The latest on Newton...*

Abstract

How recent? The remarkably comprehensive and accurate Newton handbook which Derek Gjertsen published in 1986 saves me the need to go back more than three years, nor will I here for the most part. The periodical literature on Newton the man and his intellectual achievement of course grows apace, mostly in journals which are taken only by the largest or most specialized libraries. I can only urge anyone who wishes to keep up with this flood of paper (much of it decidedly ephemeral) continually to glance through the several general bibliographies of the history of science that appear annually or more often. First, a more generous word about Gjertsen’s Handbook . This really is one of those rarities: a genuinely informative vade-mecum which (do I let the secret out?) even those solidly established scholars who are given potted biographies inside keep to hand along with their well-worn Concise s and other trusty reference books. May I (who know something of this) state that here is the puree of what must have been thousands of hours spent in patiently compiling and assiduously checking the clear and readable summaries which he gives of hundreds of widely differing sources. Let me suppress the perfectionism in me which quite heartlessly scorns the few minimissimal errors I have so far found in Gjertsen’s book, and simply commend it to all who wish to broaden their familiarity with the complex skein of what the best Newtonian scholarship has so far (foolish he or she who ever ignores the like of Edelston....) brought to light and furbished.