HOOKE, Robert (1635-1703). Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses . London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665.
HOOKE, Robert (1635-1703). Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses . London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665. 2 o (302 x 194 mm). Title-page printed in red and black with engraved arms of the Royal Society, 38 engraved plates, by and after the author and possibly also Christopher Wren (12 folding), woodcut head-pieces and five-line initials (plate 1 with two short repaired tears, plates 4, 6, 14 and 22 with repaired tears crossing image, plate 14 reinforced along fore-margin). (Repaired marginal tear on S3, some occasional pale marginal dampstaining.) Contemporary calf (rebacked). Provenance : Lord Cecil of Burghley (armorial bookplate); acquired from Scribner Rare Books, 1967. "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK IN THE HISTORY OF MICROSCOPY, CONTAINING THE DISCOVERIES MADE WITH HOOKE'S NEWLY PERFECTED COMPOUND MICROSCOPE" (Norman) FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF HOOKE'S MOST CELEBRATED WORK, with the title printed in red and black and dated 1665. " Micrographia was not only the first book devoted entirely to microscopical observations, but also the first to pair its descriptions with profuse and detailed illustrations, and this graphic portrayal of a hitherto unseen world had an impact rivaling that of Galilieo's Sidereus nuncius ... his famous and dramatic portraits of the flea and louse, a frightening eighteen inches long, are hardly less startling today than they must have been to Hooke's contemporaries" (Norman). The 28-page preface gives a description of the newly-perfected compound microscope, and "contains many reflections on human faculties and the importance of scientific discoveries in general" (Keynes). Although the main emphasis is on plants and insects, the written "Observations" that follow range from "The Point of a Needle" and "Edge of a Razor" (nos. 1-2) to "The Fixt Stars" and "The Moon" (nos. 59-60), and include almost everything except a unifying theory. Newton read the book diligently in his mid-twenties; his notes on it survive at Cambridge, and there is no doubt that Hooke's examination of the phenomena of colors in thin, transparent films led him directly to the experiments which became the foundation for Book Two of the Opticks . In his last observation, Hooke conjectured that the moon might have a gravitating principle like the earth's; his book also marks the first scientific use of the word "cell". Although Keynes states that the plates are "mostly folding", many of the folds are only short flaps, and the number of folding plates varies from copy to copy, depending on the whim of the binder. As in the copy described by Horblit Science , plates 2 and 13 are titled in manuscript ("Schem. 2" and "Schem. 13"). Dibner, Heralds of Science 187; Garrison-Morton 262; Heirs of Hippocrates 599; Horblit Science 50; Keynes Dr. Robert Hooke 6; Norman 1092; PMM 1 147.
HOOKE, Robert (1635-1703). Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses . London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665.
HOOKE, Robert (1635-1703). Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses . London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665. 2 o (302 x 194 mm). Title-page printed in red and black with engraved arms of the Royal Society, 38 engraved plates, by and after the author and possibly also Christopher Wren (12 folding), woodcut head-pieces and five-line initials (plate 1 with two short repaired tears, plates 4, 6, 14 and 22 with repaired tears crossing image, plate 14 reinforced along fore-margin). (Repaired marginal tear on S3, some occasional pale marginal dampstaining.) Contemporary calf (rebacked). Provenance : Lord Cecil of Burghley (armorial bookplate); acquired from Scribner Rare Books, 1967. "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK IN THE HISTORY OF MICROSCOPY, CONTAINING THE DISCOVERIES MADE WITH HOOKE'S NEWLY PERFECTED COMPOUND MICROSCOPE" (Norman) FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF HOOKE'S MOST CELEBRATED WORK, with the title printed in red and black and dated 1665. " Micrographia was not only the first book devoted entirely to microscopical observations, but also the first to pair its descriptions with profuse and detailed illustrations, and this graphic portrayal of a hitherto unseen world had an impact rivaling that of Galilieo's Sidereus nuncius ... his famous and dramatic portraits of the flea and louse, a frightening eighteen inches long, are hardly less startling today than they must have been to Hooke's contemporaries" (Norman). The 28-page preface gives a description of the newly-perfected compound microscope, and "contains many reflections on human faculties and the importance of scientific discoveries in general" (Keynes). Although the main emphasis is on plants and insects, the written "Observations" that follow range from "The Point of a Needle" and "Edge of a Razor" (nos. 1-2) to "The Fixt Stars" and "The Moon" (nos. 59-60), and include almost everything except a unifying theory. Newton read the book diligently in his mid-twenties; his notes on it survive at Cambridge, and there is no doubt that Hooke's examination of the phenomena of colors in thin, transparent films led him directly to the experiments which became the foundation for Book Two of the Opticks . In his last observation, Hooke conjectured that the moon might have a gravitating principle like the earth's; his book also marks the first scientific use of the word "cell". Although Keynes states that the plates are "mostly folding", many of the folds are only short flaps, and the number of folding plates varies from copy to copy, depending on the whim of the binder. As in the copy described by Horblit Science , plates 2 and 13 are titled in manuscript ("Schem. 2" and "Schem. 13"). Dibner, Heralds of Science 187; Garrison-Morton 262; Heirs of Hippocrates 599; Horblit Science 50; Keynes Dr. Robert Hooke 6; Norman 1092; PMM 1 147.
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