to establish priority by publishing his own work. He steadfastly refused and prior to his death entrusted it to Henry Pemberton who never had it published. It was not until 1736 that Method of fluxions was finally published in the present English translation by John Colson, who added a lengthy commentary. The original Latin edition did not appear until 1779 in the Opera omnia.

Babson, 171; Gray, 232; Wallis, 232; Smith, History of Mathematics, I, p. 404.