Bibliographia

December 12, 2011 8:05 PM

Today Cambridge University offered a complete free digital archive of the personal papers of Sir Isaac Newton, including the Principa Mathematica and his first published research paper. The archives join a number of efforts to open original works of scientific greatness to the world:

• Charles Darwin's entire personal library, complete with annotations and handwritten marginalia, digitized, indexed, and searchable, part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (previously)
• Mapping The Republic of Letters and Electronic Enlightenment, wonderful sites showing the communication and social connections of Enlightenment writers.

Newton's original works are handily supplemented by The Newton Project, showing the man's insertions and deletions to his own work.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul (10 comments total)

They would offer only old, out of date research for free.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:17 PM on December 12, 2011

Just in time for Newtonmas
posted by selenized at 8:39 PM on December 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Electronic Enlightenment seems to be behind a pay wall.
posted by oddman at 8:41 PM on December 12, 2011

And so does Mapping the Republic?
posted by oddman at 8:42 PM on December 12, 2011

There sure are a lot of different styles they used for the same letters. At least five dies for the letter "S," or am I wrong in thinking this was printed with a movable-type letterpress method.
posted by brenton at 9:31 PM on December 12, 2011

No pdf download?
posted by yeolcoatl at 9:47 PM on December 12, 2011

Who? Is he the guy who invented the neutron?
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 10:05 PM on December 12, 2011

I noticed that Samuel Pepys (he of the famous diary) was shown as the "imprimatur" to Principia. A short Google search revealed that he was at the time President of the Royal Society.

"If he had no other claims to distinction his name would have been perpetuated by this prominent association with a world-famous book. "
posted by three blind mice at 2:15 AM on December 13, 2011

No cut and paste bibles?
posted by rahnefan at 5:52 AM on December 13, 2011

In addition, the Newton MSS Project, based at the University of Sussex, has digital transcripts of Newton's manuscripts, as well as a collection of background videos that discuss Newton's ideas.
posted by carter at 4:45 AM on December 14, 2011