Abstract
AN interesting sale of manuscripts is advertised by Messrs. Sotheby and Co., 34 and 35 New Bond Street, on July 13 and the following day. Readers of NATURE may remember the “Portsmouth Papers”, strictly a “Catalogue of the Portsmouth Collection of Books and Papers written by or belonging to Sir Isaac Newton”, published by the Cambridge University Press in 1888. The then Earl of Portsmouth presented the scientific part of these papers to the University, and an influential syndicate of the University issued a catalogue of the whole, and took a copy of the more important letters that it did not keep, and returned these to Lord Portsmouth. The Portsmouth family, which has a connexion with Newton, has put the manuscripts, or such as they have now, in the hands of all serious workers, from Horsley to L. T. More. Viscount Lymington, the heir of the Earl of Portsmouth, has now instructed Messrs. Sotheby to sell them. It might thus seem that there was little except personal matters to find. Many of the letters have been published, accurately or inaccurately, whole or in part, in various well-known sources. But the list includes, for example, such items as “three thick folio volumes”, which we did not know of, relating to the Mint and containing documents in Newton's hand. It makes one leave in suspense the Cambridge report, that “Newton's manuscripts on Alchemy are of very little interest in themselves”, probable as this may seem in itself, and though the syndicate contained one notable chemist. Also Messrs. Sotheby have added some celebrated portraits to their list. The sale should be well attended; for though most of the contents that are valuable are available, many would like a copy of Newton's beautiful handwriting and that of his contemporaries, apart from those that contemplate a more extensive purchase.
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Newton Manuscripts. Nature 138, 18–19 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138018d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138018d0