Isaac Newton
English physicist, mathematician and alchemist
- Born
- 1642, Woolsthorpe, England
- Died
- 1727, London
- Known for
- Laws of motion; universal gravitation; calculus
- Also studied
- Alchemy, biblical prophecy, chronology
- Manuscript
- Emerald Tablet translation, Keynes MS 28 (1680s–90s)
The founder of classical physics, who also spent years on alchemy and translated the Emerald Tablet.
What is Isaac Newton known for?
Isaac Newton is best known for the Principia (1687), which set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation, and for his work on optics and calculus. He was Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, later Master of the Royal Mint, and President of the Royal Society.
He also wrote over a million words on alchemy and theology that were little known until his private papers were sold in 1936. Among them is his English translation of the Emerald Tablet, the short Hermetic text that underlies European alchemy, usually dated between the early 1680s and early 1690s. It begins 'Tis true without lying, certain and most true' and contains the famous principle that what is below is like what is above. The manuscript, Keynes MS 28, is at King's College, Cambridge, and is catalogued by the Newton Project.
Historians see his alchemy not as a strange sideline but as part of his search for the hidden workings of nature.
His 1680s translation of the Emerald Tablet is the version the site quotes.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeEmerald Tablet
- PersonWilliam Whiston
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Isaac Newton'Reference
- The Newton Project, 'Translation and transcription of the Tabula Smaragdina' (Keynes MS 28)Primary text
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