The Chymistry of Isaac Newton is pleased to announce the publication
of a new transcription of the
Smithsonian MS.Dibner 1031B, usually called "Of Natures obvious laws
& processes in vegetation".
An eleven-page tract, the manuscript represents Newton’s attempt to
provide a synopsis of a physical
theory that unifies and accounts for many if not most known natural
phenomena. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton
transcription includes a short text in Latin that follows the English
section, a highly significant testament
of Newton’s chymical philosophy that has remained up to now unedited,
un-translated, and virtually unnoticed
by Newton scholars.
This release also marks the launch of a full-text search engine built
using the California Digital Library
program developed eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) - a flexible
indexing, querying and delivery tool
that supports XML data formats.
Isaac Newton wrote and transcribed about a million words on the
subject of alchemy. Newton's alchemical
manuscripts include a rich and diverse set of document types,
including laboratory notebooks, indices of
alchemical substances, and Newton's transcriptions from other
sources. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton is
producing a scholarly online edition as one part of an integrated
project that includes new research on
Newton's “chymistry”, a seventeenth-century term used to describe the
sum of alchemical pursuits as they
existed in Newton's day.
With the support of the National Science Foundation, the current
project focus is to build a repository of
searchable transcriptions with page images. Our ultimate goal is to
provide complete annotations for each
manuscript and comprehensive interactive tools for working with the
texts. To date, about seven hundred
pages have been transcribed and encoded in the TEI P4. The Chymistry
of Isaac Newton is hosted by
Indiana University's Digital Library Program, and is affiliated with
The Newton Project originating at Imperial
College London.
The Chymistry of Isaac Newton can be viewed at:
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton
For more information about the Chymistry of Isaac Newton please contact
Professor William R. Newman, Indiana University Dept. of the History
and Philosophy of Science: wnewman AT indiana DOT edu
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Tamara Lopez
The Chymistry of Isaac Newton
Indiana University Digital Library Program
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton
812.856.3865
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