Catalogue Record: ALCH00041

Transcript of 'S^r George Ripley His Epistle to K Edward unfolded'

Author: Isaac Newton

c. late 1660s/ early 1670s, in English with some Latin and Greek, c. 10,000 words, 17 pp. on 9 ff.

[View normalized text at Chymistry of Isaac Newton]

Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 52

Location: King's College, Cambridge

Sotheby Lot: SL92

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £11.10s. and sold to Keynes on 13 August 1936 for the sale price plus 20%: see Spargo, '1936 sale', 127.

Contents

A complete transcript of this important alchemical tract [by 'Eirenæus Philalethes', i.e. George Starkey], plus excerpts from a variant version, beginning on f. 7v under the heading 'Ex chartis M^r Sloane'.

Related Material

This does not correspond to any of the three published versions of the work in question and predates two of them (it appeared in Chymical, Medicinal, and Chirurgical Addresses made to Mr Samuel Hartlib Esq. (1655: H378), on its own in 1677 and in Ripley Reviv'd (1678: H1407)). It can be collated with BL Sloane 633, while the variant excerpts correspond to BL Sloane 3633. See Dobbs, Foundations, 113 and Wilkinson, 'Bibliographical puzzles', 235-44. See also Keynes Mss. 17, 51, 53, 54.