The Renaissance Mathematics aka Thony Christie put up a review of my Isaac Newton and the Study of Chronology: Prophecy, History, and Method, and it made me blush… Find it here for your pleasure!
Back to the basics: Isaac Newton and the Study of Chronology
To many die-hard historians of science the scholarly activities of in particular early modern natural philosophers are still seen as alien. This is already a great leap forward compared with the attitudes of most of our twentieth century predecessors, who were often point-blank hostile towards these ‘extracurricular’ activities of their heroes. As an aside, many…
Soon, very soon…
Out on 5 October with AUP, the result of seven years of dogears and manuscript snippets: https://www.aup.nl/nl/book/9789048554287/isaac-newton-and-the-study-of-chronology
Of Mice and Men
When Isaac Newton died, in 1727, the scholarly world was eagerly awaiting the publication of his chronological studies. A topic he had been working on since his mid-thirties, in the soon published Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (January 1728) Newton proposed radically different dates for events such as the Fall of Troy and the voyage…
Newton in Prague
For all of you around in Prague in the next two weeks, I will be delivering a series of lectures on Newton’s chronological and prophetical writings, on the Newton Project, and on the prisca scientia. For dates and venues, see the flyer below.
Finally Famous Pt II!
Part two of my Podcast with Thomas Hornigold at Physical Attraction is out now! Please find it here.
Finally famous!
Dear all, Last week I handed in my thesis on Isaac Newton’s chronological studies, titled: “Prophecy, History and Method: How and Why Isaac Newton studied Chronology”. The image, courtesy of Anca Boon of All Things Beautiful, is me looking smug and absolutely knackered, as I have been working 14-16 hour days for the past months…
Fake News!
Fake news is today’s big thing, but it has always been around. When it comes to Isaac Newton, I could (and perhaps should) easily publish an entire volume of myth and gossip. From his assumed insanity in the early 1690s (about which I blogged earlier) to the ascribing of his religious writings to his dotage…
Hic Sunt Dracones…
It has been rather quiet at the Corpus Newtonicum front. Basically, I am writing my pants off, a dissertation in the making: Corpus Newtonicum: Reconstructing Isaac Newton’s working practices through his chronological studies. That does not sound very sexy and exciting, but boy it is. I have spent the past six months excavating Newton’s early forays…
It is elementary, Dr Watson
Recently, there have been a number of news items & publications all dealing in one way or the other with being a 21st century historian. In this blogpost I will discuss three of these, and try to reflect upon my own research and the bigger picture.
Summer thoughts…
Oxford, summer, unusually un-British weather. Currently setting up and drafting a chapter on Newton’s reading practices, with specific focus on his chronological readings. Turns out I find it extremely difficult to turn all the finds I collected over the past three years into a coherent narrative. Whatever happened to creativity?
Writing with Isaac in the 21st century
Two years ago, I attended a brilliant Digital Humanities conference in Sheffield, with several very impressive papers. I was allowed to present some of my research, received generous feedback, and subsequently responded to the call for papers for the conference proceedings. It took a while, but I just received word that the proceedings are out!…
Corpus Newtonicum 