"ONE OF THE GREAT EXPERIMENTAL SCIENTISTS IN THE BACONIAN-NEWTONIAN EMPIRICAL TRADITION": FIRST EDITION OF JOSEPH PRIESTLEY'S IMPORTANT HISTORY OF OPTICS, 1772, WITH 25 ENGRAVED FOLDING PLATES
PRIESTLEY, Joseph. The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours. London: J. Johnson, 1772. Quarto, contemporary full tan calf rebacked, raised bands, red morocco spine label.
First edition of Priestley's pioneering History of Optics, companion to his 1767 History of Electricity, featuring extensive sections on Newton's Optics and Priestley's own theories, containing engraved folding frontispiece and 24 folding plates.
"Joseph Priestley was one of the great experimental scientists in the Baconian-Newtonian empirical tradition of the English Enlightenment, famous for his research in chemistry and electricity, as well as being one of the best-known representatives of the English political tradition" and an outspoken advocate of the American Revolution (Williams, Enlightenment, 143). He followed the success of his History of Electricity (1767) with this mammoth work, known as the History of Optics. Completed in March 1772, its subscribers included his close friend and mentor, Benjamin Franklin, who "subscribed for 20 copies" (Schofield, Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley, 243). History of Optics was "the only English work on the subject for 150 years and the only one in any language for over 50… Priestley permitted himself one theoretical judgment in expressing strong reservations on the reality of Newton's optical ether, but the most interesting and original sections of the History of Optics were derived from the work and suggestions of John Michell… [who] provided him with an account of an experiment to measure the momentum of light, which appeared to confirm its particulate nature" (DSB). "One of the most remarkable thinkers of the 18th century," Priestley is perhaps most remembered for his discovery of oxygen (Rivers, 1). Bound without list of subscribers, errata leaf with "Names Omitted" on the verso (not present in all copies); bound with Priestley's five-page "Catalogue of Books" referenced and page of publisher's advertisements at rear. Issued both as a single quarto volume, as the present copy, and as two quarto volumes, no priority established. ESTC 36343. Wallis 225.63. Crook S/479.
Occasional foxing, minor offsetting from engraved frontispiece to title page. A very good, crisp copy in nicely rebacked contemporary calf.