[NEWTON, ISAAC, Sir.] Opticks. 19 folding engraved plates. [4], 144; 211 [i. e., 209], [1] pages. 2 parts in one volume. 4to, 242x187 mm, contemporary panelled calf, minor wear; contents clean apart from scattered marginal fingersoiling. excellent copy.London: Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1704 first edition, first issue. "The work summarized Newton's discoveries and theories concerning light and color: the spectrum of the sunlight, the degrees of refraction associated with different colors, the color circle (the first in the history of color theory), the invention of the reflecting telescope, the first workable theory of the rainbow, and experiments on what would later be called 'interference effects' in conjunction with Newton's rings . . . The first edition of the Opticks ends with two mathematical treatises in Latin, written to establish his priority over Leibnitz in the invention of the calculus"--Norman 1588. Babson 132; Becker 273; Printing and the Mind of Man 172; Wallis 174.