Catalogue Entry: THEM00036
Two original letters to Newton
Custodial History
Bought by Maggs Brothers at the Sotheby sale for £5 and sold to Keynes on 4 August 1936 for the sale price plus 20%.
Sotheby Lot
SL224Contents
Both letters request permission to publish a French translation [by Nicolas Fréret] of the 'Short Chronicle'. Newton did not reply to the first of these or to the personal enquiry made (according to the second letter) by a friend of Cavelier. He did respond to the second, curtly refusing such authorisation, but by the time this reply was received Cavelier had (or so he claimed) interpreted silence as consent and the work had already gone to press. It appeared as Abregé de la Chronologie de M. le Chevalier Newton, fait par lui-même (Paris, 1725), supplemented by critical 'Observations' by the translator. Cavelier refers to this correspondence in his 'Advertisement' to the book. See Manuel, Newton, Historian, 21-36 for a detailed account of the affair.
Notes
Both holograph, both sent from Paris.
Related Material
The letters are printed in NC, 7: 279-80 and 311-12. Cf. Yahuda Var. 1 Ms. 27 for Newton's furious response to the publication, and Keynes Ms. 139 for the original English version of the treatise in question.
