3 volumes. lx, 211, [5]; [2], 321, [12]; [6], 231, [1] pp. With engraved frontispiece portrait & 47 folding engraved diagram plates; folding table. (8vo) 20.7x13 cm (8¼x5¼"), period (original?) cloth, spines lettered in gilt. First complete edition in English.
The first complete printing of Andrew Motte's translation of the Principia, Isaac Newton's great work. The 1729 first edition of Motte's translation contained only the first and second books. Curiously, this copy has but 47 plates (as did the 1729 edition) and not the 54 or 56 plates found in other listings of the 1803 edition. The plates in the present copy are numbered 1-25 in Vol. I; 1-19 in Vol. 2, and 1-3 in Vol. 3, with no signs of any subsequent plates being removed. Other listings also note two folding tables, this copy has but one, with again no signs of removal. Also, the final two index leaves in Vol. II misbound before p.321. These characteristics perhaps indicate this is a variant (possibly remainder) issue, in which the additional plates produced for the 1803 edition were not included.
