![NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). ‘A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton... Containing his New Theory about Light and Colors.’ Extracted from: Philosophical Transactions, Volume 6, number 80, pp.3075-3087. [London: John Martyn, 19 February 1672].](https://staging.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_17700_0309_001(newton_sir_isaac_a_letter_of_mr_isaac_newton_containing_his_new_theory123840).jpg?w=1)
![NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). ‘A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton... Containing his New Theory about Light and Colors.’ Extracted from: Philosophical Transactions, Volume 6, number 80, pp.3075-3087. [London: John Martyn, 19 February 1672].](https://staging.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_17700_0309_002(newton_sir_isaac_a_letter_of_mr_isaac_newton_containing_his_new_theory123849).jpg?w=1)
![NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). ‘A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton... Containing his New Theory about Light and Colors.’ Extracted from: Philosophical Transactions, Volume 6, number 80, pp.3075-3087. [London: John Martyn, 19 February 1672].](https://staging.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_17700_0309_000(newton_sir_isaac_a_letter_of_mr_isaac_newton_containing_his_new_theory121043).jpg?w=1)
Details
NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). ‘A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton... Containing his New Theory about Light and Colors.’ Extracted from: Philosophical Transactions, Volume 6, number 80, pp.3075-3087. [London: John Martyn, 19 February 1672].
First edition of Newton’s first scientific publication, one of his most important, leading to his great work on Opticks (1704). In his initial experiment, Newton describes how he ‘darkened my chamber and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying myself to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular’ (Newton, pp. 3075-3076). ‘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). Cf. Babson 165; cf. Dibner Heralds 144.
Quarto (215 x 162mm). Disbound, contained between modern cloth boards. Provenance: early ink annotation ‘N. 80’ beside each recto headline.
First edition of Newton’s first scientific publication, one of his most important, leading to his great work on Opticks (1704). In his initial experiment, Newton describes how he ‘darkened my chamber and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying myself to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular’ (Newton, pp. 3075-3076). ‘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). Cf. Babson 165; cf. Dibner Heralds 144.
Quarto (215 x 162mm). Disbound, contained between modern cloth boards. Provenance: early ink annotation ‘N. 80’ beside each recto headline.
Special Notice
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.
Brought to you by
Margaret Ford