A Natural History of Vision (Bradford Books) [Hardcover]

Nicholas Wade (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262231948 | ISBN-13: 978-0262231947 | Publication Date: June 26, 1998 | Edition: 1

This illustrated survey covers what Nicholas Wade calls the "observational era of vision," beginning with the Greek philosophers and ending with Wheatstone's description of the stereoscope at the end of the 1830s (after which vision became an experimental science). Although there are other histories of vision, this is the first to present extracts of the works of scholars, organized both topically and chronologically. In what has become the author's signature style, the book juxtaposes verbal and visual descriptions. Many of the over three hundred illustrations are derived from engravings--of portraits of the scholars cited, as well as of scientific diagrams.Each portrait appears beside a significant quotation by the scholar, along with the dates of birth and death, and the source of the original illustration. The author's commentary provides the context for the quotations and traces the scientific development within each topic. The book is organized around the principal topics within the investigation of visual phenomena: light, color, subjective visual phenomena (such as afterimages and pattern distortions), motion, binocularity, space, and visual illusions.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nicholas Wade takes a daring approach in this collection of documents from the history of optical studies. In it, he compiles a curiously structured anthology of writers, from the 5th-century B.C. Greek philosopher Democritus to the 19th-century English musical instrument maker Charles Wheatstone, including such famous students of light and vision as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. These thinkers are grouped by theme ("Light and the Eye," for example, or "Space") and by date, but only very loosely by immediate subject, giving the book a hop-around feel. Wade freely admits that the organization of the anthology requires work of the reader; it may indeed call for effort, but his collection is of signal usefulness to students of the history of science and the optical sciences. --Gregory McNamee

From Scientific American

...a sober, scholarly, handsome and rewarding book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 484 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (June 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262231948
• ISBN-13: 978-0262231947
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,363,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars finding your way around vision, November 29, 2003

By 

James McArdle (Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Natural History of Vision (Bradford Books) (Paperback)

I'm a photographer who thinks about photography and its relationship to human vision. Wade's book is an inspiration for that kind of thinking. What is remarkable about this book is the way it reveals that understanding HOW we see did not come easily to humanity.