''Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon.'' is a historically significant book by Robert Hooke about his observations through various lenses. It was the first book to include illustrations of insects and plants as seen through microscopes. Published in January 1665, the first major publication of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

, it became the first scientific best-seller, inspiring a wide public interest in the new science of

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of mi ...

. The book originated the biological term '' cell''.

Observations

Hooke most famously describes a fly's eye and a plant cell (where he coined that term because plant cells, which are walled, reminded him of the cells in a

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey t ...

"... I could exceedingly plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular .these pores, or cells, .were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this. . ." – Hooke describing his observations on a thin slice of cork
Robert Hooke
/ref>). Known for its spectacular copperplate of the miniature world, particularly its fold-out plates of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, the text itself reinforces the tremendous power of the new microscope. The plates of insects fold out to be larger than the large

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

itself, the engraving of the louse in particular folding out to four times the size of the book. Although the book is best known for demonstrating the power of the microscope, ''Micrographia'' also describes distant planetary bodies, the

wave theory of light In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include ef ...

, the organic origin of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s, and other philosophical and scientific interests of its author. Hooke also selected several objects of human origin; among these objects were the jagged edge of a honed razor and the point of a needle, seeming blunt under the microscope. His goal may well have been to contrast the flawed products of mankind with the perfection of nature (and hence, in the spirit of the times, of biblical creation). File:Hooke Microscope-03000276-FIG-4.jpg, Microscope manufactured by Christopher White of London for Robert Hooke. Hooke is believed to have used this microscope for the observations that formed the basis of ''Micrographia''. (M-030 00276) Courtesy - Billings Microscope Collection, National Museum of Health and Medicine,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

. File:Louse diagram, Micrographia, Robert Hooke, 1667.jpg, Hooke's drawing of a louse File:HookeFlea01.jpg, Hooke's drawing of a

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

File:Hooke-microscope.png, Hooke's microscope File:RobertHookeMicrographia1665.jpg, Hooke was the first to apply the word " cell" to biological objects: Cork. File:Hooke-gnat.jpg, Hooke's drawing of a

gnat A gnat () is any of many species of tiny flying insects in the dipterid suborder Nematocera, especially those in the families Mycetophilidae, Anisopodidae and Sciaridae. They can be both biting and non-biting. Most often they fly in large n ...

File:Compoundeye.png, Hooke's drawing of a grey dronefly File:Hooke-bluefly.jpg, Hooke's drawing of a blue fly

Reception

Published under the aegis of The Royal Society, the popularity of the book helped further the society's image and mission of being England's leading scientific organization. ''Micrographias illustrations of the miniature world captured the public's imagination in a radically new way; Samuel Pepys called it "the most ingenious book that ever I read in my life."

Methods

In 2007, Janice Neri, a professor of art history and visual culture, studied Hooke's artistic influences and processes with the help of some newly rediscovered notes and drawings that appear to show some of his work leading up to ''Micrographia.'' She observes, "Hooke's use of the term "schema" to identify his plates indicates that he approached his images in a diagrammatic manner and implies the study or visual

dissection Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause ...

of the objects portrayed." Identifying Hooke's schema as 'organization tools,' she emphasizes: Additionally: "Hooke often enclosed the objects he presented within a round frame, thus offering viewers an evocation of the experience of looking through the lens of a microscope."

Bibliography

*Robert Hooke. ''Micrographia: or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses''. London: J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665. (first edition).

References

External links

* Engraved copperplate illustrations from a first edition of
Micrographia : or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. With observations and inquiries thereupon
' (all images freely available for download in a variety of formats from the Science History Institute'
Digital Collections

Project Gutenberg ''Micrographia'' text
- virtual copy of the book from the National Library of Medicine *
Micrographia
' - full digital facsimile at Linda Hall Library
Transcribing the Hooke Folio
* * {{History of biology English non-fiction literature Biology books 1665 books Microscopes Microscopy Cell imaging Royal Society 1665 in science