The holy
grail of modern physics rediscovered in a library in Corsica
The holy
grail...
Ajaccio (France) : A first-edition copy of Isaac Newton’s
groundbreaking book laying out his three laws of motion, which became the
foundation for modern physics, has been found at a library on the French island
of Corsica.
Vannina Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff, director of conservation at the
Fesch public heritage library in Ajaccio, said she discovered the copy of the
17th-century work while studying an index from the library’s founder Lucien
Bonaparte — one of Napoleon’s brothers.
“I found the Holy Grail in the main room, hidden in the upper
shelves,” she told AFP this week. “The cover has a little damage but inside
it’s in excellent condition — this is the cornerstone of modern mathematics,”
she said.
The Latin text, “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica”
(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) was first published by Newton
in 1687.
The renowned physicist was famously inspired by seeing an apple
fall from a tree in his garden in Grantham, England.
The incident sparked his elaborations of the classical laws of gravity,
motion and optics.
English translations were published later, but the original
editions remain prized by collectors.
“A Latin edition sold for $3.7 million at an auction held by
Christie’s a few years ago, and that’s the one at the Ajaccio library,” Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff
said, referring to a December 2016 sale in New York to an undisclosed buyer.
It is not the first rare find at the Fesch library since an
in-depth review of its holdings began a few years ago.
In 2018, Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff unveiled a “Thesaurum
Hyeroglyphicorum” study of Egyptian hieroglyphics dating from 1610 — some 200
years before France’s Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered parts of the Rosetta
Stone.
Source |
Hindustan Times | 6th March 2020
Regards
Mr.
Pralhad Jadhav
Master of
Library & Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior
Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
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