Cartesian and Newtonian authors: a database

The database collects entries in the libraries at Oxford and Cambridge of several Cartesian and Newtonian authors. It aims to chart the diffusion of works published between 1637 (when Descartes’s Discours de la méthode was published) and 1735 (when the third English edition of Jacques Rohault’s Traité de physique was printed in London). All works are either authored by or connected in the library catalogues to the following two groups of early modern figures:

• René Descartes (1596–1650) and the Cartesians Jacques Rohault (1618–1672), Antoine Le Grand (1629–1699), Pierre-Sylvain Régis (1632–1707), Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715)
• Isaac Newton (1642–1727) and the Newtonians David Gregory (1659–1708), William Whiston (1667–1752), John Keill (1671–1721), Samuel Clarke (1675–1729), Roger Cotes (1682–1716)

The list is derived from the authors studied in the research project “Making Modern Science: tracing the dynamics of a ‘Cartesian Newtonian textbook’ during the Scientific Revolution” (October 2020–October 2022: https://cartesian.unibuc.ro/s/making-modern-science). It is centred upon Jacques Rohault and his famous Traité de physique of 1671. More generally, the project aims to map relations between Cartesians and Newtonians.

This work was supported by a grant of Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0841, within PNCDI III: “Making Modern Science: tracing the dynamics of a ‘Cartesian Newtonian textbook’ during the Scientific Revolution” (CartesianPhysics).