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# Rare Copy of Newton’s Principia Mathematica Discovered
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/principia-mathematica/
- Published: 2020-03-17T19:07:23.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:46:40.000Z
- Description: A researcher accidentally found a first edition copy of the groundbreaking book hidden in a Corsica library’s shelves.
- Author: Hakim Bishara
- Tags: In Brief, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/03/newtonsprincipia_1460.gif)

Isaac Newton’s own first edition copy of his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687) with handwritten corrections for the second edition (Wikimedia Commons)

You know the story: Issac Newton saw an apple fall from a tree and had an epiphany that would rewrite physics and the way we understand our universe. He later published his findings on the [laws of motion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s%5Flaws%5Fof%5Fmotion?ref=hyperallergic.com) in the 1687 book [*Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophi%C3%A6%5FNaturalis%5FPrincipia%5FMathematica?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.* Now, by sheer accident, a rare first-edition copy of this groundbreaking book was found in a library on the French island of Corsica.

(Fun fact before we continue: Newton made his discovery while [“socially distancing” himself](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/12/during-pandemic-isaac-newton-had-work-home-too-he-used-time-wisely/?ref=hyperallergic.com) during the Great Plague of London in 1665\. He was a 20-something Trinity College student at the time.)

Vannina Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff, director of conservation at the Fesch Public Heritage library in Ajaccio, was researching an index from the library’s founder Lucien Bonaparte — one of Napoleon’s brothers —when she discovered a copy of Newton’s 17th-century book.

“I found the Holy Grail in the main room, hidden in the upper shelves,” [the researcher told Agence France-Presse (APF)](https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/03/08/news/world/at-a-glance-world/rare-newton-book-found/701126/?ref=hyperallergic.com) earlier in March. “The cover has a little damage but inside it’s in excellent condition — this is the cornerstone of modern mathematics,” she said.

Newton published the first few editions of the book in Latin (titled *Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica*). English translations appeared later on, but the original Latin editions remain highly-valued collector items.

“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, recalling a [December 2016 sale in New York](https://www.iflscience.com/physics/first-edition-of-newton-s-principia-mathematica-becomes-world-s-most-expensive-science-book/?ref=hyperallergic.com) to an undisclosed buyer.

Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff is a serial excavator of rarities. In 2018, she uncovered a copy of the 1610 study of Egyptian hieroglyphics *Thesaurum Hyeroglyphicorum*, which she called “[the first book of Egyptology](https://twitter.com/ARCENational/status/999628408408723462?s=20&ref=hyperallergic.com).”