Amsterdam, chez Jacques Desbordes, 1738.
8vo, with (1) title leaf, 399 pp. and (1) p. of errata; 1 portrait of the author, 1 frontispiece, 7 plates outside the text including one folding, 50 tailpieces and vignettes, 60 geometric figures in the text, title printed in red and black, 4 page numbers scraped out.
Full red morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the covers with corner fleurons, flat spine decorated, gilt edges, gilt inner border. Bound by Derome le jeune with his label.
212 x 132 mm.
Original edition, second issue, of one of Voltaire’s earliest major texts, printed in Amsterdam by Jacques Desbordes in 1738.
Cohen, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 1037–1038; Bengesco 1570; L’Œuvre imprimé de Voltaire à la B.N., 3744; Norman Library 2165.
One of the very rare copies of the original edition printed on strong laid large paper.
Newton is the great figure who dominates the sciences in the 18th century. A promoter of experimental physics, he revealed the law of universal attraction. Voltaire played an active role in disseminating his discoveries by making them accessible to non-specialists through the publication of his Elémens. This work marked an important milestone in the history of science in France and contributed to the victory of empiricism and the experimental method over Cartesianism.
“One of [Newton’s] greatest champions in France was Voltaire, whose ‘Elémens de la Philosophie de Neuton’, 1738, was widely read.” (PMM, 161).
Voltaire’s aim here is to present, in elementary form and for popularization purposes, Newton’s theories and discoveries.
He began writing his principal scientific work during the summer of 1736, inspired by the mathematical and scientific studies of the Marquise du Châtelet and the example of the young Italian Francesco Algarotti. He intended to convert the French to Newtonianism and to make science accessible to the public by adopting a serious tone, geometric illustrations, and calculations.
After Newton’s metaphysical opinions, Voltaire presents his discoveries in physics, which at the time appeared as surprising novelties, because they ran counter to Cartesian doctrines that had previously triumphed. The discoveries about the nature of light, its movement in straight lines, the existence of a vacuum, the property of light to reflect and refract, the formation of images in the eye, the attraction determining refraction, the decomposition of white light, and thus the nature of colors, the true nature of the rainbow, the correspondence between colors and musical notes, the laws of celestial gravitation, the explanation of the laws of attraction in the universe and on Earth, are presented by Voltaire, with his usual elegance and liveliness of style, in a way accessible to any reader, even one ignorant of physics.
Voltaire, exiled in Holland in 1736, submitted the first chapters of Elémens de la philosophie de Neuton to the bookseller Ledet. His correspondence confirms that the work was published without his knowledge, before he had sent the end of chapter 23 and chapter 24; despite his reluctance, the Dutch publisher had this edition completed by an anonymous mathematician and added to the title the words: “Mis à la portée de tout le monde.” It was Madame du Châtelet, to whom the work was dedicated, who, in her letter to Maupertuis dated May 9, 1738, accused the Dutch bookseller of having made additions to the title. Voltaire resolved to have his book reprinted in Paris in 1738.
This work is illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece drawn by Dubourg and engraved in copper by Folkéma. Wanting to highlight the major role played by Madame du Châtelet in the publication of this text, it was Voltaire himself who composed this frontispiece, where he is seen working at his desk on the Elémens. Seated on a cloud, Newton is just above him, pointing with a compass at a celestial globe while gazing at Madame du Châtelet, who faces him.
The work is also illustrated with a portrait of the author engraved by Folkéma, 7 plates outside the text including one folding, and 108 vignettes within the text by Dubourg, Folkéma, Konder, Decave, B. Picart, and Schley: one emblem on the title page, 49 headpieces and tailpieces (4 different headpieces in repetition, 5 different tailpieces in repetition), and 58 scientific figures. With 3 scientific diagrams wood-engraved in the text.
Sumptuous copy on large paper preserved in its dazzling red morocco binding signed by Derome le jeune.
This copy is the only one cited by Cohen preserved in red morocco of the period (“En maroquin rouge de Derôme (reliure signée) 375 fr., vente Janzé (no. 136) à M. Robert Schuhmann”).
Extremely rare condition for this key text by Voltaire, which is generally found simply bound in plain calf.
Prestigious provenances: the Parisian bookseller Guillaume-Luc Bailly (his coded handwritten note, “yif – lop,” on the verso of the final flyleaf, which, according to Erick Aguirre’s decryption system, reads “bought for 26 livres, sale value 54 livres”); probably Pierre-Antoine-François Dincourt d’Hangard (Paris, March 9 and following days, 1789, no. 468); probably Prince Sigismond Radziwill (Paris, January 22–February 1, 1866, no. 433), who acquired the Dincourt d’Hangard copy; Frédéric-Léon de Janzé (Paris, April 20–24, 1909, no. 136 of the catalogue); Robert Schuhmann (ex-libris label); Raphaël Esmérian (trace of his ex-libris label, third part, June 6, 1973, no. 102 of the catalogue with reproduction on p. 27).
