[NEWTON, SIR ISAAC (1642-1727)]. The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. To Which is Prefix'd, a Short Chronicle from the First Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. London: Printed for J. Tonson in the Strand, and J. Osborn and T. Longman in Pater-noster Row. MDCCXXVIII [1728].
FIRST EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; quarto (23.5 x 18 x 4.5 cm.); pp. xiv, [2], 376. English text. Handsomely bound in contemporary full speckled calf with double gilt fillet border; spine with gilt bands in compartments; initial and terminal blanks present; engraved head-piece and initial by P. Foudrinier; three folding engraved plates; printed shoulder-notes. Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding secure with slight cracking to the joints, but all holding well. The covers a little scuffed in places, and lacking the spine labels. Interior very well-preserved with some light toning and very occasional trivial foxing. Without previous ownership markings.
Notes: First edition of Isaac Newton's attempt to employ astronomical principles to verify the chronology of ancient history. A crisp copy on ordinary paper (there were also large paper copies printed). "According to John Conduitt's introductory letter, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended was Isaac Newton's last personally revised work before his death but had actually been written much earlier. Some of its subject material and contents have led many people to categorize this work as one of Isaac Newton's occult studies". As evidenced by his study of the Temple of Solomon contained within the work, Newton "believed that many ancient sources were endowed with sacred wisdom and that the proportions of many of their temples were in themselves sacred" [Wikipedia]. [ESTC N2784; Wallis 309; Babson 214].
