Optical Theories & Optical Correspondence
To appreciate many of Newton's writings on optics fully, it is essential to be aware of the contemporary comments and criticisms to which Newton was responding. He was particularly incensed at having the accuracy of his observations queried by two French Jesuits, Francis Linus and Ignace Pardies. In fact, both men had misunderstood Newton's essay and he had little difficulty refuting them: Linus frankly admitted defeat, and Pardies died before Newton's reply was published. More serious were the reservations expressed by two of the few individuals who could be said to belong in Newton's intellectual league, Christiaan Huygens and the Royal Society's own Curator of Experiments, Robert Hooke. Huygens considered that Newton's data, although interesting, did not warrant the inferences he drew from it. Hooke objected that Newton had not conducted enough experiments and that other theories (i.e. his own) could explain the phenomena equally well. The deeply neurotic Newton took great exception to these criticisms and repeatedly threatened to withdraw from public discussion of natural philosophy altogether. However, this did not stop him from engaging in intermittent but increasingly bitter semi-public feuds with Hooke until the latter's death in 1703.
Despite Newton's often-proclaimed detestation of such controversies, these critical reactions to his optical writings played a vital role in stimulating his thought by spurring him to refine and elaborate his theories. This page presents Newton's writings within this larger context. It offers three of Newton's optical manuscripts followed by the shorter essays written against his theories as well as Newton's responses to them. So far as possible, these printed works are listed in the order of their composition (which is not always the same as the order of their publication), in order to make it possible to follow the progression of these disputes over time.
Newton's Optical Theories & Optical Correspondence
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Viewing 1-44 of 44
| NATP00001 [View Record] | Title: Pierpont Morgan Notebook Location: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, USA |
| THEM00092 [View Record] | Title: 'Quæstiones quædam Philosophiæ' ('Certain Philosophical Questions') Shelfmark: MS Add. 3996 Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00004 [View Record] | Title: 'Of Colours' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3975, pp. 1-22 Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00003 [View Record] | Title: Draft of 'A Theory Concerning Light and Colors' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, ff.460-466 Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00006 [View Record] | Title: A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton … containing his New Theory about Light and Colors Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 80 (19 Feb. 1671/2), pp. 3075-3087. |
| NATP00005 [View Record] | Title: Robert Hooke's Critique of Newton's Theory of Light and Colors (delivered 1672) Published in: Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society, vol. 3 (London: 1757), pp. 10-15. |
| NATP00007 [View Record] | Title: An Accompt of a New Catadioptrical Telescope invented by Mr. Newton Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 81 (25 March 1672), pp. 4004-4007. |
| NATP00052 [View Record] | Title: Christiaan Huygens' comments on Newton's telescope Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 81 (25 March 1672), pp. 4008-4009. |
| NATP00030 [View Record] | Title: An Extract of a Letter, received very lately, (March 19th) from the Inventor of this new Telescope, from Cambridge Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 81 (25 March 1672), pp. 4009-4010. |
| NATP00008 [View Record] | Title: Mr. Newton's Letter … containing some more suggestions about his New Telescope Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 82 (22 April 1672), pp. 4032-4034. |
| NATP00009 [View Record] | Title: An Extract of another Letter … by way of an answer to some Objections, made by an Ingenious French Philosopher [Adrien Auzout] to the New Reflecting Telescope Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 82 (22 April 1672), pp. 4034-4035. |
| NATP00010 [View Record] | Title: Mr. Isaac Newton's Considerations upon part of a Letter of Monsieur De Bercé Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 83 (20 May 1672), pp. 4056-4059. |
| NATP00011 [View Record] | Title: Some Experiments propos'd in relation to Mr. Newton's Theory of light … together with the Observations made thereupon by the Author of that Theory Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 83 (20 May 1672), pp. 4059-4062. |
| NATP00053 [View Record] | Title: The Observations, made upon these proposals [of Robert Moray] Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 83 (20 May 1672), pp. 4060-4062. |
| NATP00012 [View Record] | Title: A Latin Letter … by Ignatius Gaston Pardies … containing some Animadversions upon Mr. Isaac Newton … his Theory of Light Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 84 (17 June 1672), pp. 4087-4090. |
| NATP00013 [View Record] | Title: Mr Newtons Letter of April 13. 1672 … being an Answer to the fore-going Letter of P. Pardies Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 84 (17 June 1672), pp. 4091-4093. |
| NATP00014 [View Record] | Title: A Serie's of Quere's propounded by Mr. Isaac Newton … positively concluding his new Theory of Light and Colours Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 85 (15 July 1672), pp. 5004-5007. |
| NATP00015 [View Record] | Title: A second Letter of P. Pardies Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 85 (15 July 1672), pp. 5012-5013. |
| NATP00029 [View Record] | Title: Mr. Newton's Answer to the foregoing Letter [of Ignace Pardies] Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 85 (15 July 1672), pp. 5014-5018. |
| NATP00028 [View Record] | Title: Mr Isaac Newtons Answer to some Considerations [of Robert Hooke] upon his doctrine of Light and Colors Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 88 (18 November 1672), pp. 5084-5103. |
| NATP00016 [View Record] | Title: An Extract of a Letter lately written by an ingenious person from Paris [Christiaan Huygens] Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 96 (21 July 1673), pp. 6086-6087. |
| NATP00017 [View Record] | Title: Mr. Newtons Answer to the foregoing Letter [of Christiaan Huygens] Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 96 (21 July 1673), pp. 6087-6092. |
| NATP00018 [View Record] | Title: An Extract of Mr Isaac Newton's Letter … concerning the Number of Colors Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 97 (6 October 1673), pp. 6108-6111. |
| NATP00019 [View Record] | Title: An answer (to the former Letter) … by the same Parisian Philosopher Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 97 (6 October 1673), pp. 6112. |
| NATP00020 [View Record] | Title: A Letter of the Learn'd Franc. Linus … animadverting upon … Mr. Isaac Newton's Theory of Light and Colors, date 6 October 1674 Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 110 (25 January 1674/5), pp. 217-219. |
| NATP00054 [View Record] | Title: An Answer to this Letter [of Francis Linus], written 5 December 1674 Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 110 (25 January 1674/5), pp. 219. |
| NATP00002 [View Record] | Title: Hypothesis explaining the properties of light Published in: Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society, vol. 3 (London: 1757), pp. 247-305. |
| NATP00121 [View Record] | Title: Draft of the 'Hypothesis Concerning Light and Colors' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, ff. 475r-482v Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00122 [View Record] | Title: Draft of the 'Discourse Concerning Light and Colors' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, ff. 501r-517r Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00126 [View Record] | Title: Draft of the 'Discourse Concerning Light and Colors' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, ff. 519r-529r Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00127 [View Record] | Title: Draft of the 'Discourse concerning Light and Colors' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, ff. 549r-567v Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00287 [View Record] | Title: Optical diagrams Shelfmark: MS Add. 9597/2/18/89-90 Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00120 [View Record] | Title: Covering letter to the Hypothesis, Dec. 7 1675 Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, f. 459r-v Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00021 [View Record] | Title: A letter of Mr. Franc. Linus … being a reply to the Letter printed in Numb. 110 Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 121 (24 January 1675/6), pp. 499-500. |
| NATP00022 [View Record] | Title: Mr. Isaac Newton's Considerations on the former Reply [of Francis Linus] Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 121 (24 January 1675/6), pp. 501-502. |
| NATP00023 [View Record] | Title: An extract of another Letter of Mr. Newton Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 121 (24 January 1675/6), pp. 503-504. |
| NATP00024 [View Record] | Title: A particular Answer of Mr. Isaak Newton to Mr. Linus his Letter Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 123 (25 March 1676), pp. 556-561. |
| NATP00025 [View Record] | Title: A Letter from Liege concerning Mr Newton's Experiment of the colour'd Spectrum Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 128 (25 September 1676), pp. 692-698. |
| NATP00026 [View Record] | Title: Mr Newton's Answer to the precedent Letter Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 128 (25 September 1676), pp. 698-705. |
| NATP00031 [View Record] | Title: Opticks: Or, A treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures (London: 1704)
Published in: Opticks: Or, A treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures (London: 1704). |
| NATP00055 [View Record] | Title: Draft Versions of 'The Queries' Shelfmark: MS Add. 3970.3, ff. 231r-301r, 359r, 477v-478r, 610r-612r, 618r-623r Location: Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK |
| NATP00062 [View Record] | Title: Optice: Sive De Reflexionibus, Refractionibus, Inflexionibus & Coloribus Lucis. Libri Tres (London: 1706)
Published in: Optice: Sive De Reflexionibus, Refractionibus, Inflexionibus & Coloribus Lucis. Libri Tres. (London: 1706). |
| NATP00043 [View Record] | Title: Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. The Second Edition, with Additions (London: 1718)
Published in: Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. The Second Edition, with Additions (London: 1718). |
| NATP00027 [View Record] | Title: An Instrument for observing the Moon's Distance from the Fixt Stars at Sea Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 465 (1742), pp. 155-156. |
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