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18th-century(?) sprinkled calf, sewn on 4 cords, with a new spine label, imprint at the foot of the spine and shell on shell marbled endpapers (all ca. 1850?), red sprinkled edges.
Each title-page of the present copy has an inscription in what appears to be a late 17th- or early 18th-century hand: “Ex libris Is newtoni”, a twelve-line inscription in French on the back of the first title-page signed “Is newton” and a few short inscriptions in the same hand elsewhere in the book. While it might have been tempting to believe this was Sir Isaac Newton’s book, several things argue against that. Neither the handwriting nor the signatures match any of Isaac Newton’s that we have been able to find, and neither John Harrison, The library of Isaac Newton (1978), nor the revised and expanded on-line record of the library (www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=88) has found any indication that Newton owned a copy of this book (which means if he did he must have disposed of it before the catalogue made when he died in 1727). We are grateful to Cornelis J. Schilt of the Newton Project for confirming that the inscriptions are not in Sir Isaac Newton’s hand and informing us that none of Newton’s known books bears an “Ex libris” inscription (there is one “E libris”) and that Newton is not known to have written notes in French. (From vendor's description.)
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