![NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). 'A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton ... Containing his New Theory about Light and Colors', in: Philosophical Transactions. London: T.N. [nos 45-59] and T.R. [nos 60-62] for John Martyn, 1670-72, volumes IV-VI [nos 45-80], pp. 3075 - 87.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/CKS/2005_CKS_07046_0271_000(101606).jpg?w=1)
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NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). 'A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton ... Containing his New Theory about Light and Colors', in: Philosophical Transactions. London: T.N. [nos 45-59] and T.R. [nos 60-62] for John Martyn, 1670-72, volumes IV-VI [nos 45-80], pp. 3075 - 87.
3 volumes bound in one, 4° (204 x 144mm). 14 engraved plates, 12 folding, woodcut diagrams and illustrations, letterpress tables. (Variable light spotting and browning, some leaves trimmed touching numbers, signatures or catchwords, 2 plates trimmed at fore-edge, 2 plates with short marginal tears, one plate silked, plate 1, no. 75 supplied in manuscript facsimile, 5 leaves wormed, lacking titles [?and dedications] to vols IV and V.) Contemporary English speckled calf, upper board panelled in blind with foliate cornerpieces, blind-ruled borders, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one (recornered and rebacked retaining original spine, endpapers replaced, front flyleaf repaired). Provenance: occasional manuscript annotations -- inkstamp on first leaf (partially erased causing small hole).
NEWTON'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION, AND 'ONE OF HIS MOST IMPORTANT, LEADING TO HIS BRILLIANT WORK IN OPTICS. In this he recounted how he placed a glass prism in the path of a ray of light entering his darkened chamber thru a window-slit. Instead of a circular pattern of light upon the opposite wall Newton saw an oblong spectrum. A second, inverted prism restored the refracted light into a white ray. He concluded that sunlight (or white light) was composed of a mixture of light of many colors, each having its own degree of refrangibility and that none could be converted into another' (Dibner). Babson 165; Dibner 144; Grolier Science 79a; Wallis 231(1).
3 volumes bound in one, 4° (204 x 144mm). 14 engraved plates, 12 folding, woodcut diagrams and illustrations, letterpress tables. (Variable light spotting and browning, some leaves trimmed touching numbers, signatures or catchwords, 2 plates trimmed at fore-edge, 2 plates with short marginal tears, one plate silked, plate 1, no. 75 supplied in manuscript facsimile, 5 leaves wormed, lacking titles [?and dedications] to vols IV and V.) Contemporary English speckled calf, upper board panelled in blind with foliate cornerpieces, blind-ruled borders, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one (recornered and rebacked retaining original spine, endpapers replaced, front flyleaf repaired). Provenance: occasional manuscript annotations -- inkstamp on first leaf (partially erased causing small hole).
NEWTON'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION, AND 'ONE OF HIS MOST IMPORTANT, LEADING TO HIS BRILLIANT WORK IN OPTICS. In this he recounted how he placed a glass prism in the path of a ray of light entering his darkened chamber thru a window-slit. Instead of a circular pattern of light upon the opposite wall Newton saw an oblong spectrum. A second, inverted prism restored the refracted light into a white ray. He concluded that sunlight (or white light) was composed of a mixture of light of many colors, each having its own degree of refrangibility and that none could be converted into another' (Dibner). Babson 165; Dibner 144; Grolier Science 79a; Wallis 231(1).
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