LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH. Les Proprietes Remarquables de la Route de la Lumiere..., The Hague, Nicolaas van Daalen, 1759.
8vo (200x120 mm.). 2 folding engraved plates (complete, a few light stains to pl. 2). Contemporary vellum with decorative endpapers, slightly worn, boards partly warped, spine with leather label, red edges. Repaired marginal tear on title, title verso strengthened at gutter.

First edition, second issue. Scarce first edition of Lambert's first published book, discussing the path of light rays in air and other media. The first issue was published in 1758.

Lambert began working on aspects of refraction through the atmosphere in 1752, and from 1754 this work was carried out in parallel with his work on photometry.
The book is divided into three parts: 'Les proprietes generales de la route, qui la lumiere prend, en passant par des milieux refringens, spheriques et concentriques'; 'Des refractions astronomiques, de la maniere de les determiner par approximation aussi exactement que l'on voudra, et de leur rapport a divers autres problemes'; and 'Des refractions circulaires, de leur usage pour la determination des refractions terrestres: et de divers autres problemes dependant des refractions tant astronomiques que terrestres'. Remarkably, during the entire period 1756-58 Lambert was traveling through northern Europe and so carried with him a small library. Lambert mentions that he is working on another work in optics and promises to publish it soon -this would eventually be his Photometria.
Library Hub lists only one copy of the 1758 first edition.