Opticks

London 1704 is the true first, and it is a genuine English-language first — Newton published Opticks in English rather than Latin, unlike the Principia. The Latin Optice sive de reflexionibus, refractionibus, inflexionibus & coloribus lucis (London: Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1706), translated by Samuel Clarke under Newton's supervision, is a later translation, not a precedent, although it is collected in its own right because it adds new Queries. Later English editions printed for W. & J. Innys (1718 and after) enlarge the Queries further and are 'first thus' at best; there is no earlier Continental or original-language edition to displace the 1704.