SECTIONUM CONICARUM ELEMENTA NOVA METHODO DEMONSTRATA BY JAMES MILNES 1712

[MILNES, James (1663-1739)]. Sectionum Conicarum Elementa Nova Methodo Demonstrata. Authore Jacobo Milnes, A.M. Rectore de Ingestre Agro Staffordiensi. Oxoniæ: E Theatro Sheldoniano. MDCCXII. Impensis Anth. Peisley, Bibliop. [1712].

Second edition [Editio secunda emendata, plurimisque in locis aucta & illustrata]. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Octavo (205 x 130 x 25 mm). Pp. [8],116, [+ 20 plates]. Latin text in roman and italic letter. Bound in period full calf. Title-page vignette. Printed side-notes. 20 fold-out plates. Condition: GOOD. Collated complete. Binding secure having been sympathetically rebacked retaining the original boards and incorporating new endpapers. Interior showing some light toning and the odd brown spot, the plates well-preserved. Private owner bookplate to front pastedown. Scarce.

Notes: While Milnes’ work on conic sections drew on the work of many previous authors (most notably the seminal work of Apollonius of Perga, c. 262 BC–c. 190 BC), it should primarily be viewed in the light of the reception of Newtonianism in early eighteenth-century England. First published some fifteen years after Newton’s celebrated Principia (1687), Milnes’ mathematical text demonstrates the dominance of the Newtonian philosophy, a philosophy which heavily influenced Worth’s scientific collection [MCO].