The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton 2 Volume Hardback Set

Description

This complete edition of Newton's optical papers contains two volumes: the first details his Optical Lectures, delivered at Cambridge University between 1670 and 1672, while the second documents the evolution of the Opticks, the most influential optical and experimental work of the eighteenth century. The Lectures is Newton's first major scientific treatise, and represents a crucial link between his early years of discovery and his mature publications. The complete text of both surviving versions of the Lectures, an early version and a vastly expanded revision, is included here, together with translation and commentary. The second volume opens with the first edition of the Opticks (1704) and the first draft in Latin. The manuscripts of the queries that Newton added to the Latin translation in 1706 and the second English edition (1717) follow this, accompanied by shorter manuscripts, copious notes and commentary. This is an essential resource for the study of Newtonian science.

Alan E. Shapiro has written widely on the history of optics, and on Isaac Newton. He is the author of Fits, Passions, and Paroxysms: Physics, Method, and Chemistry and Newton's Theories of Colored Bodies and Fits of Easy Reflection (Cambridge, 1993). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and served as President of the International Academy of the History of Science.

'Shapiro's magnificent edition will remain a precious tool for anyone working on Newton's thought and times.' Niccolo Guicciardini, Metascience 'These two volumes are the fruit of a formidable body of meticulous scholarly research into Newton's surviving optical writings by Alan E. Shapiro, extending back over many years ... I warmly congratulate Professor Shapiro on his splendid achievement, over many years, in finally laying before us the contents of Newtons Optical Papers.' Allan Chapman, The Observatory