Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Ancient texts
- Part II Islamic and medieval texts
- Part III Renaissance and seventeenth-century texts
- 18 PARACELSUS (1493–1541): From Of the Nature of Things and Paracelsus His Aurora
- 19 FRANCIS ANTHONY (1550–1603): Aurum-Potabile: or the Receit of Dr. Fr. Antonie
- 20 MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS (1566–1636 or 1646): From A New Light of Alchymie and A Dialogue between Mercury, the Alchymist and Nature
- 21 ROBERT FLUDD (1574–1637): From the Mosaicall Philosophy
- 22 GABRIEL PLATTES (first half of seventeenth century): A Caveat for Alchymists
- 23 JOHN FRENCH (1616?–1657): Preface to The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus in XVII Books
- 24 GEORGE STARKEY/EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES (1628–1665?): The Admirable Efficacy, and almost incredible Virtue of true Oyl; From An Exposition Upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV
- 25 ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617–1692): From the “Prolegomena” to the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
- 26 ROBERT BOYLE (1627–1691): From An Historical Account of a Degradation of Gold Made by an Anti-Elixir: A Strange Chymical Narative
- 27 SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642–1727): The Key (Keynes MS 18); The Commentary on the Emerald Tablet (Keynes MS 28)
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
27 - SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642–1727): The Key (Keynes MS 18); The Commentary on the Emerald Tablet (Keynes MS 28)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Ancient texts
- Part II Islamic and medieval texts
- Part III Renaissance and seventeenth-century texts
- 18 PARACELSUS (1493–1541): From Of the Nature of Things and Paracelsus His Aurora
- 19 FRANCIS ANTHONY (1550–1603): Aurum-Potabile: or the Receit of Dr. Fr. Antonie
- 20 MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS (1566–1636 or 1646): From A New Light of Alchymie and A Dialogue between Mercury, the Alchymist and Nature
- 21 ROBERT FLUDD (1574–1637): From the Mosaicall Philosophy
- 22 GABRIEL PLATTES (first half of seventeenth century): A Caveat for Alchymists
- 23 JOHN FRENCH (1616?–1657): Preface to The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus in XVII Books
- 24 GEORGE STARKEY/EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES (1628–1665?): The Admirable Efficacy, and almost incredible Virtue of true Oyl; From An Exposition Upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV
- 25 ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617–1692): From the “Prolegomena” to the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
- 26 ROBERT BOYLE (1627–1691): From An Historical Account of a Degradation of Gold Made by an Anti-Elixir: A Strange Chymical Narative
- 27 SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642–1727): The Key (Keynes MS 18); The Commentary on the Emerald Tablet (Keynes MS 28)
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 14 February 1727/28, Humphrey Newton wrote to John Conduitt:
About 6 weeks at spring, and 6 at the fall, the fire in the elaboratory scarcely went out, which was well furnished with chemical materials as bodies, receivers, heads, crucibles, etc., which was made very little use of, the crucibles excepted, in which he fused his metals; he would sometimes, tho’ very seldom, look into an old mouldy book which lay in his elaboratory, I think it was titled Agricola de Metallis, the transmuting of metals being his chief design … His brick furnaces, pro re nata, he made and altered himself without troubling a bricklayer. [Quoted in Betty Jo Dobbs, Foundations 8.]
The experimenter in question was not a deluded alchemist pursuing ignes fatui in a squalid workhouse, such as one finds in paintings by Brueghel or Teniers, but Sir Isaac Newton. Thanks to much pioneering study in the last quarter century, it is now widely known that this great investigator of light and optics, planetary motion, mathematics, and physics, was also a tireless experimenter in matters alchemical. The late Professor Dobbs has stated that “most of [Newton's] great powers were poured out upon church history, theology, ‘the chronology of ancient kingdoms,’ prophecy, and alchemy” (Foundations 6) – not upon “scientific” interests.
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- Information
- The Alchemy ReaderFrom Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton, pp. 243 - 247Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003