A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy.

London: Printed by S. Palmer, 1728. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 288 x 218 mms., pp. [50], 407 [408 blank], engraved vignette on title-page, other engraved vignettes and illustrations in text (by John Pine after John Grison), 12 folding engraved plates, recently rebound in quarter calf, spine gilt in compartments to a floral motif, red morocco label, blue marbled boards. An attractive copy. Although Pemberton (1694 - 1771) had a medical degree, he practiced medicine only sporadically. His interest in mathematics led him to show some of his work to the mathematician John Keill, and that brought him into contact with Newton; this book was one of the results. Voltaire in his Letters concerning the English Nation (1733) made extensive use of Pemberton's commentary. The work also formed part of the mathematical tripos at Cambridge shortly after it was published. It is also notable for being the first book to use Caslon's Roman typeface. The poetic tribute by the sixteen-year-old Richard Glover, author of Leonidas (1737) and other epic poems, is usually dismissed as doggerel: raise your hands those who understood Newton at sixteen and had a command of classical literature and prosody. Pemberton returned the compliment in 1738 with one of his works on aesthetics, Observations on Poetry, especially the Epic, occasioned by the late Poem upon Leonidas; in 1753 he published Some Few Reflections on the Tragedy of Boadicea, also by Glover. Among the subscribers is one "Capt. John Price."