Latin isaac newton

Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare.
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“Every body preserves its state of rest or uniform movement in a straight line unless forced to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”

Isaac Newton (b. 1643, d. 1727)

Before 1700, scientific publications were primarily written in Latin.

In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton wrote his book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, explaining the laws of motion and gravity, in Latin.

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Title page of Principia, first edition (1687)
Author Sir Isaac Newton
Publication date 1687 (1st ed.)
Published in English 1728
LC Class QA803 .A53

The first English translation appeared the year after he died. Does that mean everyone was reading Latin?

At King Edward VI Grammar School, Shakespeare (d. 1616) learned to read Latin, and his familiarity with the drama of Plautus appears in The Comedy of Errors, which shows that Shakespeare could read it when he wanted to. There is no evidence to suggest he could read Greek.

Photo: Painting by Godfrey Kneller, via Wikimedia Commons//Getty Images