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

London: Printed for W. and J. Innys, 1718. Second edition of one of the greatest works of science ever published. Octavo, bound in full contemporary calf with five raised bands and red morocco spine label lettered in gilt to the spine, blindstamped ruling and cornerpieces to the panels, nineteen folding engravings, rebacked. In very good condition. English mathematician, astronomer, theologian, author and physicist Sir Isaac Newton is widely considered one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution. In one of his most important works, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Newton formulated the the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until being superseded by the theory of relativity. "Newton's Opticks did for light what his Principia had done for gravitation, namely, placed it on a scientific basis." (Babson, p. 66) Considered one of the greatest works of science ever published, Newton's second major book, Opticks, analyzes 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 behavior of color mixtures with spectral lights or pigment powders.