Last week I attended the UK Optical Design Meeting, where I was invited to speak on the applications of my favorite topic, nodal aberration theory. The meeting was held at the Edinburgh Royal Observatory, a beautiful building with a tremendous view.
Built in the late 1800s, the building defines the classic European observatory.
At the end of a day of talks on TMA telescopes and advanced instruments for astronomers, we were treated to a short tour of the library. Given my earlier writing, this was a very timely visit. It turns out that the library at the observatory houses what’s arguably the best and most complete collection of books in astronomy and optics in the world. Books I’ve heard of for decades, and felt I had no hope of ever seeing, were all there. It really is quite overwhelming. This library is particularly inspiring as it provides close to complete coverage of the works in optics and astronomy before 1750 or even 1850. It is very encouraging to see an intact collection of this magnitude, and gives real hope to the idea of assembling a tremendous collection that forms a complete basis for maintaining a robust history of optics.
The next step for me is to contact the librarian, who has promised that I can get a listing of their collection of 15,000 items. I will also be discussing what it might take to spend a week at the library and whether I can full access to the collection, which appears to include Royal Society proceedings. Obviously, more to come.
In the interim, I spotted the following reference, while scanning the shelves in the library:
A. Mark Smith in Transact. Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol. 96, Pts. 2, 3, 4, "Alhacen on the Principles of Reflection"
where Alhacen is more commonly seen as Alhazen. This is often discussed as one of the earliest writings on light and optics. The above reference is an English translation with commentary. This has always been of high interest to me, making this a very exciting lead.
This thread leads one to the American Physical Society, www.aps.org, and trouble. I managed to crawl away from the site with 11 new books on the history of optics:
Code Name Price Qty Total 0871697734 Descartes's Theory of Light & Refraction: A Discourse on Method $20.00 1 $20.00 0871697521 Optical Corrections in the Sculpture of Donatello $18.00 1 $18.00 0871699141 Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception (2 vol.) $50.00 1 $50.00 0871692597 Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes (Memoir 259) $85.00 1 $85.00 0871699532 Descartes and the Hyperbolic Quest: Lens Making Machines & Their Significance in the Seventeenth Century (Transaction 95-3) $24.00 1 $24.00 0871692384 Command of Light: Rowland’s School of Physics & the Spectrum $30.00 1 $30.00 0871699621 Alhacen on the Principles of Reflection: Volume 1: Introduction and Latin Text; Volume 2: English Translation (Transactions 96 No. 2 & 3) $50.00 1 $50.00 0871691833 Lines of Nazca (Memoir 183) $30.00 1 $30.00 0871699657 Essays and Reviews in History and History of Science (Transaction 96-5) $24.00 1 $24.00 1606189859 Long Route to the Invention of the Telescope: (Transactions 98-5) $35.00 1 $35.00 0871696746 Invention of the Telescope (2008 Reprint) (Transactions 67 No. 4) $30.00 1 $30.00
including the Alhacen discussed above. I will report on the content of what I received when I return to New York early in October. I encourage you to check out the APS site – it is very nice, obscure, and relevant.
Did you intend to give the link to http://www.amphilsoc.org, the site for the American Philosophical Society, rather than that for the American Physical Society?
Posted by: Daniel Frayer | Thursday, November 05, 2009 at 03:52 PM