Beschreibung:

GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832). Zur Farbenlehre . Tübingen: J.G. Cotta, 1810. First edition of Goethe's 'longest and, in his own view, best work, today known principally as a fierce and unsuccessful attack on Newton's demonstrations that white light is composite. Goethe supposed that the pure sensation of white can be caused only by a simple, uncompounded substance' (DSB). Goethe's approach to science was one of sensuous experience and poetic intuition. He expected to be remembered as a scientist and thought his most important work was his Theory of Colours. He argued that colours are realities, phenomena of nature. In this sense, Goethe believed colours to be the result of the contrast between light and darkness, and that the intervention of a turbid medium produces colour. Since all bodies are to some extent turbid, they may appear coloured in daylight. The present work is divided into 3 parts: 'Goethe's chapter on physiological colors (those which depend more on the condition of the eye than on the illumination) is the most successful and also typifies his physchological approach to color.' (DSB). Hagen 347; Kippenberg I, 386 and 387. 2 volumes text, octavo (203 x 118 mm) and one atlas volume, quarto (215 x 173 mm). 17 engraved plates, of which 12 hand-coloured (light browning to text). Text volumes: contemporary half sheep over blue boards (extremities faintly rubbed). Atlas volume: contemporary green paper-covered boards with gold tooled border, pink endpapers (expertly rebacked and recornered with calf). Provenance : very small armorial blind stamp to titles of text vols – Fedor Fedorovich Evald (1813-1879, physicist and tutor to the children of Alexander II; stamps on titles) – Heinrich Röttinger (bookplates).