Catalogue Entry: ALCH00091

A large compilation of alchemical citations woven into a continuous text (1690s).

Author: Isaac Newton

Metadata: Not yet dated, in Latin , c. 17,500 words, 56 pp. of which 8 blank.

Source: Ms. 417, 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

The complete lot was bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £58 and offered to Keynes on 13 August 1936 for the sale price plus 20%. Keynes returned it and it was invoiced to Yahuda for the same price on 23 December 1936. Its subsequent fate is unclear: at some point it was split up and the smaller part acquired by Bern Dibner (now in the Dibner Institute, NMAHRB Mss. 1041B). 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

Part of SL63

Contents

1. Citations from a wide range of sources, including Lull, Aristotle, Faber, Maier and Basil Valentine. Under the headings: 'Operationum Ordo' (this heading occurs twice in succession but followed by different texts); 'Materiæ Mineralis præparatio prima et conversio in aquam'; 'Extractio et Rectificatio Spiritus'; 'Extractio et Rectificatio Animæ et calcinatio Corporis'; 'Reductio'; 38 pp. of which 6 blank.

2. Earlier drafts of various sections of the above, with the additional headings 'Elementorum Qualitates' and 'Præparatio Corporis'; 18 pp. of which 2 blank.

Related Material

Cf. Keynes Mss. 40 and 41 and Dibner Institute NMAHRB Mss. 1070 A. See also Dobbs (who suggests the date), 'Newton Manuscripts at the Smithsonian', 106.