PBA Galleries

Very rare large paper copy of Sir Isaac Newton's Methodus Fluxionum, which was originally prepared in 1671, but remained unpublished until this English translation by John Colson. The measurements of this copy exceed those of the Norman copy and other cited copies - the only other mention of a large paper copy seems to have been the Stanitz copy, sold at Sotheby's in 1984. Newton presents a method of determining the magnitudes of finite quantities by the velocities of their generating motions. At the time of its preparation, it was Newton's most complete exposition of the fundamental problem of the calculus, in which he presented his successful general method. Newton prepared this treatise just before his death and entrusted the Latin manuscript to Henry Pemberton, who never published it. In the preface, Colson writes "I thought it highly injurious to the memory and reputation of our own nation, that so curious and useful a piece should be any longer suppressed." The engraved plate demonstrates the concept of fluxions in the shooting of two birds at once. The original text was not published in Latin until 1779. Babson 171; Norman 1595; Wallis 232.