• Elias Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum

Curatorial Notes:

• This copy of Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum was owned by Isaac Newton. Newton’s notes reveal both a practical and a historical interest in 15th-century alchemical verses, particularly those of George Ripley. Newton paid close attention to references to the philosophical mercury, sometimes adding cross-references to Eirenaeus Philalethes’ discussion of mercury in Secrets Reveal’d. Here, below the title of Ripley’s dedicatory poem to Edward IV, Newton notes that the king “raigned from 1460 to 1483.”

Credit Line:

• E.F. Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Identifier:

• ark:/88435/dctd96kc89d