Catalogue Entry: THEM00105

Notes on ancient history and mythology

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: MSS.Temp3.Miss, Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

[Translation] [Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

Custodial History

Originally with Trinity College R.16.38 f. 436A, q.v. for the sale history.

Sotheby Lot

Part of SL296

Contents

Notes and drafts related to Philosophiæ gentilis origines philosophicæ. Includes sections on the Egyptians and Tyrrhenians, on history before the Flood, and on the correspondences between the deities of different mythologies. Page 3 features notes on alchemical codewords, and was apparently incorporated into this document by mistake. Page 17 has a family tree showing the descent of the supposed Egyptian and Greek deities from Noah.

Page 15 carries the sub-headings 'Historia antediluviatis ex Abideno' and 'Abydenus ex Beroso'.

There is a citation on p. 23 from the 1684 English translation of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's Six voyages (first published in French, Paris, 1676).

Many passages are variant drafts of other texts on the same topic, especially Yahuda Ms. 16.2.

[1] Pl. Qu. Rom.

[2] Plut. Quæst Rom.

[3] b Saturn l. 1 c 27

[4] c Geor l. 2

[5] d Gen 10.15

[6] e Iustin. l. 18 § 3.

[Editorial Note 1] The remaining fragment of text on this page is written upside down.

© 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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