[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; and sold by Alexander Symmer and William Monro, Booksellers in Edinburgh, MDCCXXVIII. [1728].
RE-ISSUE OF THE FIRST EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; quarto (26 x 21 x 4 cm); pp. xiv, [2], 376. English text. Handsomely bound in contemporary panelled calf; spine in compartments with morocco lettering-piece; 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 tight and secure. The covers slightly rubbed. Interior very well-preserved with some light toning to the endpapers. Armorial bookplate to front pastedown.
Notes: A large paper re-issue with variant title-page of Newton's work first published in the same year, presumably printed for the benefit of the Edinburgh booksellers named in the imprint. This is Isaac Newton's attempt to employ astronomical principles to verify the chronology of ancient history. "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 N962; Wallis 309; Babson 214].
