Dr. Gregory's Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics (1735)

(Catoptrics: the branch of optics that deals with reflection. Dioptrics: the branch of optics that deals with refraction.)

2nd Edition, 1735. LONDON, Printed for E. Curll, in Rose-Street, Covent Garden. [Price Five Shillings] 12cm x 20cm; 288 pp plus 6 pp preface to second edition, 2 pp preface, 15 pp preface and introduction, then 2 pp Errata & Corrigenda at rear. Also at rear, 4 folding plates of b/w engravings. Bound in old, unlettered paper-covered boards. A VERY RARE COPY. ONLY TWO COPIES HAVE BEEN TRACED AT AUCTION OVER THE LAST 35 YEARS.

Title page notes: Tranflated from the Latin Original, With a large SUPPLEMENT By William Browne, M.D. The Second Edition. To which is added, An APPENDIX By J. T. Desaguliers, LL.D.F.r.S. CONTAINING, An Account of the REFLECTING TELESCOPES; and of the Inventors, Improvers, and Imitators of them, till they were brought to Perfection by JOHN HADLEY, Efq; Vice-Prefident of the Royal Society. With Original LETTERS which paffed between Sir ISAAC NEWTON and Dr. JAMES GREGORY, relating thereunto. NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.

This is an adaptation of Dr David Gregory's (Savilian Professor at Oxford) lectures which he delivered at the University of Edinburgh. He explains that though he has “likewise demonstrated from higher principles, why spheres and conoids observe the same Laws, both in reflecting and refracting light; yet those who are sollicitous only about the Properties of Plane and Spherical Surfaces, may, without the least inconveniency, pass over all that. These last are what we have more especially considered, as also such Optical Instruments as are made by a combination of them; that is, whose Effects arise either from a single Lens or Speculum, or from several combined together.” In the Addenda Browne works out a series of corollaries and problems based on the principles set forth by Gregory. He also explains the construction of different types of telescopes and microscopes and the theories of Huygens on their working.

Sir William Browne was born in 1692, the son of a physician. In 1721 he obtained his MD from Cambridge and was incorporated at Oxford. He was known to be an eccentric, and it has been said that `his egotism and garrulity were so great as to rivet the attention of his contemporaries' (Munk's Roll, vol II, p.95). In 1725 he was admitted a candidate at the Royal College of Physicians, and the following year was made a Fellow. In March 1738/9 Browne was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was knighted, through the interest of the Duke of Montagu, in 1748. A poet and the author of many medical publications, Browne died in 1774 at his house in Queens Square, at the age of 82. He was buried at Hillington, Norfolk, where there stands a monument to his memory, written by him.

Condition: It appears that some alteration has been made to the original covers by the pasting of a sheet of paper over the original paper boards (front and rear), on which has been drawn a thin ink line border. Binding tight but paper peeling slightly at two edges on the back board, inside and out. Minute nick on title page.

Please note that this book will be posted from the UK.