Exactly six hundred years ago, in 1416, two scholars expressed in their wills that they wanted their books to be stored in “the common library of all scholars of the University” – and thus the Cambridge University Library was born. Entitled to a copy of every publication in the UK and Ireland under Legal deposit, it offers endless possibilities for the book enthusiast (and more realistically, for students trudging through their reading lists). In light of the UL’s 600th anniversary, Lines of Thought will be the first exhibition to take place, featuring Cambridge’s most iconic treasures that have stood the test of time and influenced our way of thinking. The Foundations of Science collection forms part of the vast array to be put on display, which includes Newton’s own annotated copy of Principia Mathematica, over 95 per cent of Darwin’s surviving manuscripts and pencil sketches, Galileo Galilei’s Sidereus Nuncius (‘Starry Messenger’, 1610), and a hand-coloured copy of Vesalius’ De Fabrica published in 1543 as “the most influential work in western medicine”, amongst many others. Newton and Darwin’s manuscripts and drafts can be found in the UL’s digital library for anyone to access.

Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, the best known Trinitarian and self-taught mathematician, wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), consisting of three volumes in which he describes the laws of planetary motion and universal gravitation in mathematical terms. According to the Newton’s Project organisation, its novelty lies in the claim that mathematical science could explain all the phenomena of the universe. Dr Jackie Stedall, historian of mathematics at Queen’s College, Oxford emphasised that “Newton’s understanding of mathematics was very geometric and very physical” – a refreshing viewpoint in the midst of abstract thinking. There was a “strong sense of motion” in his calculus. For example, he saw curves as the motion of a point that can be traced, rather than loci made out of equations. Professor Simon Schaffer from the University of Cambridge elaborated that Newton blurred disciplinary boundaries by extending mathematical analysis into natural philosophy.

By the time he was in his mid-twenties, he had already made his key discoveries: calculus and the binomial theorem, both of which are taught widely in A level mathematics. Part of why Newtonian mathematics is still relevant, suggests Professor Niccolo Guicciardini from the University of Bergamo, is that Newton’s method of calculation was not rigorous by our standards, and it encourages intuitive thinking and the understanding of concepts, rather than ‘learning with the hand’.

Newton was actually rather averse to publishing – he often published his results without explaining how he came up with his theories. When challenged by Leibniz, another self-taught mathematician who was also credited with inventing calculus, Newton eventually shared his secrets with him – in the form of a code that was impossible to decipher.

Darwin

Charles Darwin, an alumnus of Christ’s College, is well known for his manuscripts on evolution and natural selection spanning just less than 50 years. The documents in the UL are organised into two instalments: Creation of the Origin and Darwin’s Evidence. Creation of the Origin includes all his theoretical notes and multiple draft essays written over two decades (1837-1859), including the famous 35-page Pencil Sketch (1842) serving as the very first draft of The Origin of Species. It was in this sketch that Darwin coined the term ‘natural selection’ and drew a bleak and simplified version of the tree of life, headlined with the tentative yet assured phrase: “I think”.

Less well known are his poor time management skills. In fact, in 1858, Darwin wrote in his diary that his arduous process of writing was “interrupted” when he found out that another scholar, Alfred Russel Wallace, had published ideas that were unnervingly similar to his. Darwin knew he had taken too long (more than 20 years in fact!), so he hastily changed track and wrote an abstract of all his manuscripts combined, which took a further nine months! No footnotes, no bibliography – just his core ideas for the world to understand. This was published in 1859 as On the Origin of Species. (Dissertation writers – take note!)

It’s only appropriate that Darwin’s work resides in the UL, since the discovery of the double-helix form of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 took place in one of Cambridge’s own labs. Their discovery paved the way for molecular biology and provided an explanation of Darwin’s observations.

The Lines of Thought exhibition, also including a vast array of non-scientific work, will be open on 11th March – a once in a lifetime opportunity you’d be foolish to miss.