Isaac Newton's Handwritten Notes For 'Principia' Up For Auction

Isaac Newton's handwritten notes for a second edition of his masterwork, the "Principia," will be auctioned off next month, auction house Christie's announced Tuesday.

The pages are expected to fetch between £600,000 and £900,000 ($850,000 to $1.3 million) when they are sold July 8.

Newton's "Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica," or "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," was first published in 1687 and established the principles of gravitation and motion.

The book "reinvented our understanding of the universe," according to Thomas Venning, head of books and manuscripts at Christie's in London.

During the 1690s, Newton began work on a proposed second edition of the work, generating the page and a half of notes that would be auctioned. They also feature comments and diagrams by Scottish mathematician and astronomer David Gregory.

The two scientists met and corresponded while Newton was working on his revisions.

Newton, according to Venning, was "fizzing with the energy of one of the greatest minds the world has ever seen" while working on the revisions.

"And we can see that at work, the speed with which he's writing, the ferment of ideas coming out from his pen," he said.

The partnership between Gregory and Newton "resulted in refining Newton's thinking," according to Keith Moore, head librarian at the Royal Society, the scientists' club where Newton was president in the 18th century.

Newton subsequently abandoned the revisions in question, releasing a new version in 1713.

"What a collector in the autograph world is looking for is the greatest minds in history, talking about their greatest achievements," Venning said. "It's very, very rare to have that combination. And that's what you have in this particular manuscript."

In 2016, a first edition of the "Principia" sold for $3.7 million at auction, making it the most expensive science book ever sold.