“Reflexions, refractions, inflexions, and colors of light” —
David DiLaura called his discovery “a once-in-a-collector’s-lifetime event.”
Peter Harrington Rare Books
David DiLaura, an emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, was working on his comprehensive bibliography listing every significant scientific volume on optics when he made an unexpected discovery. The copy of Isaac Newton‘s seminal treatise Opticks that he had purchased some 20 years before turned out to be from Newton’s own personal library, believed lost for many decades. The book will go up for sale at the Rare Books San Francisco Fair, February 3–5, 2023, with a price of 375,000 pounds (about $467,000).
“It’s becoming increasingly rare for an author’s own copy of a book of this magnitude to fly under the radar for so many years,” said Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington Rare Books, which is selling the tome. “When DiLaura bought this copy more than 20 years ago from an English rare book dealer in West Sussex, neither buyer nor seller had any idea of its history. DiLaura has described his discovery as ‘a once-in-a-collector’s-lifetime event,’ and it really is. Collectors and rare book dealers love a good tale of rediscovery, especially one which came to light—quite literally in this case—in the way this one did.”
Newton is justly
