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Lot 101

NEWTON (ISAAC)
Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, 1704

27 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £21,250 inc. premium

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[NEWTON (ISAAC)]

Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with page 120 misnumbered 112 in second book, title printed in red and black, 19 folding engraved plates, blank upper margin of title torn away, some dampstaining after p.162 (heavier towards end and on final plate), annotation in an early hand on p.10 (the words "Dura Mater" struck through, with "Tunica selerotica & not yr. Dura Mater" added in the margin), contemporary panelled calf, worn, joints shaken [Babson 132; PMM 164], 4to (245 x 190mm.), Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, 1704

Footnotes

"Newton's Optics did for light what his Principia had done for gravitation, namely, placed it on a scientific basis" (Babson, quoting Prof. E.W. Brown of Yale University). Although Newton began writing the work in the 1670s, he delayed publishing it until after Hooke's death, to avoid repeating previous controversies he had faced. In addition to expounding Newton's theory of the colours of light, the work was also notable for containing the author's first mathematical papers in print, and for giving the first full explanation of the rainbow.

Provenance: "J[ohn] Dawne. Newton's Opticks. Augst. 1842", calligraphic inscription on the front free endpaper, with name and date repeated in several margins.

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