The University Library has launched a major new exhibition of the papers of Sir Isaac Newton, offering an unparalleled insight into the working life of Britain's foremost scientific genius.
The University Library has launched a major new exhibition of the papers of Sir Isaac Newton, offering an unparalleled insight into the working life of Britain's foremost scientific genius.
The University Library has launched a major new exhibition of the papers of Sir Isaac Newton, offering an unparalleled insight into the working life of Britain's foremost scientific genius.
Footprints of the Lion: Isaac Newton at Work opens today, Tuesday 9 October 2001. It brings together for the first time the University's existing archive of Newton papers with pieces from the recently acquired Macclesfield Collection.
The University Library acquired the Macclesfield Collection last year with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors. Its acquisition reunited the papers with the Portsmouth Collection, the principal archive of Newton's scientific papers, which was presented to the University by the fifth Earl of Portsmouth in 1872.
The two collections are closely inter-related and many of the letters included in the Portsmouth archive have their replies among the documents held in the Macclesfield Collection.
"This exhibition in itself marks the acquisition of one of the most important collections in the Library's history and we are delighted that we were able to re-unite these important papers and keep them in this country," said University Librarian, Peter Fox.
"For the first time for several hundreds of years we are able to put together a more comprehensive picture of this man who shaped the world we live in today.
"The collection shows Isaac Newton's creativity in letters and manuscripts on celestial mechanics and gravitation, his method of fluxions (the calculus), optics and chemistry.
"Newton's manuscripts and books, some of which are from his own library, tell an even more complex story of this genius that is quite different from that of the alchemist and heretic, who had, for much of his life, lived a private life and deliberately avoided publicity of any kind."
Among the extraordinary items on show are first editions of Opticks and the Principia annotated by Newton, manuscripts detailing solutions to the principal problems of celestial mechanics and his death mask from King's College Library. His feuds with other scientists are recorded, his early years are revealed, but pride of place goes to the manuscripts themselves, recorded in Newton's elegant script. They are as close as we will ever get to Newton's extraordinary mind.
Dates and times
Footprints of the Lion: Isaac Newton at Work, will be on public display from Tuesday 9 October 2001 to 23 March 2002 (closed 23rd December to 1 January inclusive) at the Exhibition Centre, Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge.
Opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am-6pm, Saturday 9am-4.30pm. Closed on Sundays.
Admission is free.
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