JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 720 Blog Bookstore
.
I wrote briefly yesterday about a vast
understatement on the work (“innovations”) of Isaac Newton lifting so little
that virtually nothing else could exist, a black hole of a description of his
life’s work. An editorial oversight, I
am perfectly sure. I doubt that there is
anything that I could actually add to the massive amount that has been written
on the great and irascible man, though there is something that has stayed in my
head for a long time without any real satisfactory answer. Of the three superb, revolutionary works by Newton, only one features the author’s name in
near-fullness on the title page (Principia, 1687); the next, Opticks (first edition,
1704), appears with only his initials (“J.N”) at the end of the preface; and the third, his full
treatment on his 
invention/discovery of the calculus (Analysis per Quantitatum Series, Fluxiones ac Differerntias cum Enumeratione Linearum,1711), appears with
neither name nor initials. The
illustration on the front page features what may or may not be pure holy light
emanating from the face of the creator; or is it Newton himself? It certainly looks like the old
man, and among all of the great scientists and mathematicians of the modern
age, Sir Isaac’s image is the best deserving of such an elevation.
In any event, I wonder why the disappearance of the name--it was not a
standard practice, and the most immediate answer to me is that it was a
(deserved, Leibniz notwithstanding) conceit. I'm not sure.
Comments