The Works of Tacitus, from the library of Sir Isaac Newton
The timeline pictured on this page is meant to provide a broad overview of the history of Newton’s library and the journey it took after his death. A more in-depth examination of the journey of Newton’s library can be found in subsequent portions of this exhibition.
Sir Isaac Newton was a well-read scholar, and his personal library reflects the diversity of his interests. His library held both scientific and non-scientific books, and in John Harrison’s subject analysis of the 1,752 titles compiled in his catalogue, 27.5% related to theology. This large collection of works on theology is not surprising when one considers that Newton kept extensive private notebooks documenting his theological research. Books on the topic of alchemy and chemistry accounted for the next largest proportion of his library at 9.5%, followed by classical literature at 8.6%, and history at 8.3%.
Newton owned three copies of the Works of Tacitus; ours is the first of the three editions from his library to resurface. His other two copies were both printed in Amsterdam in 1661 and 1685 respectively.
Newton pursued many scholarly projects throughout his life, including one that was published posthumously, Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728). This treatise mapped the origin myths of numerous mythologies onto sacred history to demonstrate how they all referred to Noah and his sons. This historical tradition aimed to use methods from chronology and linguistics to explain how all religions had a common origin of Judaism. The history of Noah and his sons became the central focus in this tradition as well. The main methodology Newton used for this work was to identify people from different mythologies based upon similar details of their lives and deeds.
Newton likely studied his copies of Tacitus while working on the Chronology, but another book present in our acquisition was also a subject of his study during the writing of this treatise. Cornelis Schilt notes in Isaac Newton and the Study of Chronology (2021) the disdain Newton shared with Flavius Josephus over the historiography of the ancient Greeks. Greek city states never had a stable political climate, making their histories unreliable, as they had to rebuild their civilizations each time they fell and they would often rewrite their origins. Newton had two copies of the Works of Josephus, one in its original Greek and Latin, and one in English. The English copy is located today with the portion of his library at Trinity College, Cambridge, but the Greek and Latin edition has not been found to date.