Porta, Giambattista della (1540?-1615)
De Refractione Optices Parte. Libri Novem.

Naples: Ex Officina Horatius Salvianus apud Io. Iacobum Carlinum & Antonium Pacem, 1593.

First edition, woodcut device to title, with woodcut text illustrations; bound in contemporary limp parchment, lacking ties; ex libris the Earl of Hopetoun Library, with armorial bookplate pasted inside front cover, final bifolium containing the dedication to Octavio Pisano and its blank conjugate present after the text; 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.

Porta innovated in the field of optics by combining concave and convex lenses to other existing optical equipment, including the camera obscura, in order to create more complex and powerful compounding effects. He also used his knowledge of geometry to calculate the resultant compounded refractive powers of his lens combinations.

Wellcome 5206; Osler 3720; Adams P-1929.