SMITH, Robert.

A Compleat System of Opticks in four books, viz. a popular, a mathematical, a mechanical, and a philosophical treatise… Cambridge: Printed for the author… . 1738.

Price £ GBP 2400.00

2 volumes, 4to, pp. (vi), vi, (viii), 280; 1 leaf, pp. (281)–455, 171, (12), and 83 folding engraved plates with numerous figures. Contemporary calf (a little rubbed, joints expertly repaired). Pale dampstain on last few leaves of volume 2, but a very clean copy.

FIRST EDITION of what was “probably the most influential optical textbook of the eighteenth century” (DSB). Of the four Books, the first deals with the fundamental experiments in optics, while the second provides a more formal treatment of the geometrical theory. The third Book describes apparatus for grinding and polishing lenses, with original contributions by Samuel Molyneux and John Hadley, and gives a complete account of the construction and use of the principal optical instruments, especially the microscope. The fourth book is a history of celestial discoveries with the telescope. Babson 161. Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook, pp. 548–549: “…the standard account of Newtonian optics.” Kemp, The Science of Art, p. 153, etc: “…a book of considerable importance.”

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