About the author: Dr. Barnett studied early modern and medieval history at University College London, the Warburg Institute, London, and at the School of the Vatican Library and Archive, Rome. His main research interests lie in the Christian contribution to the European Enlightenment. As well as writing on the prophetic thought of Sir Isaac Newton, he has published Idol Temples and Crafty Priests: The Origins of Enlightenment Anticlericalism (Macmillan, 1998)
1999 0-7734-8155-9 Setting Newton firmly in the political and religious culture of his time, Dr. Barnett’s substantial Introduction to this new edition of the Observations takes the reader systematically through the main components of the work, demonstrating how Newton’s exegetical and prophetico-historical framework was constructed to support his ardent anti-Anglican Church views. This volume provides the original text and format of the 1733 edition of Newton’s Observations, translations of the lengthy Latin sections (and of the few, but important, Greek and Hebrew phrases) provided in the footnotes, and glossary and guide to his various calendar conventions.