Opticorum libri sex

Aguilon, Francois de

Price: 9500.00 USD

Antwerp: Plantin, 1613. Optics & Color Theory, Illustrated by Rubens Aguilon, François de (1567-1617). Opticorum libri sex. Folio. Engraved title, [44], 684, [44]pp. Lacking half-title. Engraved title and 6 large vignettes engraved by Galle after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Text woodcuts. Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana, 1613. 341 x 223 mm. Calf c. 1613, spine repaired, hinges a little rubbed. Light browning, scattered foxing, small library stamps and later ownership signature on title. Very good copy. First Edition. A remarkable collaboration between the scientific, printing and visual arts. Intended for use in Jesuit schools, Aguilon’s work was primarily a synthesis of classical and modern writings on optics; however, it also contained the first discussion of the stereographic process (which Aguilon named), one of the earliest presentations of the red-yellow-blue color system, an original theory of binocular vision and the first published description of Aguilon’s horopter. Aguilar’s theory of binocular vision was eventually superseded (despite claims to the contrary, he apparently knew nothing about Kepler’s ideas on the retina); nevertheless his ideas had some influence on the great theorists of vision from Huygens to Newton to Helmholtz. Production of Aguilon’s book fell to the Plantin-Moretus printing house, whose controllers were sympathetic to the Jesuits in Antwerp. The illustrations and allegorical title were prepared by Peter Paul Rubens, a friend of Balthasar Moretus and himself deeply interested in the world of books. “The designs for the frontispiece and six vignettes reveal Rubens’ knowledge of the actual text. . . . Rubens combined successfully Aguilonius’ references to ancient mythology and allegory into a coherent programme that also includes a connection with the science of optics, for all the various elements on the frontispiece have a direct relationship with the concept of vision” (Held, Rubens and the Book, p. 52). Norman 25. See Gernsheim, Hist. Photography, p. 253, crediting Aguilon with coining “stereoscopic.”