Opticks
Isaac Newton's famous book Opticks was originally published by the Royal Society in 1704, with a revised edition in 1740, shortly after Newton's death. The Plum Park Press miniature edition is based on the 1740 edition, complete and unabridged, in three volumes. Like the original edition, each volume is bound in brown leather (in this case goatskin), with the same blind tooling on both boards, and the same red label on the spine. Faux raised bands across the spine complete the eighteenth-century image. All three bookblock edges are speckled with red, again like the original.
The three volumes correspond to the three "books" in the original, and come complete with a bookstand of solid mahogany, appropriately embellished with a lens on one end and a prism on the other.
The typefaces and page layouts of the original are also echoed in the miniature edition.
Each volume had dimensions of 75 x 63 mm (3 x 2-1/2 inches). It is set in Garamond 7/8, and printed on French Parchtone paper. The bookstand is 176 mm (6-1/2 inches) long, augmented by a magnifying glass and a prism, and is lined on the underside with red felt. The set also includes an essay on Recreating Newton's Opticks in Miniature, which describes the decision-making and bookbinding involved in re-imagining this classic work.
Only one copy remains of an edition of 20, priced at $200, plus $10 for shipping and handling within the USA, or $20 overseas.
