Dibner Collection MS. 1031B, Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology , Smithsonian Institution
Title:Of Natures obvious laws & processes in
vegetation.
Description:Usually called Of Natures obvious laws & processes in vegetation after the first words in the text, the Dibner Collection MS. 1031B is an
eleven-page tract representing Newton’s attempt to provide a synopsis of his early alchemical reading, and to come up with
what is, essentially, a “theory of everything,” namely a
physical theory that unifies and accounts for all known natural phenomena. The English text is followed in the manuscript
by a short text in Latin, written upside-down and from the other end of the fascicle.
A distinct treatise, the Latin section of the text begins with the phrase “Humores minerales continuo decidunt,” and is possibly
a preliminary and fragmentary working out of the ideas
that Newton would develop further in the English part of the manuscript.
Scribe:
Language(s):English Latin
Physical Description:6 ff.
The folation is the same as that used by B.J.T. Dobbs, in which each half of the three folded sheets is treated as a separate
folio.
The manuscript consists of three folded sheets ordered consecutively, the first sheet containing fols. 1-2, the second 3-4,
and the third 5-6. The first 4 fols. (sheets 1 and 2) contain a consistent pattern of wormholes that are not present in fols.
5 and 6 (sheet 3). The third folded sheet contains the Latin section of the MS., which begins upsidedown on 6v and continues
up from the bottom on 6r, where it meets the English text coming down.
Custodial History:
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Pickering & Chatto
for £12. They advised Keynes on 23 July 1936 that they had
already sold it, but to whom is unclear. Bought by Bern Dibner in
London at some point in the 1940s: B.J.T Dobbs noted that 'when I
pressed him for details about that transaction, he assured me that
it seemed more important at the time to save it from the blitz than
to keep records of that sort of thing' (Janus Faces, 256 n. 1).
Previously Burndy MS. 16. Donated by the Burndy Library to the
Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, Smithsonian
Institution in 1976.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R43
Sotheby Lot:SL113
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00081. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Keynes MS. 30/1, King's College Library , Cambridge University
Title:Index Chemicus
Description:
The heading 'Index Chemicus' was assigned by Newton to three texts, all presently collected under the shelfmark Keynes
MS. 30,
at the King's College Library, Cambridge. Among them, the lengthiest and most finished version is referred to as Keynes
MS 30/1.
This manuscript, here transcribed and publicly released for the first time, is an elaborate alphabetical index and reference
guide
to the literature of alchemy.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
Unknown
Unknown
Language(s):Latin English Greek Aramaic
Physical Description:
c. 30,000 words, including almost 900 entries on 93 folios; the main text is on the rectos with supplementary notes on the
facing versos.
Custodial History:
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £58. Yahuda attempted to buy it on 12 August 1936 and had done so by
25 August since Keynes asked to see it on that date but was advised by Wells on 4 September that the lot had gone. Yahuda
subsequently exchanged it, together with SL72 (now Keynes MS. 44) for lots 236 (now Yahuda Var. 1 MS. 5), 258 (now Yahuda
Var. 1 MS. 23) and 263 (now Babson MS. 434). See Spargo, '1936 sale', 130-1. Erroneously described in the Sotheby catalogue
as 113 pp. + 49 pp.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R19
Sotheby Lot:SL033
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00200. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Keynes MS. 30/2, King's College Library , Cambridge University
Title:Index Chemicus
Description:
The heading 'Index Chemicus' was assigned by Newton to three texts, all presently collected under the shelfmark Keynes MS.
30,
at the King's College Library, Cambridge. This version (30/2) may be the second-oldest of the Index chemicus in the Keynes
collection (after 30/3). It is very short – only 4 folios.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
Unknown
Unknown
Language(s):Latin English
Physical Description:c. 4,000 words on 8 pages, containing an index of 251 entries.
Custodial History:
Part of Keynes 30. Keynes 30 was bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £58. Yahuda attempted to buy it on 12 August
1936 and had done so by 25 August since Keynes asked to see it on that date but was advised by Wells on 4 September that the
lot had gone. Yahuda subsequently exchanged it, together with SL72 (now Keynes MS. 44) for lots 236 (now Yahuda Var. 1 MS.
5), 258 (now Yahuda Var. 1 MS. 23) and 263 (now Babson MS. 434). See Spargo, '1936 sale', 130-1. Erroneously described in
the Sotheby catalogue as 113 pp. + 49 pp.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R19
Sotheby Lot:SL033
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00201. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Keynes MS. 30/3, King's College Library , Cambridge University
Title:Index Chemicus - Keynes MS 30/3
Description:
The heading 'Index Chemicus' was assigned by Newton to three texts, all presently collected under the shelfmark Keynes MS.
30,
at the King's College Library, Cambridge. This version (30/3) includes an alphabetical draft list of subject headings for
the index. It may represent the earliest version of the Index Chemicus.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
Unknown
Unknown
Language(s):Latin
Physical Description:Two folios, the first page containing a list of 115 entries and about 170 words, followed by three blank pages.
Custodial History:
Part of Keynes 30. Keynes 30 was bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £58. Yahuda attempted to buy it on 12 August
1936 and had done so by 25 August since Keynes asked to see it on that date but was advised by Wells on 4 September that the
lot had gone. Yahuda subsequently exchanged it, together with SL72 (now Keynes MS. 44) for lots 236 (now Yahuda Var. 1 MS.
5), 258 (now Yahuda Var. 1 MS. 23) and 263 (now Babson MS. 434). See Spargo, '1936 sale', 130-1. Erroneously described in
the Sotheby catalogue as 113 pp. + 49 pp.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R19
Sotheby Lot:SL033
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00203. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Keynes MS. 52, King's College Library , Cambridge University
Title:Sr George Ripley His Epistle to K Edward
Description:
Cambridge University, King's College, Keynes MS. 52 is mostly a copy in Newton's hand of a version of Eirenaeus Philalethes
(George Starkey),
Sir George Ripley’s Epistle to King Edward Unfolded. The work was printed in Newton's lifetime in two different versions.
The text in Keynes 52 is
followed by notes in Latin and English.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
Unknown
Unknown
Language(s):English Latin Greek
Physical Description:
c. 11,000 words
17 pp. on 9 ff.
Custodial History:
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £11.10s. and sold to Keynes on 13 August 1936 for the sale price plus 20%:
see Spargo, '1936 sale', 127.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R19
Sotheby Lot:SL092
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00041. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Keynes MS. 53, King's College Library , Cambridge University
Title:Of ye first Gate
Description:A compilation of abbreviated alchemical extracts taken from a variety of sources, sometimes with brief commentary.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
unknown
unknown
Language(s):English Latin Greek
Physical Description:
c. 2800 words, 9 pp. on 5 ff.
Custodial History:
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Heffers for £12.10s.; Keynes expressed an interest on 12 August 1936 and presumably went on
to buy it.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R19
Sotheby Lot:SL093
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00042. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Keynes MS. 63, King's College Library , Cambridge University
Title:Verses at the end of B. Valentine's mystery of the
Microcosm
Description:
An English translation of a work by the pseudonymous author posing behind the fictive identity of
Basilius Valentinus, supposedly a fourteenth or fifteenth century Benedictine monk. It is not clear, however,
whether the translation found here in Newton's hand was made from the original German or
rather from a pre-existing translation into Latin, French, or another language.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
unknown
unknown
Language(s):English
Physical Description:
569 lines of verse, c. 4000 words
Custodial History:
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Heffers for
£7.10s. Keynes asked to look at it on 12 August 1936, and
when Yahuda later enquired he was told by Heffers on 7 September
that it had been sold. It is marked '£10', presumably by
Heffers, though whether this is the price Keynes actually paid is
not clear.
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R19
Sotheby Lot:SL111
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00052. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Portsmouth Collection Add. MS. 3973, Cambridge University Library , Cambridge University
Title:<Notes evidently on Newton's own laboratory experiments>
Description:
Unbound fascicles and sheets describing Newton’s chymical experimentation and bearing dates ranging from 10 December 1678
to February 1696. The experiments are closely related to those found in Cambridge University MS. Additional 3975, and sometimes
partly identical.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
Unknown
Unknown
Language(s):English Latin Greek
Custodial History:
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R10
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00109. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Portsmouth Collection Add. MS. 3975, Cambridge University Library , Cambridge University
Title:<Newton's Most Complete Laboratory Notebook>
Description:
The first complete edition of what is perhaps Newton's most important laboratory notebook.
It is a bound volume of over one hundred-seventy folios . It contains recorded dates ranging from 1669
to 1693, but parts of the notebook, such as the
optical section on ff. 2r - 12v, may have been composed earlier. The notebook is remarkable for the way
in which it reveals how several of Newton's
interests were related, particularly his chymistry and optics.
Scribe:Newton, Isaac
Language(s):English Latin Greek
Physical Description:
283 pp. + 4 pp. starting from the back, c. 65,000 words.
A new foliation has been supplied in which the initial unnumbered sheet is fol. 1, fols. 2-134 correspond to Newton's page
numbers 1-266, the inserted leaf is fol. 135, fols. 136-173 correspond to Newton's page numbers 267-344, and the final page
is fol. 174. Newton's original page numbers on even and odd pages from 1 through 16, then on odd pages only through 344.
The manuscript consists of 1 unnumbered sheet (sometimes called the "flyleaf"), 344 numbered pages (with
1 unnumbered leaf between pages 266 and 267), and one final sheet. The two final folios are bound in upsidedown and backwards.
Custodial History:
Chadwyck Healey Reel:R10
Electronic Publication:
ID: ALCH00110. Published 2006, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.