The publication in July 1687 of Newton’s
Principia mathematica
gave rise to only four reviews in the European periodical press. The first was Edmond Halley’s pre-publication notice in the
Philosophical Transactions
(1). Then a year elapsed before the
Bibliothèque Universelle
(2), the
Acta Eruditorum
(3), and the
Journal des Sçavans
(4), approached the book. Of these reviews that which appeared in Jean Leclerc’s widely read
Bibliothèque Universelle
has received least attention from historians. This is unfortunate because, of several merits, two in particular are important for the intellectual history of the period: it was written specifically for the large and growing intellectual class (5) of western Europe who for the most part were interested in the new physical sciences, but were untrained in the mathematics necessary to understand many of the newest advances in them. And the author of this review, which was the first independent account of Newton’s book to reach this Continental (largely French-speaking) audience, was John Locke, then a voluntary political exile in Holland (6).
