[NEWTON, SIR ISAAC (1642-1727)]. Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. London: Printed for William Innys at the West-End of St. Paul's, MDCCXXX. [1730].
FOURTH EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; octavo (21 x 12 x 3 cm); pp. [8], 382, [2, publisher's ads]. English text, with twelve folding engraved plates and advertisement f. at end. Handsomely rebound in 20th century full calf; red morocco spine label; head- and tail-pieces; decorative initials. Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding tight and secure, the covers excellent. Interior with occasional light spotting and browning, the plates well-preserved. Scarce.
⁂ Fourth edition, 'carefully printed' from the third edition of 1721 and incorporating Newton's revisions - the last to be corrected by Newton. In the Opticks Newton presents his theories and experimental findings concerning the nature of light and colour. Its wide-ranging discoveries and innovations include a description of the composition of white light as a compound of primary colours (previously white was considered to be a pure and simple colour of which other colours were variants), the colour spectrum, the degrees of refraction of different colours, the first-ever colour circle, the first workable theory of the rainbow, and a discussion of the invention of the refracting telescope. The Opticks and the Principia are the two pillars of Newton's unparalleled scientific achievement. The Opticks has been called an underpinning for the entire edifice of physics (Scientific American). [Babson 136].
