Browne, W.
Dr. Gregory's elements of catoptrics and dioptrics. To which is added I. A method for finding the foci of all specula as well as lens's universally. As also for magnifying or lessening a given object by a given speculum or lens in any assign'd proportion, &c. II. A solution to those problems which are left undemonstrated. III. A particular account of microscopes and telescopes, from Mr. Huygens. With an introduction shewing the discoveries made by catoptrics and dioptrics.
London, E. Curll, J. Pemberton and W. Taylor, 1715. 8vo (18.6 x 11.5 cm). 228 pp. [xvi, 111, 1-72, 65-93]; three large, multifolded plates. Contemporary full calf, elaborately blind-tooled boards. Edges speckled red.
The very rare first English edition of a work on optics and optometry earlier published in Latin only (1695). William Browne (1692-1774) "...was born in County Durham, and was educated in Durham and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. After graduating ..., he worked as a doctor in King's Lynn, Norfolk, for more than thirty years before moving to Bloomsbury, London, in 1749. He was President of the College of Physicians in 1765 and 1766, having been a Fellow of the college since 1726; he resigned during his five-year term of office because of a dispute. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1739, and was knighted in 1748."(Wikipedia). The "Dr. Gregory" in the title is the Scottish telescope builder James Gregory [1637 (or 1638, see Marquis) -1675), who in 1663 published a work titled " Optica promota sue Abdita radiorum reflexorum & refractorum". Pagination in the addenda has the numbers 65-72 used twice, but the text is continuous. Skilfully repairs to binding and a few leaf edges; some pages with weaker paper. Plates with a few, tiny spots, otherwise a very good, unmarked copy. Debus, World Who's Who in Science, p. 701; DiLaura, Bibliotheca Opticoria, 262. Not in Cat. BM(NH).
