The recipe was discovered by the nonprofit Chemical Heritage Foundation, which acquired it by auction in February. This has been corrected in the printed source.To modern ears, alchemy sounds like a fairy tale, but in the 17th century it captured the attention of many leading scientific minds, including that of Sir Isaac Newton.Ī recently rediscovered manuscript reveals Newton's handwritten recipe for one of the proposed ingredients of the Philosopher’s Stone, the mythical key to successful alchemy, a tradition that sought to purify or perfect objects, such as by transmuting lead into gold. ‘There’s at least one mistake in the manuscript he’s copying.’ The author uses the Latin phrase ‘ex,’ which means ‘out of,’ rather than ‘et,’ which means ‘and,’ which Newton recognizes as a mistake and corrects square brackets. ‘He was likely transcribing a manuscript that existed before the printed piece was published,’ adds Voelkel. ‘Because he didn’t exist, he could publish under a different name and entirely control people’s “access” to that person because he didn’t exist.Īlthough it is impossible to say when Newton’s copy of Philalethes’ sophick mercury manuscript was written, it may predate the first known printed edition published in 1678. ‘Having this alter ego was quite beneficial for Starkey because he didn’t have to be the person to whom these papers were attributed,’ Voelkel explains. ![]() In 1650, Starkey traveled to England and collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned chemists, including Robert Boyle. Historians now know that this was a pseudonym created by George Starkey, a Harvard-educated chemist who was one of the first published scientists in the United States. The first sophick mercury document was written by Eirenaeus Philalethes, a well-known alchemist at the time. ![]() The correspondence between Newton’s view and that of numerous alchemical authors is superb.’ Alchemical Anonymity ‘There is a notation in this case about an experiment he conducted, and it’s a method for making a volatile spirit from lead ore. ‘With Newton’s manuscripts, it’s common for him to turn them over and write something else on the back if they lie around long enough,’ adds Voelkel. The document also includes a description of one of Newton’s original experiments, in addition to the copied text. However, Voelkel claims that attempting it ‘would not have been out of character.’ ![]() His laboratory diary, which is now held at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, makes no mention of the procedure. The concept is that you can disassemble the metals and recombine them to make various metals.’ He adds that the procedure was part of the effort to create the philosopher’s stone, a mythological material thought by alchemists to be capable of turning lead into gold.Īlthough it is unknown whether Newton attempted to produce sophick mercury, it is possible that he utilized the work as a reference when undertaking his alchemical experiments. “Philosophic mercury was supposed to be a material that could be used to break down metals into their constituent parts,” says James Voelkel, the CHF’s curator of rare books. The title translates as ‘Preparation of the Sophick Mercury for the Philosopher’s Stone by the Antimonial Stellate Regulus of Mars and Luna from the Manuscripts of the American Philosopher.’ It explains how to make ‘sophick’ mercury (short for ‘philosophic’ mercury). ![]() The paper is a copy of another alchemist’s known manuscript, written in Latin, as usual. After decades in a private collection, the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) of the United States purchased a 17th-century alchemical manuscript handwritten by Isaac Newton.
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