Catalogue Entry: ALCH00050

'Thesaurus Thesaurorum sive Medicina Aurea'.

Author: Isaac Newton

Metadata: Not yet dated, in English (apart from the title and the concluding remark 'Laus Deo') , c. 1,200 words, 5 pp. on 3 ff.

Source: Keynes Ms. 61, King's College, Cambridge, UK

[Normalized Text (at Chymistry of Isaac Newton)]

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £9.10s. and sold to Keynes on 22 July 1936 for £12.10s.: see Spargo, '1936 sale', 126.

Sotheby Lot

SL107

Contents

Transcribed from an unpublished manuscript (see Dobbs, Janus Faces, 123). Begins with a defence of alchemical writings which, despite their apparent obscurity, do contain real truths, and proceeds to a detailed recipe for producing a red 'elixir' to transmute all metals into gold.