Catalogue Entry: ALCH00124

'Loca difficilia in Novo Lumine Chymico explicata' (c. 1668).

Author: Isaac Newton

Metadata: Not yet dated, in Latin , c. 400 words, 2 pp. + 1 line on 2 ff.

Source: Ms. 925, The Babson College Grace K. Babson Collection of the Works of Sir Isaac Newton, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, USA

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by C.A. Stonehill for £5. In 2006, following the closure of the Dibner Institute, the holdings of the Babson Collection were transferred on permanent loan to the Hungtington Library, San Marino, California.

Sotheby Lot

SL61

Contents

One page of explanatory notes on Michael Sendivogius's Novum lumen chemicum (H1192). On f. 2, what appears to be a draft index, being a list of chemical terms (not in alphabetical order) followed by page numbers, and below this the same headwords written out again in alphabetical order.

Related Material

Detailed analysis, including arguments for dating, in Figala, 'Exakte Alchemie', 177-9, with most of the text transcribed in the relevant notes, p. 215. Cf. Keynes Mss. 19 and 55, and Yahuda Ms. Var. 259.4.