Optice: sive de Reflexionibus, Refractionibus, Inflexionibus & Coloribus Lucis libri tres. Latine reddidit Samuel Clarke. Editio novissima.

4to: [8]-xxxii-364 pp.; 12 folding pl. (missing frontispiece portrait of Newton, paper unevenly browned).

Mod. full leather binding.

3rd Latin ed. (1st ed. in Engl.: 1704) by Bousquet, with a dedication to Joannes Bernoulli, including the full array of 31 queries. Newton's "Optics" is the equivalent of his "Principia" for his theory of gravitation. The book analyses the fundamental nature of light by means of the refraction of light with prisms and lenses, the diffraction of light by closely spaced sheets of glass, and the behaviour of colour mixtures with spectral lights or pigment powders. The subject matter of the 31 queries widely transcends the discipline of physical optics, including consequences for ethical conduct and cosmogony. Ill.: title vignette by J.L. Daudet after Delamoncein, head- & tailpieces and woodcut initial letters by Papillon, 12 engr. with optical diagrams.
Ref. Babson 141. - Printing in the Mind of Man 172.
Prov. Ms. note.