Allen Meagan S
a Indiana University , Bloomington , USA.
Ambix. 2019 Feb;66(1):72-81. doi: 10.1080/00026980.2019.1573523. Epub 2019 Feb 5.
Previous attempts to date the five editions of Isaac Newton's Index Chemicus found in Keynes MS 30 (King's College Library, Cambridge University) have relied on an incomplete examination of the citations Newton provides for his references. This study shows that a full examination of all Newton's citations provides a more accurate method of dating, and thus pushes the timeline of production for all versions forward several years from the early 1680s to the early 1690s. It also proves that authors previously thought to be unimportant to Newton's late alchemical writings, such as Robert Boyle, played a larger role than once recognised. Finally, Newton's use of a text received from Fatio de Duillier for the later versions of the Index Chemicus suggests that the final versions may have been the product of a collaboration between the two.
此前，对现存于剑桥大学国王学院图书馆凯恩斯手稿30中的艾萨克·牛顿《化学索引》五个版本进行年代测定的尝试，都依赖于对牛顿所提供参考文献的不完整审查。本研究表明，全面审查牛顿所有的参考文献能提供更准确的年代测定方法，从而将所有版本的成书时间从17世纪80年代初向前推进数年至17世纪90年代初。研究还证明，一些此前被认为对牛顿后期炼金术著作不太重要的作者，如罗伯特·波义耳，所起的作用比人们曾认为的更大。最后，牛顿在《化学索引》后期版本中使用了从法蒂奥·德·迪利埃处获得的文本，这表明最终版本可能是两人合作的成果。
