# Is "Opticks" by Isaac Newton a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Opticks by Isaac Newton (Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London, 1704) is identified by: Quarto, London 1704, title printed in red and black within a double-rule border. London 1704 is the true first, and it is a genuine English-language first — Newton published Opticks in English rather than Latin, unlike the Principia.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Quarto, London 1704, title printed in red and black within a double-rule border
- The first-issue point is that Newton's name does not appear on the title page — the book was published anonymously, and the Advertisement is subscribed only with the initials I.N.; cataloguers also record a later 1704 issue in which the author's name is present on the title, so an Opticks title page naming Newton is not the first issue
- A complete first issue has 19 folding engraved plates and carries the two Latin mathematical treatises at the end — Tractatus de quadratura curvarum and Enumeratio linearum tertii ordinis — which are Newton's first mathematical papers in print; copies lacking the treatises are not the first issue
- Pagination runs in two sequences ([4], 144, then 211, [1]) and page 120 of the second sequence is misnumbered 112 — a useful confirming misprint
- Standard references: Babson 132
- Wallis 174
- Publisher imprint reads Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Isaac Newton |
| Publisher | Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, London |
| Year | 1704 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Quarto, London 1704, title printed in red and black within a double-rule border |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Quarto, London 1704, title printed in red and black within a double-rule border. The first-issue point is that Newton's name does not appear on the title page — the book was published anonymously, and the Advertisement is subscribed only with the initials I.N.; cataloguers also record a later 1704 issue in which the author's name is present on the title, so an Opticks title page naming Newton is not the first issue. A complete first issue has 19 folding engraved plates and carries the two Latin mathematical treatises at the end — Tractatus de quadratura curvarum and Enumeratio linearum tertii ordinis — which are Newton's first mathematical papers in print; copies lacking the treatises are not the first issue. Pagination runs in two sequences ([4], 144, then 211, [1]) and page 120 of the second sequence is misnumbered 112 — a useful confirming misprint. Standard references: Babson 132; Gray 174; Wallis 174; Horblit 79b; Dibner 148; Norman 1588; PMM 172; ESTC T82019. Identification points only; no valuation is given.

## Is this the true first?
London 1704 is the true first, and it is a genuine English-language first — Newton published Opticks in English rather than Latin, unlike the Principia. The Latin Optice sive de reflexionibus, refractionibus, inflexionibus & coloribus lucis (London: Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1706), translated by Samuel Clarke under Newton's supervision, is a later translation, not a precedent, although it is collected in its own right because it adds new Queries. Later English editions printed for W. & J. Innys (1718 and after) enlarge the Queries further and are 'first thus' at best; there is no earlier Continental or original-language edition to displace the 1704.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue applies to a 1704 quarto. The traps are the 1706 Latin Optice, the enlarged 18th-century English editions (Innys and successors), 19th-century reprints, the 1931 Bell/Whittaker reprint of the fourth edition and its Dover successors, and CD-ROM/facsimile reproductions of the 1704 text — all of which reproduce the words but none of which is the 1704 sheets. Plates are frequently extracted and sold separately, so a 1704 volume must be collated for all 19 folding plates.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Opticks* by Isaac Newton a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/opticks
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.