Add MS 88942/1/183-195

A series of mathematical and scientific notebooks, lettered 'A'-'O', from which notebook 'G' is missing. Notebook 'L' (until very recently, also considered missing) is held separately in the British Library Loan Collection. Photography notebooks 'P' (1839) and 'Q' (1840) are held at the National Media Museum, Bradford.

This series is particularly rich in content and variety, although it is less systematic than other series within Talbot's many notebooks. Even though Talbot kept his notes on mathematics and the sciences separate from other fields such as philology and Assyriology, the mathematical and scientific notebooks are not particularly coherent, especially the early notebooks from the 1820s and 1830s. Talbot tended to switch between topics abruptly. These notebooks are characterised by a density of entries and attest to a fast and creative working method. The notes he made are a mixture of immediately recorded spontaneous thoughts, combined with extracts from his reading (often unreferenced).