Catalogue Entry: ALCH00044

Notes on Sendivogius (c. 1685-90).

Author: Isaac Newton

Metadata: Not yet dated, in English and Latin , c. 12,000 words, 37 pp. on 21 ff.

Source: Keynes Ms. 55, King's College, Cambridge, UK

[Normalized Text (at Chymistry of Isaac Newton)]

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £17.10s. and sold to Keynes on 13 August for (mysteriously) exactly the same price: see Spargo, '1936 sale', 127.

Sotheby Lot

SL97

Contents

f. 1r 'Sendivogius Explained': notes on Treatises 1-7 and 9-12 [of Sendivogius's A New Light of Alchymie (English translation London, 1650)], with precise page and line numbers for each reference.

f. 13r 'The Preface to y^e Philosophick Riddle'

'The Philosophick Riddle'

f. 15v Very brief notes on 'The Dialogue between Mercury the Alchymist & Nature'; 'The 3 principles of all things'; 'Of Sulphur' (ff. 15v-16r).

f. 17r-21r 'Sendivogius explained': another set of notes on Sendivogius, in Latin.

Related Material

Earlier copies (not in Newton's hand) of ff. 1-12 in BL Sloane Mss. 3630.6 (ff. 102-12) and 3778.1 (ff. 2-18). Sloane Ms. 3630 belonged to Richard Dee in 1648, so this section is undoubtedly not by Newton. Figala ('Exakte Alchemie, 183) identifies it as an extract from a lost work ascribed to 'Philalethes', though she doubts whether in this case this means George Starkey. See also Keynes Ms. 19, Yahuda Ms. Var. 259.4, Babson Ms. 925, Dibner Institute, and H1192 and 1485.