This book discusses the development of Huygens's wave theory, reconstructing the winding road that eventually led to Traite de la Lumiere. For the first time, t... » 

This book discusses the development of Huygens's wave theory, reconstructing the winding road that eventually led to Traite de la Lumiere. For the first time, the full range of manuscript sources is taken into account. With this fullaccount of Huygens'optics, this book sheds new light on the history of 17th-century optics and the rise of the new mathematical sciences, as well as Huygens' oeuvre as a whole. «