FABRI, Honoré. Synopsis optica, in qua illa omnia quae ad opticam, dioptricam, catoptricam pertinent, id est, ad triplicem radium visualem directum, refractum, reflexum breviter quidem, accurate tamen demonstrantur.
Lyon: Horace Boissat & Georges Remeus, 1667.

First edition of Fabri’s great work on optics which was the inspiration for Newton’s work on light and colours as it was through this work that Newton learned of Grimaldi’s discovery of the diffraction of light.

Fabri describes the rings of Saturn (he was involved in a long dispute with Huygens over their interpretation), difficulties of telescopic observations, and the construction of compound microscopes. He presents a theory of the blueness of the sky based on the principle of dispersion. There is also a careful exposition of theories of vision and the mechanics of the eye.

Fabri (1606-88), “mathematician and physicist, was born near Belley, France, educated at the Collège de la Trinité in Lyon, and ordained a Jesuit priest in 1635. He taught metaphysics, astronomy, mathematics, and natural philosophy at the Collège from 1640 until 1646, when he went to Rome, remaining there for the rest of his life. Fabri engaged in research and controversy on a wide range of scientific issues, including heliocentrism, the explanation of tides, and the circulation of the blood (he discovered the latter, independently of, and later than, Harvey, in about 1636); his writings on light and colors contributed to the science of optics” (Albert et al, Source Book in Ophthalmology, p. 100).

De Vitry 379; Macclesfield 754 (not in Honeyman, Horblit or Norman); Albert et al 709; Goldsmith F45; Jesuit Science in the Age of Galileo 12; Sommervogel III 515; Vagnetti EIIIb58; Wellcome III, p.3. 

4to: 223 x 156 mm. Pp. [8], 246, with 6 folding engraved plates, woodcut vignette on title and woodcut diagrams in text. Title page with old inscription washed out. Contemporary calf, corners and spine with some professional leather restoration, in all a very good copy.