# Is "Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light" by Isaac Newton a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** 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, 1704) 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. 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.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Publisher imprint reads Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Isaac Newton |
| Publisher | Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London |
| Year | 1704 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | 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… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Quarto. 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. A documented press error: in the second sequence page 120 is misnumbered 112. References: Babson 132; Gray 174; Wallis 174; Norman 1588; Dibner 148; Horblit 79b. One caution — the trade's "first issue" designation implies a variant issue bearing Newton's name, and one dealer describes it as having only 12 plates and lacking the two Latin treatises; that description is not corroborated by the auction records consulted, so identify positively on the anonymous title, the I.N. Advertisement, 19 plates and the treatises rather than on any second-issue narrative.

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light* by Isaac Newton a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/opticks-or-a-treatise-of-the-reflexions-refractions-inflexio
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.