Reading for the ‘Origines’

Isaac Newton must have been rather busy during the 1680s. His amanuensis atthe time, Humphrey Newton, later recalled how Newton devoted much of histime to the arcane art, alchemy, a testimony backed by countless notes andexcerpts from alchemical books and treatises and by the experiments recordedin his notebooks. Likewise, the manuscript record shows he must have spentthousands of hours studying the prophecies in Scripture, as well as thehistory of the Church with particular attention to the Arian controversy ofthe fourth century CE. The middle of the decade was most likely devotedentirely to the Principia, the work that would grant himinstant fame. And then there were what one might call his extracurricularactivities, vehemently resisting James II's attempts to make aBenedictine monk (Alban Francis, d. 1715) Master of Arts at Cambridge, andtaking up his seat as a member of the Convention Parliament in 1689. Still,he found time to work on another project, the study of chronology, and withgreat zeal. It was a project that would stay with him for the rest of hislife, eventually leading to the posthumously published Chronology ofAncient Kingdoms Amended (1728).

So far, little research has been done into how Newton actually studied forand composed his chronological writings. His library contained hundreds ofbooks related to the history, chronology, geography, and languages of theancient world, books that Newton not just owned, but thoroughly studied.