Who is credited with formulating the law of gravity?

Isaac Newton is credited with formulating the law of gravity through his work, particularly in his book "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" published in 1687. In this seminal work, he articulated the law of universal gravitation, which describes the gravitational attraction between masses. Newton's insight that every mass attracts every other mass with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them laid the foundation for classical mechanics. This law not only revolutionized the understanding of celestial mechanics but also provided a framework for explaining a multitude of physical phenomena on Earth and in space.

While other scientists like Galileo contributed to the understanding of motion and gravity, it was Newton who cohesively formulated the principles that define gravitational force in the way we understand it today. Other figures, such as Einstein, built upon these principles in the context of relativity, but the original formulation of the law of gravity is attributed to Newton.