Publication of Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Timeline

1. 1684Cambridge · CambridgeHalley asked Newton about the relationship between elliptical orbits and inverse-square forces. Newton then wrote the short treatise De motu and over the following two years expanded it into the three-volume Principia. Flamsteed's planetary observational data were also cited by Newton.
2. 1686London · LondonAfter the first book was submitted, Hooke claimed the inverse-square rule was his own idea, and Newton at one point threatened to withdraw the third book. Halley mediated between them and, after the Society exhausted its publication funds on the History of Fishes, bore the printing costs himself and supervised the printing. Pepys issued the license in his capacity as president.
3. 1687London · LondonThe three-volume Latin edition was complete: the first book set out the laws of motion and central forces, the second discussed resisting media, and the third derived the motions of planets, satellites, and comets in the 'System of the World.' Universal gravitation cast falling bodies on earth and celestial orbits as the same mathematical problem, marking the emergence of the classical mechanical system.