A View of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy.

 London: Printed by S. Palmer, 1728. First edition (pp. prelims., 407) with twelve fine fold-out copperplate engravings. Large quarto (29 cm) in original full Cambridge binding augmented with tulips, five raised bands, rubricated edges, previous owner’s neat bookplate; decorative vignettes as head and tailpieces by Pire, decorative initials. Dedication to Sir Robert Walpole, ‘Poem on Sir Isaac Newton’ (Glover), who’s who list of subscribers. An exposition of  Newtonian principles enhanced with fine copperplate engravings. Henry Pemberton (1694- 1771) was a physician with a penchant for mathematics.  His early work included “Dissertatio de facultate oculi and On the Power whence the Eye may Discern Objects Distinctly at Distances; the latter was a work showing how certain results of Roger Cotes, hitherto found using ratios and logarithms, could be obtained using a circle and parabola. Pemberton became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1720.... Pemberton was invited to superintend the editing of the third edition of the Principia mathematica, which appeared in 1726. [He] was then about thirty years old and was rightly flattered to get the opportunity to work so closely with the great eighty-year-old Newton. However, Newton often ignored Pemberton's editorial suggestions. Pemberton wrote A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy (1728), which he had partly read to the dying Newton” (ODNB).  Binding skilfully repaired, last few pages lightly wormed.  A bright, handsome copy.