In Chapter 3, I present a reconstruction of Newton's earliestchronology-related treatise, the ‘Theologiae gentilis originesphilosophicae’. As I show there, Newton turned what was originally anten-page essay on the Egyptian origins of star worship into a multichapterwork that included the chronology of the first generations after the Flood,showing how the origins of all Mediterranean civilizations pointed back toNoah and his progeny. In this appendix, I will detail the process ofreconstructing the ‘Origines’.

As with some of Newton's other manuscripts, early editors of theNewton Project realized that the order in which the manuscript, which isYahuda Ms. 16.2, had been foliated and catalogued did not make sense anddecided to transcribe fols. 19r-27v – all inNewton's hand – as a separate section, thereby breaking up themanuscript into three divisions. However, a much finer divisioning wasnecessary in order to begin the reconstruction process. For instance, thecurrent transcription still has fols. 7r, 8r, and9r in the same division, whereas they clearly belong to threedifferent versions of the text. Similarly, the large section comprised offols. 28r to 80v has parts in both Humphrey'sand Newton's hand, which had to be separated. Within each of thethree sections, there are many pages that do not follow upon each other andare apparently mislaid. Eventually, I decided to systematically divide upthe manuscript, differentiating between pages mainly in Humphrey'sand in Newton's hand. In those cases where the removal of one or morepages led to a continuing narrative, I included the now restored order inthe same division. With some divisions consisting of short additions byNewton added to a once opposing folio, now no longer there, and others ofsometimes half a dozen consecutive folios – such as fol.73r to 79r – I arrived at a total number offorty-four separate divisions.

When we ignore stray additions, the several chapter headings Newton added onvarious versos, and the Mint-related lines, we end up with about two dozensections of drafts by Newton, and thirteen sections in Humphrey'shand.