Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two Treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures.

NEWTON, Isaac.

Edité par London: Printed for Sam Smith and Benj. Walford, 1704

A propos de cet article

First edition, first issue, an exceptionally fresh and unrestored example. This copy comes from the family library of John Evelyn, a fellow of the Royal Society alongside Newton for more than 30 years, and the author of its first published book. As with many books from the Evelyn family library, this copy bears an ink pressmark on the front pastedown in an early 18th-century hand. Evelyn was generally fastidious about annotating the books he acquired, and this pressmark bears calligraphic similarities to one found in his copy of Taylor's Symbolon (1674), which he also annotated with his signature and motto. This copy remained in the Evelyn family library until the late 20th century: it entered the private market during the 1977-78 Christie's sales. Evelyn and Newton are among the most famous fellows of the early Royal Society. By 1704, the 84-year-old Evelyn had moved from Deptford to his ancestral home at Wotton in Surrey, although his work as a treasurer for the new Greenwich Hospital brought him regularly back to London. A younger generation was now in charge of the Society's direction: in 1703 Newton assumed the presidency and gradually reshaped its work in line with Newtonian science. Evelyn continued to contribute to the Royal Society's intellectual life, on his terms, well into his 80s: in 1702 he published a paper in the Philosophical Transactions discussing his anatomical tables, and he later attended two of the experimental sessions held under Newton's presidency. This first issue of the Opticks lacks Newton's name on the title page. This copy: lot 1078, The Evelyn Library, Part III: M-S, Christie's, March 1978, p. 62. Babson 132 (1); Dibner, Heralds of Science 148; ESTC T82019; Gray 174; Grolier/Horblit 79b; Norman 1588; Printing and the Mind of Man 172; Wallis 174. Quarto (241 x 186 mm), pp. [iv], 114, 211 (= 213, two blank pages left unnumbered). With 19 folding engraved plates, tables and diagrams in text, title page lettered in red and black. Contemporary panelled calf, spine ruled in blind, red morocco label to style, edges sprinkled red. With custom cloth box. Late 18th-century engraved armorial bookplate of Frederick Evelyn (1734-1812), along with the Christie's sale bookplate. Light rubbing, calf smooth and bright, slight loss to head of spine and tiny wormhole to foot, damp staining to upper margin of several leaves and plates, a couple of tiny ink splashes, contents otherwise generally crisp: a fresh copy.

N° de réf. du vendeur 189050

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two Treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures.
• Éditeur: London: Printed for Sam Smith and Benj. Walford, 1704
• Édition: Edition originale
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Science & Philosophy