Enlightening Science

‘Bringing Newton's science to life’

Newton the Man

[Multimedia Resources] [Texts]

Multimedia Resources

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  • Rebekah Higgit, Fontenelle's Eloge In the first of three vodcasts on the literary treatments of Newton's life, Rebekah Higgit tells the surprising story of his first biography. Rebekah Higgit is Curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and an expert on Newtonian biography.[ 640x360 m4v (64.2 Mb)]
  • Rebekah Higgit, 18th Century British Biographies In second of three vodcasts on the literary treatments of Newton's life, Rebekah Higgit, Curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and an expert on Newtonian biography, talks about the image of Newton promoted in eighteenth-century British biographies. [ 1280x720 mp4 (51.7 Mb)]
  • Rebekah Higgit, Newton Re-Examined In the last of the three vodcasts on the literary treatments of Newton's life, Rebekah Higgit, Curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and an expert on Newtonian biography, talks about how the image of Newton changed through new archival discoveries in the nineteenth century. [ 1280x720 mp4 (53.5 Mb)]

Texts

Sorted by date

  • John Flamsteed, Suppressed preface to the Historia cœlestis britannica Date: 1717 Shelfmark: RGO Ms. 1/32C, ff. 74-93 Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK
  • John Conduitt, Account of Newton's life before going to university Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.02 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Fair copy of the Memoir of Newton Date: mid-1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.01 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Drafts of various sections of the Memoir of Newton Date: mid-1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.02 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft chapter on 'the State of Philosophy in general when Sir Isaac Newton first appeared' Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.01 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft account of Newton's life at Cambridge Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.04 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Notes on Newton's character Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.07 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Notes on Newton's care for his mother Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.08 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Account of Newton's manual dexterity Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.09 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Anecdotes about Newton from various sources Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.10 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Account of a conversation with Newton, mainly about comets Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.11 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Extracts from Newton's notebooks Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.12 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Notes on Newton's dispute with Robert Hooke Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.13 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Notes on Newton's suitability for canonisation if not deification Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.14 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Eye-witness account of Newton's death Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.15 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Note on Newton's 'unpromising' infancy and (deleted) eulogy of Alexander Pope Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.16 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Rough draft preface for the Life of Newton Date: c. 1727-8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.17 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft account of Newton's early life Date: 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.03 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Thomas Mason, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 23 March 1726/7 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 134 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Three drafts of a letter to Bernard de Fontenelle Date: 27 March 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.04 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Bernard de Fontenelle, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 14 April 1727 (New Style) Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.05 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Anonymous, Press report of Newton's funeral Date: 4 April 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.12 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, French translation of Conduitt's memoir and of the report of Newton's funeral from the London Gazette Date: 4 April 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.03 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Craig, Copy letter to [?] Date: 7 April 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 132 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Anonymous, Anonymous letter occasioned by Newton's death Date: 8 April 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.13 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Memoir of Newton Date: 24 June-15 July 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.03 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 26 June 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.02 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Richard Mead, Letter to John Conduitt forwarding the material received to that date from Stukeley Date: 7 July 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.04 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 15 July 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.05 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft letter to Bernard de Fontenelle Date: c. 21 July 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.06 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 22 July 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.08 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft letter to Fontenelle Date: 31 July 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.07 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft letter to Fontenelle Date: 5 Oct. 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.08 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Abraham de Moivre, 'Memorandums relating to Sr Isaac Newton' Date: November 1727 Shelfmark: Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection Ms. 1075.7 Location: Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection, Chicago University Library, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Bernard de Fontenelle, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 15 Nov. 1727 (New Style) Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.09 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft letter to Fontenelle Date: 23 Nov. 1727 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.10 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft letter to Fontenelle Date: 1 Jan. 1727/8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.11 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Whiston, Account of Newton Date: 1728 Published in: Collections of Authentick Records (1728), pp. 1070-1082
  • Bernard de Fontenelle, 'The Life of Sir Isaac Newton' Date: 1728 Published in: The Life of Sir Isaac Newton. With an Account of his Writings (1728)
  • Henry Pemberton, 'A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy' Date: 1728 Published in: A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy (1728)
  • Nicholas Wickins, Letter to Professor Robert Smith Date: 16 Jan 1727/8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 137 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 16 Jan. 1727/8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.01 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Humphrey Newton, Two letters to John Conduitt Date: 17 Jan. and 14 Feb. 1727/8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 135 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 13 Feb. 1727/8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.06 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft of a circular letter soliciting material for a projected Life of Newton Date: 16 Feb. 1728 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 131.a Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 29 Feb. 1727/8 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 136.07 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, Draft letter to [Robert Brown?] Date: 4 June 1729 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 131.b Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • John Conduitt, 'Miscellanea' (assorted notes and anecdotes concerning Newton) Date: after 13 May 1730 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 130.05 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Fatio de Duillier, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 8 August 1730 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 96(F) Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Fatio de Duillier, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 12 August 1730 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 96(G) Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Fatio de Duillier, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 26 August 1730 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 96(H) Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Owen Swiny, Letter to John Conduitt Date: 16/27 September 1730 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 131.c Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Ferdinand de Saint-Urbain, Three letters to John Conduitt Date: 16 Aug. 1730, 12 Oct. 1730 and 9 Jan. 1730 (new style) Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 131.d Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • Andrew Ramsay, 'Plan of Education for a Young Prince' Date: 29 July 1732 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 129.14 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Derham, Memoir of Newton Date: 18 July 1733 Shelfmark: Keynes Ms. 133 Location: King's College, Cambridge
  • William Stukeley, Revised memoir of Newton Date: c. 1752 Shelfmark: Ms. 142 Location: Royal Society Library, London, UK
  • J.B. Biot, Life of Sir Isaac Newton Published in: trans. H. Elphinstone in Lives of Eminent Persons (London: 1833)
  • Thomas Galloway, 'Reviews of Three French and English Biographies of Newton' Date: 1833 Published in: Foreign Quarterly Review No. 12, pp. 1-27.
  • Thomas Galloway, Life and Observations of Flamsteed -- Newton, Halley, and Flamsteed Date: 1836 Published in: Edinburgh Review No. 62, pp. 359-97.
  • William Whewell, Newton and Flamsteed. Remarks on an Article in Number CIX. of the Quarterly Review (Cambridge: 1836) Published in: Newton and Flamsteed. Remarks on an Article in Number CIX. of the Quarterly Review (Cambridge: 1836)
  • David Brewster, Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on Newton Published in: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed (1842), pp. 175-181
  • Augustus De Morgan, 'Newton' Date: 1846 Published in: Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies No. 11, pp. 78-117.
  • David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: 1855)
  • David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: 1855)
  • Augustus De Morgan, 'Review of Sir David Brewster's Life of Newton' Date: 1855 Published in: North British Review No. 23, pp. 307-38.
  • Anonymous, 'Review of the "Memoirs of Isaac Newton"'Published in: The Times (21 September 1855), pp. 8e-9a.
  • Baden Powell, 'Sir Isaac Newton' Published in: Edinburgh Review (1856), pp. 499-534
  • Augustus De Morgan, Newton: His Friend: and His Niece (London: 1885) Published in: Newton: His Friend: and His Niece (London: 1885)

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