"[T]he optical philosophers of antiquity had satisfied themselves that vision is performed in straight lines;— ...they had fixed their attention upon those straight lines, or rays, as the proper object of the science;—they had ascertained that rays reflected from a bright surface make the angle of reflection equal to the angle of incidence;—and they had drawn several consequences from these principles. We may add... the art of perspective, which is merely a corollary from the doctrine of rectilinear visual rays... The ancients practised this art, as we see in the pictures which remain to us; and we learn from Vitruvius, that they also wrote upon it. , who had been instructed by Eschylus... was the first author on this subject, and Anaxagoras, who was a pupil of Agatharchus, also wrote an Actinographia, or doctrine of drawing by rays... The moderns re-invented the art in the flourishing times of their painting... about the end of the fifteenth century; and... we have treatises on it."
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Book IX, History of Optics, Formal and Physical, Formal Optics, Ch. 1 Primary Induction of Optics.—Rays of Light and Laws of Reflection.
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History of optics
begins with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek philosophers, and the development of in the Greco-Roman world. The word optics is derived from the Greek term τα ὀπτικά meaning "appearance or look". Optics was significantly reformed by the developments in the medieval Islamic world, such as the beginnings of physical and physiological optics, and then significantly advanced in early modern Europe
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