 |
 |
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 ----------------------------------------------------------- Tamara Lopez The Chymistry of Isaac Newton Indiana University Digital Library Program http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton 812.856.3865 ------------------------------------------------------------