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The World's Most Valuable Scientific Manuscripts
A recent sale of notes made by Isaac Newton shows just how valuable many scientific manuscripts really are.
Culture & Entertainment
Occasionally, the world's rarest scientific books manuscripts are auctioned, and the prices paid can be eye-popping.
If you've got a spare half-million dollars lying around, you might be the person who bought Isaac Newton's never-before-published notes on the Egyptian pyramids. They were sold by Sotheby's auction house on December 8, 2020 for nearly $500,000 (£378,000).
The notes are thought to have been written during the 1680s while Newton was living at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, UK, and it's believed that they weren't discovered until 200 years after Newton's death in the 1880s. While Newton was hard at work on the notes, his dog Diamond jumped up onto his desk and overturned a candle, burning the notes on their ends.
The search for the "royal cubit"
The notes show Newton trying to decipher the unit of measurement called the "royal cubit". It was a measurement commonly used by the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians. Newton thought that if he could discover that unit, he could determine the exact size of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Newton thought knowing the size of the temple would unlock the secrets of the universe.