LIBRARY

Newton’s personal library yielded 1752 identifiable subjects or titles. Out of them 477 were on religion or spiritualism, 169 on chemistry, 126 on mathematics, 53 on physics, 33 on astronomy and 4 indeed were related to astrology.
The discovery of four astrological books pointed out that he may have at some time some interest in the subject. It may be just for the sake of curiosity. One of the books was written by Johan Teller, the German astrologer of 16th century. One book was on palmistry and astrology, research work of an Englishman Dr. Reinard Sanders. A book was astrological Almanac and one last book was pure astrology written by poet philosopher and Cambridge professor Henry Moore who had died in 1687, the year Newton’s book Principia came out.
The important thing is that Newton had made no mention of astrology anywhere in his works. So, we can safely assume that he had little interest in the subject and was not impressed by whatever he may have privately read on the subject. The presence of those books in the library may be just coincidental. Some one may have presented him as a complimentary copy like his colleague Dr. Moor whose book formed one of the discoveries. Presence of books on crime in a person’s library does not mean the person was a criminal. Had Newton any interest in the subject he would have written some words on it in his records. But there was none.