Newton, IsaacBiblio.com
The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton. Volume I: The Optical Lectures 1670–1672. Edited by Alan E. Shapiro
1984009160Cambridge University Press 1984 4to 26 cm XIX 1 627 pp. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket top edge painted dj slightly toned and rubbed at extremities endpapers somewhat stained. First critical edition of Newton’s Optical Lectures 1670–1672 delivered as his inaugural lectures as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge and constituting his earliest major scientific treatise. The volume presents for the first time the complete texts of both surviving versions—the draft Lectiones opticae and the extensively revised Optica—together with English translations and a full scholarly apparatus. Based primarily on manuscripts in the Portsmouth Collection Cambridge University Library the edition provides an authoritative foundation for the study of Newton’s early optical work. The lectures set out Newton’s first systematic and mathematical formulation of his theory that white light is composed of rays of differing refrangibility thereby producing colour through unequal refraction. They also contain significant contributions to geometrical optics particularly in relation to refraction and dispersion. As the editor emphasizes these lectures form a crucial intellectual bridge between Newton’s early optical discoveries and the later Opticks 1704 though they had previously received comparatively little sustained scholarly attention. Contents: preface editorial note abbreviated references introduction synopsis and concordance of the Lectiones opticae and Optica Latin texts with facing English translations of both versions bibliography and index. Volume I of a projected three-volume complete edition of Newton’s optical papers. Cambridge University Press hardcover
