Catalogue Entry: ALCH00040

Notes on the works of George Ripley [from a manuscript version of 'Eirenæus Philalethes'' Ripley Reviv'd (1678)] (late 1660s/ early 1670s).

Author: Isaac Newton

Metadata: Not yet dated, in English , c. 8,000 words, 14 pp. on 8 ff.

Source: Keynes Ms. 51, King's College, Cambridge, UK

[Normalized Text (at Chymistry of Isaac Newton)]

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £16 and sold to Keynes on 13 August 1936 for the sale price plus 20%: see Spargo, '1936 sale', 127.

Sotheby Lot

SL91

Contents

Includes sections 'On Ripley's vision', 'On Ripleys preface to his Gates', and on each of the first six 'Gates' (calcination, solution, separation, conjunction, putrefaction and congelation).

Related Material

Westfall (Never at Rest, 287-8 and 288, n. 21) points out that the notes clearly predate the publication of Ripley Reviv'd (1678). Newton cites page references which do not correspond to the printed version and presumably refer to a now lost or unidentified manuscript. Further examples of Newton's interest in Ripley and his expositors (especially 'Philalethes') in Keynes Mss. 17, 52, 53, 54; he subsequently acquired a copy of the published version of Ripley Reviv'd (H1407).