Catalogue Entry: ALCH00014
Short extracts from an assortment of alchemical writers (early to mid-1670s).
Custodial History
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £9 and sold to Keynes on 19 August 1636 for the sale price plus 20%.
Sotheby Lot
SL26Contents
f. 1r 'Out of Flammel./ The ffirst agent [not 'Angel' as stated in the Sotheby catalogue] painted in Abraham ye Iews 4 Hieroglyphicks', in English. From the same source as Keynes Ms. 14.
f. 1v 'Out of ye Comment[ary] on Ripleys Epistle to K. Edward' [i.e. 'Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward Unfolded' by 'Eirenæus Philalethes'], in English.
f. 2r 'Ex libro de Metallorum Metamorphosi', in Latin.
f. 2v 'Ex Brevi Manuductione ad Rubinum cælestem', in Latin.
'Ex Fonte Chemicæ Philosophiæ', in Latin.
f. 3v 'Iterum ex Comment[ario] in Ripl[æi] Epist[ola] ad Reg[em] Edw[ardum]', in English with one sentence of Latin.
'Ex Epistola Com[itis] Trevisani ad Thom[am] Bonon[iam]', in Latin.
f. 4r 'Ex Artephio', in Latin.
'Ex Turba [i.e. 'Turba Philosophorum']', in Latin.
Notes
Same watermark (with countermark AI) as Mellon Ms. 79 (probably mid-1670s), the essay 'De ære et æthere' (date uncertain but definitely not before 1673), part of the 'Hypothesis' sent to the Royal Society in December 1675, and a letter to Hooke of the same month: see Shapiro, 'Dating Game', 195-6.
Related Material
See Dobbs, Foundations, 132 for discussion of the sources and dating of this manuscript. Apart from the first two items, Newton could have taken all this from Zetzner's Theatrum Chemicum. The first five are all based on works of 'Philalethes'. Cf. also Keynes Mss. 14, 29, 36 and Yahuda Ms. Var. 259.
