for the author by Cornelius Crownfield, Cambridge, 1738. First Edition, complete with list of subscribers, errata, and all blank leaves, with 83 folding engraved plates, contemporary gilt-ruled calf, with book plate for 'BAGGRAVE LIBRARY'; First edition of the most influential optical textbook of the eighteenth century. Note: This book became the standard work on optics in its time and was translated into French, Dutch and German. Divided into four books, the first 'A Popular Treatise' deals in a non-technical manner with the fundamental experiments in optics, while the second 'A Mathematical Treatise' provides a more formal treatment of the geometrical theory of the subject, the third book A Mechanical Treatise' describes apparatus for grinding and polishing lenses and specula, the fourth book 'A Philosophical Treatise' gives a history of telescopic discoveries, there is also a good chapter on microscopes with good illustrations.