Skip to main content

Primary sourceDocumentc. 1692

Roth Mallor's Work

Isaac Newton · c. 1692

Newton's handwritten extracts from alchemist Erasmus Rothmaler, linked to his work with John Locke on Robert Boyle's papers.

Newton's own handwritten alchemical extracts, showing his collaboration with John Locke on Robert Boyle's papers.

Ask Isaac Newton about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Scan of a handwritten manuscript page in brown ink on aged paper. Top lines describe making a fusible salt and a menstruum that dissolves gold; a crossed-out word appears in the second recipe. Lower half of the sheet is blank and faded.
Isaac Newton, Roth Mallor's Work, c. 1692.

About this source

What it is

This manuscript, written around 1692 in Isaac Newton's own hand, consists of extracts from the writings of the German alchemist Erasmus Rothmaler. The back of the page contains two unrelated chemical recipes for dissolving gold and other substances.

Why it matters

This document connects three major thinkers of late seventeenth-century England: Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Robert Boyle. After Boyle's death, Newton worked with Locke to study Boyle's alchemical papers in search of the secret of transmutation. A recipe matching this manuscript even appears, in Latin, in one of Locke's own diary entries from 1692, showing the two men were sharing and comparing this material directly.

Look closer

  • What does the crossed-out word in the second recipe suggest about how Newton was working as he wrote?
  • Why might Newton and Locke have been so interested in Boyle's old alchemical papers after his death?
  • What does this collaboration between Newton and Locke reveal about the overlap between science and alchemy at the time?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Isaac Newton on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Isaac Newton sources

Meet the AI Isaac Newton →
Title page of the 1687 first edition of Newton's Principia. Large capitals read PHILOSOPHIÆ NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, with author credit, Imprimatur by S. Pepys, dated Julii 5, 1686, and London printing by Josephi Streater, Anno MDCLXXXVII.Book

Primary source

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Isaac Newton · 1687

Title page with a page number marked [1] at top, reading PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS Principia MATHEMATICA, followed by the heading Definitiones and Def. I, with a Latin definition of quantity of matter in italic type. Faint bleed-through text from the reverse page is visible.Book

Primary source

Principia Mathematica, Page 1: Definitions

Isaac Newton · 1687

Black-and-white line engraving of an elderly man with long, wavy white hair seated in a dark armchair, wearing a dark coat, waistcoat, and white cravat, with his hands resting on his knee. A column appears at the right. Inscribed beneath: 'ISAACUS NEWTON EQ. AUR. ÆT. 83', with 'I. Vanderbank pinxit 1725' at lower left and 'Geo. Vertue Sculpsit 1726' at lower right.Painting

Primary source

Sir Isaac Newton, line engraving by Vertue, 1726

George Vertue · 1726

Engraved diagram on a cream page within a book, showing a curved comet path from Sol at left, with dated positions such as Nov. 25, Dec. 12, Jan. 5 and Mar. 5, labeled orbit lines and a sphere intersection line.Document

Primary source

Principia Mathematica, Fold-out Diagram

Isaac Newton · 1687

Engraved portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, a man with long curled wig and dark robe, bust-length, against a shaded background. Caption below reads 'SIR ISAAC NEWTON' and publisher 'William Collins Glasgow & London'.Painting

Primary source

Sir Isaac Newton, stipple engraving by J. Scott after Kneller, 1702

J. Scott, after Sir Godfrey Kneller · 1702 (print made later)

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Isaac Newton now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions