On purpose

[Mark Knowles]

I was just reminded recently that a few years ago it was discovered somewhere in the library of the Royal Society in London, I think, Isaac Newton's writings on Alchemy. In fact he wrote more on Alchemy than the subjects that he is famous for such as physics and calculus. Now, why did he write and research that subject? Was it because he hoped to sell his writings for a lot of money or maybe to impress a patron to employ him or so as to make lots of money turning lead into gold? In our modern capitalistic age the idea that someone would do anything for reasons other than personal self-interest and financial gain may seem strange, but even now lots of people do things for other reasons.

Without being overly romantic I would argue that Newton researched alchemy for the same reasons he researched Maths and Physics, namely for love of knowledge, love of discovery and out of a deep curiousity. I do not think Newton was unique in having that motivation. And although he was writing more than 200 years after the time of the Voynich I think there were people then who had similar motivations and interests. Personal pleasure and fulfillment seem very important motivating factors behind the quest for knowledge.