Diagram in papers for Commercium Epistolicum
Date
10 December 1672
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p20
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 319mm
width (page): 214mm
width (page): 214mm
Subject
Description
Diagram from a copied extract of Isaac Newton's letter to John Collins dated 10 December 1672, in which he showed that Renatus Franciscus Slusius's method of drawing tangents is a particular case of Newton's more general method. Another copy exists in this volume at MS/81/34/030.
The Royal Society catalogue entry for MS/81/28 gives the date as 8 June 1675. However, on the page it says 'Out of Mr Newton's letter of the 10th of December 1672'. It is unclear whether the extract of this letter was made in 1672, or whether only the original letter was written then and MS/81 was mainly copied during 1674-75.
This volume contains the letters and papers of John Collins (1625-1683), which came into the possession of William Jones (1675-1749), who used them in Commercium Epistolicum, designed to prove Isaac Newton’s priority over Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the invention of fluxions (calculus).
The original letters were sealed up at the order of the Royal Society's council (25 October 1714) and stored in an iron chest. Further letters used in the 1722 edition of Commercium Epistolicum must have been added and stored with the original papers. These were ordered on 13 September 1737 to be ‘taken out of the Iron Chest’ and entrusted to Jones, who was asked to paste them into a guard-book in one volume (CMO/2/252, CMO/3/73).
The Royal Society catalogue entry for MS/81/28 gives the date as 8 June 1675. However, on the page it says 'Out of Mr Newton's letter of the 10th of December 1672'. It is unclear whether the extract of this letter was made in 1672, or whether only the original letter was written then and MS/81 was mainly copied during 1674-75.
This volume contains the letters and papers of John Collins (1625-1683), which came into the possession of William Jones (1675-1749), who used them in Commercium Epistolicum, designed to prove Isaac Newton’s priority over Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the invention of fluxions (calculus).
The original letters were sealed up at the order of the Royal Society's council (25 October 1714) and stored in an iron chest. Further letters used in the 1722 edition of Commercium Epistolicum must have been added and stored with the original papers. These were ordered on 13 September 1737 to be ‘taken out of the Iron Chest’ and entrusted to Jones, who was asked to paste them into a guard-book in one volume (CMO/2/252, CMO/3/73).
Transcription
Endorsed 'No. 39: p. 123' [reference to the 1722 edition of Commercium Epistolicum].
Out of Mr Newton's Letter of the 10th of December 1672
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Out of Mr Newton's Letter of the 10th of December 1672
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
An extracxt (without the diagram) printed in Commercium Epistolicum D. Johannis Collins, et aliorum De analysi promota (London: Typis Pearsonianis, 1712), p. 43; Commercium epistolicum D. Johannis Collins, et aliorum de analysi promota (London: J. Tonson & J. Watts, 1722), p. 123.
Related fellows
John Collins (1625 - 1683, British) , Mathematician, Mathematician
Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727, British) , Natural philosopher
Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727, British) , Natural philosopher
Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
Associated place