Abstract

Reconstructing the evolution of the ‘Origines’ shows howits text developed through at least four versions and was leftunfinished. By paying detailed attention to Newton's own orderingpractices, it becomes clear that Newton was continuously reordering hismaterials. Two writings, titled ‘Original of Religions’and ‘Original of Monarchies’, turn out to have beenconsecutive chapters of a larger work Newton composed during the firstdecade of the eighteenth century, provisionally titled‘Originals’, of which at least eight stages can beidentified. Here, Newton began including elements from genealogy andastronomy to greatly reduce and synchronize existing Greek and Latinhistories. The ‘Originals’ shows a clear continuity from‘Origines’ to Chronology, retaining bothits chronological and religious dimensions.

Keywords: Isaac Newton; chronology;‘Origines’; ‘Original of Monarchies’;‘Original of Religions’; ‘Originals’

[t]he general confusion of [these] manuscripts is not easy to describe.Sometimes Newton wrote from left to right, then turned the page andwrote from top to bottom over the same sheet. The chance juxtapositionof ideas is delightfully surrealistic: on a receipt of two pounds twoshillings dated January 31, 1721, ‘towards the Relief of PoorProseleytes, for the year 1722,’ there is a computation of theyear of the return of the Hericlidae […]

The subjects run into each other, and one must be wary lest Chiron theCentaur appear as a worker at the Mint for whom a raise (delayed sixtyyears) is being requested by the new Master.