Is My Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The defining first-issue point is an absence: the title page is printed in red and black within a decorative border and the imprint carries no author's name — Opticks was published anonymously
• Newton signs himself only "I.N." at the foot of the Advertisement, which is dated April 1, 1704; that initialled Advertisement is the confirming point
• Called for are 19 folding engraved plates
• The Opticks text is in English (Newton's first major work not published in Latin); bound at the end, in the volume's second pagination sequence at pp
• 138-211, are two Latin treatises — Enumeratio Linearum Tertii Ordinis and Tractatus de Quadratura Curvarum — the latter being Newton's first published account of the fluxional calculus
• Their presence is essential

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

London 1704 in English is the true first and there is no earlier foreign-language edition — this is one of the rare cases where the English book is the original. The trap runs the other way: the Latin Optice (London: Smith & Walford, 1706), translated by Samuel Clarke, is a first thus, not a first edition, and is mistaken for the 'real' first because period science was expected in Latin. It is also textually different, expanding the Queries from 16 to 23. The second English edition (W. and J. Innys, 1717/18) prints Newton's name, expands the Queries to 31, drops the two Latin treatises, and was reset in a smaller format with newly engraved plates.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition for a 1704 quarto. The live reprint tell is the modern Dover reprint, which sets the text of the fourth edition (1730) — not 1704 — and carries an Einstein foreword; it is the text most readers know and is regularly mistaken for the original work. Any 'Opticks' with 31 Queries and no Latin treatises descends from 1717 or later, not from the first edition.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light a first edition?

A first edition of Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton (Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London) is identified by: The defining first-issue point is an absence: the title page is printed in red and black within a decorative border and the imprint carries no author's name — Opticks was published anonymously.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. London 1704 in English is the true first and there is no earlier foreign-language edition — this is one of the rare cases where the English book is the original.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition for a 1704 quarto. The live reprint tell is the modern Dover reprint, which sets the text of the fourth edition (1730) — not 1704 — and carries an Einstein foreword; it is the text most readers know and is regularly mistaken for the original work. Any 'Opticks' with 31 Queries and no Latin treatises descends from 1717 or later, not from the first edition.

I have a first edition of Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.