GREGORY, James (1638-1675). Optica Promota, seu abdita radiorum reflexorum & refractorum mysteria, geometrice enucleata, London: excudebat J. Hayes pro S. Thomson, 1663, small 4°, FIRST EDITION, woodcut diagrams (title with perforation affecting 4 letters of the second word, slightly torn at upper and outer margin, and affected at inner margin by crude repair to front inner hinges, stamp on verso of title and accession number at foot of A2, old ink stains on A2v, diagrams on I3 and K3 slightly cropped at lower margin), contemporary panelled calf (inner hinges repaired with cloth tape, John Crerar stamps). [Honeyman 1553; Norman 942; Wing G1912]

Details

GREGORY, James (1638-1675). Optica Promota, seu abdita radiorum reflexorum & refractorum mysteria, geometrice enucleata, London: excudebat J. Hayes pro S. Thomson, 1663, small 4°, FIRST EDITION, woodcut diagrams (title with perforation affecting 4 letters of the second word, slightly torn at upper and outer margin, and affected at inner margin by crude repair to front inner hinges, stamp on verso of title and accession number at foot of A2, old ink stains on A2v, diagrams on I3 and K3 slightly cropped at lower margin), contemporary panelled calf (inner hinges repaired with cloth tape, John Crerar stamps). [Honeyman 1553; Norman 942; Wing G1912]

Lot Essay

The epilogue to "Optical proposition 59" forms an important contribution to the development of the telescope, Gregory explaining how the deficiencies in conventional reflectors and refractors led him to design, though not build, a compound "catadioptrical" telescope with a large and small concave mirror that would overcome spherical and chromatic aberrations.

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