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 In 1936, the world of Isaac Newton scholarship received a rude shock. In that year the venerable auction house of Sotheby's released
a catalogue describing three hundred twenty-nine lots of Newton's manuscripts, mostly in his own handwriting, of which over a third
were filled with content that was undeniably alchemical. These manuscripts, which had been labeled "not fit to be printed" upon
Newton's death in 1727, raised a host of interesting questions in 1936 as they do even today. Was the founder of classical physics an
alchemist? And if so, what does this mean? Did he pursue his alchemical interests for scientific reasons, or simply because he was
swept up by the old dream of transmuting base metals into gold? Did Newton discover a secret theological meaning in alchemical
texts, which often describe the transmutational secret as a special gift revealed by God to his chosen sons? Or was Newton perhaps
attracted to the graphic and mysterious imagery of alchemy, with its illustrations of hermaphrodites, couples copulating within flasks,
poisonous dragons, green lions, and dying toads? None of these questions are made easier by the fact that Newton's laboratory
notebooks, even the one containing the first full description of his brilliant discovery that white light is really a mixture of immutable
spectral colors, are filled with recipes patently elaborated from the very alchemical sources that overflow the manuscripts sold by
Sotheby's in 1936. Here too, alongside sober explanations of optical and physical phenomena such as freezing and boiling, we find
"Neptune's Trident," "Mercury's Caducean Rod," and of course the "Green Lyon," all symbolizing substances derived from Newton's
alchemical readings. Whatever the ultimate purpose of Newton's alchemical investigations may have been, it is clear that we cannot
erect a watertight dam separating them from his other scientific endeavors.
 We have adopted the seventeenth-century term "chymistry" to describe the sum of alchemical pursuits as they existed in Newton's day.
In the early modern world, chymistry included three basic domains. First, chymists laid claim to a large group of technologies ranging
from the making of pigments and dyes and the manufacture of mineral acids to the distillation of "strong waters" for drink. While often
supporting themselves by making these items of commerce, however, chymical practitioners were also at the forefront of early modern
pharmacology, having placed a radically new emphasis on mineral-based drugs and an equally important stress on the use of laboratory
technologies such as distillation and sublimation in their production. Chymical medicine, or iatrochemistry, was one of the important
new fields of early modern science, and the second basic division of the discipline. Third and finally, the attempt to make gold from less
precious materials, often referred to by the Greek term chrysopoeia, remained a seemingly viable research project for many
seventeenth century chymists. Newton was involved in all three of chymistry's major branches in varying degrees, and we make no
attempt to impose an anachronistic division of the discipline into modern categories. It is important, rather, to see how chemical
technology and medicine were connected to Newton's involvement to the "Great Work," just as it is important to see how his
chymistry was related to his other intellectual and technical pursuits.
 The Chymistry of Isaac Newton is devoted to the editing and exposition of Newton's alchemical work. With the support of the
National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, this scholarly online edition is one part of an integrated project that combines new research on Newton's
chymistry with an online edition of his manuscripts in both diplomatic and normalized texts. In the future, the edition will include all of
Newton's chymical writings in word-searchable form with annotations indicating their sources and the degree of Newtonian input into
them. In addition, we intend to provide high quality digital scans of Newton's chymical manuscripts, so that the reader can compare
our transcriptions to the original handwriting and drawings in the manuscripts. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton is hosted by Indiana
University's Digital Library Program, and is affiliated with The Newton Project originating at the University of Sussex. The director of
the project at Indiana University is William R. Newman, Ruth Halls Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Philosophy
of Science. John Walsh, Associate Director for Projects and Services of the Digital Library Program oversees the digital side of the
project. Others involved in The Chymistry of Isaac Newton include Lawrence M. Principe (consultant), Cathrine Reck (Indiana University Chemistry Department - consultant), Tamara Lopez (programmer/analyst),
James Voelkel (senior editorial and encoding consultant), Cesare Pastorino (transcriber/encoder), and John Johnson (transcriber/encoder).
Images of copper engravings. Musaeum hermeticum reformatum et amplificatum (Frankfurt, 1678).
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