Catalogue Entry: ALCH00056

Miscellaneous collection of mostly unpublished alchemical texts, recipes, reports of experiments, etc. (1660s). In English and Latin, in four different hands, none of them Newton's, though there are a few additions by him.

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: Keynes Ms. 67, King's College, Cambridge, UK

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by Heffers for £6.10s. It appeared in Heffers' Catalogues 493 (1936) as Item 11 and 513 (1937) as Item 753, at £10.10s. in both cases, although Keynes had expressed an interest on 12 August 1936. Heffers also told Yahuda on 7 September 1936 that it was available for £10.10s. Quite when Keynes acquired it, or for how much, is not clear.

Sotheby Lot

SL120

Contents

On the cover, in Thomas Pellet's hand: 'No 2 Miscellanea'.

f. 1r 'The Apocalyps or Revelacon [sic] of the Secret Spirit by an vnknowen Author', in English.

ff. 7r-10r Collection of short citations (all in English) from Hermes, Pythagoras, Rasis, Morienus, Arnoldus de Villanova, Ripley, Johannes Damascene, Lull, Agrippa, Aristotle, Geber, Vincentius, the Rosarium Philosophorum, Gratian and Avicenna.

f. 10v List of axioms, in English.

f. 11r 'of the Stone', in English and Latin.

f. 13r 'Hic sequitur questiones et soluciones inter magistrum & Disipulum [sic]', in English.

ff.19r-19v 'The woorke of an olde priest', in English

f.19v 'The philosophers water of might', in English

f. 20r 'The true order in ye worke of ye ph[ilosoph]ers stone fownde written, by an vnknowne aucthore', in English.

f. 23v 'An vnknowen author, vpon the philosophers stone', in English verse [from Elias Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652: H93), 420].

f. 27r 'Sr Ed. Kelley Concerninge the philosophers stone written to his especiall friend G.S. Gent.', in English verse [Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 332-3].

f. 28r 'The vision of Sr George Ripley Chanon of Bridlingtone', in English verse [Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 374].

f. 29r 'Arnould de villa noua touching the philosophers stone', in English verse.

f. 34r 'A true Cittrination: de Sr Ino Bar:', in English.

ff. 34v-41r A great many largely technical instructions, eg. 'To seale upp any glass wth Hermes seale'.

f. 43r An untitled passage on transmutation, in English.

f. 46r 'The practize of ye stone by a parable written by Doctor Alemant, & Lorde Barnard Erle of Treuisone, of the Philosophers stone', in English.

f. 49r 'Ex epistole Ioh[ann]is paup[er]is', in Latin.

f. 50v 'Ex Breuiaru[m] Ioh[ann]is Paup[er]is', in Latin.

f. 51r 'Vsus eius ad morbos', in Latin.

ff. 52r-64r Latin extracts from a variety of alchemical authors.

f. 64v A list of the works of 'Iohn Dastian' [Dastin].

f. 65v Account of a medical preparation of juniper, in English.

f. 66r 'De Alkymiæ veritate. liber antiqu[us] in pergameno script[us] Mr Savils prœbet': Latin digest.

f. 68r A Latin prayer for God's blessing on alchemical labours, and English excerpts from 'Mr barkers notes' about his furnaces.

ff. 69v-101v Miscellaneous alchemical recipes in English and Latin, many with detailed source references.

f. 102r-104r Notes on alchemical terms, symbols and processes, in English.

f. 104v An elaborate recipe for 'Aqua p[er]manens p[er] Lapide Philosophico', in English.

f. 106v 'The breefe of Sr Edwards Veres booke. August. 18. 1610', in English.

f. 109r-112r Sketches of chemical vessels, then a resumption of the recipes at ff. 69v-101v.

ff. 114r-117v Alchemical recipes, in English but transliterated into the Greek alphabet.

ff. 122r-124r A series of Latin notes headed 'Cristallus'.

f. 125 is blank apart from the heading 'Contra [mercurium]'.

Notes

SL120 is described in the Sotheby catalogue as 112 leaves (presumably not including the blank ones).

Cf. Keynes Ms. 62, which was copied from various parts of this.

© 2024 The Newton Project

Professor Rob Iliffe
Director, AHRC Newton Papers Project

Scott Mandelbrote,
Fellow & Perne librarian, Peterhouse, Cambridge

Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL - newtonproject@history.ox.ac.uk

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