Introduction.

The aim of this work is to make a two-fold contribution to the study of eighteenth-century science. The majority of this book is devoted to a description and analysis of the conceptual development of physical optics in the period, focussing on the origins, contents, and reception of Leonhard Euler's wave theory of light. There will always be a second question in the background of the narrative, which will receive full attention in the last chapter: What does a study of eighteenth-century optics have to teach us about the changing nature of natural philosophy and science in that period? The title of this study - Optics in the Age of Euler - constitutes a response to the still generally accepted historical image of optics in which the eighteenth century is portrayed as the century of Newton. According to the standard account, ‘Newton's’ particle, or emission, theory of light dominated for more than a century, whereas ‘Huygens’ wave, or medium, theory supposedly did not develop and found few supporters during the same period. This study provides a corrective to this image, with the Swiss mathematician and natural philosopher Leonhard Euler (1707-83) a leading figure in the new historiographical drama. Euler's importance derives from his “Nova theoria lucis et colorum” (A new theory of light and colours), published in 1746. This article was the foremost eighteenth-century contribution to the development of the medium theories of light. Euler's theory of light, rather than Huygens' theory, was the first serious rival to the emission theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]