The Online Books Page

Light -- Early works to 1800

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• Light
• Early works to 1800

• Color -- Early works to 1800
• Light -- Symbolic aspects -- Early works to 1800

• Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (in Latin; Rome: Sumptibus H. Scheus, 1646), by Athanasius Kircher (page images in Germany)
• Outlines of Experiments and Inquiries Respecting Sound and Light (reprinted from Philosophical Transactions; London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., 1800), by Thomas Young (page images at NIH)
• Buffon's Natural History: Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c. (10 volumes; 1797 and 1807), by Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon, trans. by James Smith Barr (multiple formats at HathiTrust, archive.org, and Gutenberg)

• Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (London: Printed for H. Herringman, 1664), by Robert Boyle (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)

• Tratado Instructivo y Práctico Sobre el Arte de la Tintura: Reglas Experimentadas y Metódicas para Tintar Sedas, Lanas, Hilos de Todas Clases y Esparto en Rama (in Spanish; Madrid: Imp. de Blas Román, 1778), by Luis Fernández
  • multiple formats at Google
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • PDF in Spain

• Dissertation sur la Cause Physique de la Couleur des Negres, de la Qualité de Leurs CHeveux,et de la Degeneration de l'un et de l'Autre (in French; Paris: Pierre-Guillaume Simon, 1741) (page images at HathiTrust)
• A Discourse Intended to Commemorate the Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus: Delivered at the Request of the Historical Society in Massachusetts, on the 23d day of October, 1792, Being the Completion of the Third Century Since That Memorable Event; To Which Are Added Four Dissertations (Boston: Belknap and Hall, 1792), by Jeremy Belknap
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • HTML at Evans TCP

• Aula Lucis, or, The House of Light: A Discourse Written in the Year 1651 (London: Printed for William Leake, 1652), by Thomas Vaughan (multiple formats at archive.org)

Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms.

• Walter Crane's Painting Book (London et al.: G. Routledge and Sons, n.d.), by Walter Crane (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Photosynthesis (c1969), by Eugene Rabinowitch and Govindjee (PDF files at Illinois)
• The Photosynthesis of Carbon Compounds (New York: W. A. Benjamin, 1962), by Melvin Calvin and James Alan Bassham (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Photosynthesis (New York: Chemical Catalog Co., 1926), by H. A. Spoehr
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Experiments Upon Vegetables: Discovering Their Great Power of Purifying the Common Air in the Sun-Shine, and of Injuring It in the Shade and at Night; To Which is Joined a New Method of Examining the Accurate Degree of Salubrity of the Atmosphere (London: Printed for P. Elmsly and H. Payne, 1779), by Jan Ingenhousz (multiple formats at archive.org)

• On the Influence of the Blue Color of the Sky in Developing Animal and Vegetable Life (10th edition; Philadelphia: Inquirer book and job print, 1871), by A. J. Pleasonton (page images at HathiTrust)

• David of Modin: A Chanukah Play (New York: Bloch Pub. Co., c1903), by Jacob J. Leibson (page images at HathiTrust)

• Candles in the Roman Rite (third edition; Baltimore: A. Gross Candle Co., 1937), by Edwin Ryan, illust. by James R. Howard (page images at HathiTrust)

• Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation in Quantum Relativistic Kinetic Theory (EJDE monograph #4, 2003), by Miguel Escobedo, Stéphane Mischler, and Manuel A. Valle (PDF with commentary at ams.org)

• Effects of Light on Materials in Collections: Data on Photoflash and Related Sources (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2001), by Terry T. Schaeffer (page images and PDF with commentary at getty.edu and Google)

• Historical Color Guide: Primitive to Modern Times (New York: W. Helburn, c1938), by Elizabeth Burris-Meyer (page images at HathiTrust)
• Color and its Applications (second edition; New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1921), by Matthew Luckiesh (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Goethe's Theory of Colours (based on the 1840 edition), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ed. by Charles Lock Eastlake (illustrated HTML with commentary at theoryofcolor.org)
• Goethe's Theory of Colours: Translated from the German, With Notes (London: J. Murray, 1840), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ed. by Charles Lock Eastlake (multiple formats at Google)
• The Laws of Harmonious Colouring, Adapted to Interior Decorations, Manufactures, and Other Useful Purposes (London: W. S. Orr and Co.; Edinburgh: W. and R. Chambers, 1838), by D. R. Hay (multiple formats at archiuve.org)
• Manual of the Science of Colour: On the True Theory of the Colour-Sensations and the Natural System (London: Chapman and Hall, 1871), by William Benson (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Painter's Companion: or, A Treatise on Colours (sixth edition, published anonymously; London: Printed for R. H. Laurie, 1823), by John Hoofnail (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Harmonies of Tones and Colours Developed by Evolution (with supplement; London and New York: Marcus Ward and Co., 1883-1885), by F. J. Hughes
  • multiple formats at Google; US access only
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms, by Swami Panchadasi (Gutenberg text)

• Color Psychology and Color Therapy: A Factual Study of the Influence of Color on Human Life (revised edition; Secaucus, NJ: The Citadel Press, c1961), by Faber Birren (page images at HathiTrust)

• Anthropology of Color: Interdisciplinary Multilevel Modeling (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co., c2007), ed. by Robert E. MacLaury, Galina V. Paramei, and Don Dedrick (PDF files with commentary at John Benjamins e-Platform)
• Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, by Patrick Syme, ed. by Nicholas Rougeux, contrib. by Abraham Gottlob Werner (illustrated HTML at c82.net)

• On the Influence of the Blue Color of the Sky in Developing Animal and Vegetable Life (10th edition; Philadelphia: Inquirer book and job print, 1871), by A. J. Pleasonton (page images at HathiTrust)

• The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe (c2006), by Sarah Lowengard (illustrated HTML and PDF with commentary at gutenberg-e.org)

• Color in Sketching and Rendering (New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1935), by Arthur L. Guptill, contrib. by John Floyd Yewell (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Painter's Palette and How to Master It (New York: Baker and Taylor Co., c1913), by Bolton Brown (page images at HathiTrust)
• Practical Hints on Colour in Painting, Illustrated by Examples From the Works of the Venetian, Flemish, and Dutch Schools (second edition), by John Burnet (zipped illustrated HTML at aisthesthai.tk)
• The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours, and Their Applications to the Arts (third edition; London : H. G. Bohn, 1860), by M. E. Chevreul, trans. by Charles Martel
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• Color and Shape in American Indian Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983), by Zena Pearlstone (page images and PDF at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google)

• Munsell Color Charts for Plant Tissues (first edition; Baltimore: Munsell Color Co., 1952), by Munsell Color (Firm) (page images at HathiTrust)

• Natural Dyeing Notes (Preble, NY: 7 Valley Weavers Guild, ca. 1972), by Catherine Bailey Miranda (page images at HathiTrust)
• Natural Dyes (Boston: B. Humphries Inc., c1950), by Sallie Pease Kierstead (page images at HathiTrust)
• "Shall America Remain the Only Important Country at the Mercy of the German Chemists?" Address by Joseph H. Choate, Jr., Counsel, the Chemical Foundation, at 21st Annual Meeting of the National Civic Federation (New York: Chemical Foundation, 1921), by Joseph Hodges Choate (rotated page images at HathiTrust)

• Principia of Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color, With an Archeological Compendium of Ethiopian and Egyptian civilization, From Years of Careful Examination and Enquiry (second edition; Philadelphia: Harper and Brother, 1880), by Martin Robison Delany (page images at HathiTrust)

• Language Strategies for the Domain of Colour (Studies in Diversity Linguistics #3; Berlin: Language Science Press, 2015), by Joris Bleys (PDF with commentary at langsci-press.org)

• Harmonies of Tones and Colours Developed by Evolution (with supplement; London and New York: Marcus Ward and Co., 1883-1885), by F. J. Hughes
  • multiple formats at Google; US access only
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Nestling Mouth Markings and Colors of Old World Finches Estrildidae: Mimicry and Coevolution of Nesting Finches and Their Vidua Brood Parasites (2005), by Robert B. Payne (PDF at Michigan)

• White Indians of Darien (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, c1934), by Richard Oglesby Marsh (page images at HathiTrust)

• Munsell Color Charts for Plant Tissues (first edition; Baltimore: Munsell Color Co., 1952), by Munsell Color (Firm) (page images at HathiTrust)
• Leaf Xanthophylls (Carnegie Institution of Washington publication #490, 1938), by Harold H. Strain, contrib. by H. A. Spoehr (page images at HathiTrust)

• Effects of Light on Materials in Collections: Data on Photoflash and Related Sources (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2001), by Terry T. Schaeffer (page images and PDF with commentary at getty.edu and Google)

• Diamond Design (1919 original text with notes and corrections by editor in 2001), by Marcel Tolkowsky, ed. by Jasper Paulsen (illustrated HTML with commentary at folds.net)
• Diamond Design: A Study of the Reflection and Refraction of Light in a Diamond (London: E. and F. Spon; New York: Spon and Chamberlain, 1919), by Marcel Tolkowsky
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

More items available under broader and related terms at left.