NCIE
NCIE
Newton's work "Optics" will be auctioned for about half a million dollars
The version of Newton's work "Optics", which is considered lost, will be auctioned for about half a million dollars.
This copy of the book, which belonged to the author himself, was considered lost for nearly 100 years and was only recently discovered by collector David Di Laura sorting through his collection during the pandemic. The owner said that he bought the book 20 years ago and forgot about it.
There is a note on the book, according to which it is the second edition, published in 1717. Research has shown that after Newton's death in 1727, his books and other items were acquired by a man named John Huggins, who later passed them on to his son, Charles, Chancellor of the University of Oxfordshire. The items were then passed on to the next rector, James Musgrave. The collection was passed down from generation to generation until 1920, after which many samples were sold.
The book is slated to sell at the San Francisco Rare Books Fair for $460,000.
The book is considered one of Newton's three foundational works in science.
In 2016, the first Latin edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica sold at Christie's in New York for $3.7 million to an anonymous buyer, making it the most expensive scientific book ever sold at auction.
