Christie’s to sell Isaac Newton’s notes for greatest work

The document will go under the hammer at Christie’s in London on July 8.

Handwritten notes that show one of history’s greatest scientific minds in action are going up for auction in London. Pages containing Isaac Newton’s jotted revisions to his masterwork, the “Principia,” are expected to sell next month for between 600,000 pounds and 900,000 pounds ($850,000 and $1.3 million), auctioneer Christie’s said Tuesday. Published in 1687, Newton’s “Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica” — “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” — set out the laws of gravitation and motion and is considered a scientific watershed. A first edition of the book sold at auction for $3.7 million in 2016.