On the Jesuit Edition of Newton’s Principia. Science and Advanced Researches in the Western Civilization

In this research, we present the most important characteristics of the so called and so much explored Jesuit Edition of Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica edited by Thomas Le Seur and François Jacquier in the 1739-1742. The edition, densely annotated by the commentators (the notes and the comments are longer than Newton’s text itself) is a very treasure concerning Newton’s ideas and his heritage, e.g., Newton’s geometry and mathematical physics. Conspicuous pieces of information as to history of physics, history of mathematics and epistemology can be drawn from it. This paper opens a series of study concerning Jesuit Edition, whose final scope is to put in evidence all the conceptual aspects of such edition and its role inside the spread of scientific ideas and inside the complex relation science, popularization & society.