View source for Micrographia

{{Short description|1665 book by Robert Hooke}}
{{about|the book|the medical term|Micrographia (handwriting)|artwork "drawn" with lines of minute characters|Micrography}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}

{{Infobox book | 
| name = Micrographia
| title_orig = Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon
| translator =
| image = Micrographia title page.gif
| caption = Title page of ''Micrographia''
| author=[[Robert Hooke]]
| illustrator = 
| cover_artist =
| country = [[Great Britain]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| series =
| genre = [[Microscopy]]
| publisher = [[The Royal Society]]
| release_date = January 1665
| isbn =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''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]], it became the first scientific best-seller, inspiring a wide public interest in the new science of [[microscopy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Falkowski |first1=Paul G. |title=Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable |date=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-6572-7 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0tDyBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |access-date=27 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref> The book originated the biological term "[[cell (biology)|cell]]".

==Observations==
Hooke most famously describes a [[fly]]'s eye and a plant [[cell (biology)|cell]] (where he coined that term because plant cells, which are walled, reminded him of the [[Monastic cell|cells]] of a monastery<ref name="Hooke">"<cite>... 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. . .</cite>" – Hooke describing his observations on a thin slice of cork. [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/hooke.html Robert Hooke]</ref>). Known for its spectacular [[Intaglio (printmaking)|copperplate]] of the miniature world, particularly its fold-out plates of [[insect]]s, the text itself reinforces the tremendous power of the new [[microscope]]. The plates of insects fold out to be larger than the large [[Book size|folio]] 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 [[planet|planetary bodies]], the [[wave theory of light]], the organic origin of [[fossil]]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).<ref>{{cite journal |author=Fara P |title=A microscopic reality tale |journal=Nature |volume=459 |issue=4 June 2009 |pages=642–644 |date=June 2009 |doi=10.1038/459642a |pmid=19494897|bibcode = 2009Natur.459..642F |s2cid=4382037 |doi-access=free }}</ref>  
<gallery widths="180" heights="180" caption="Gallery">
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]].
File:Louse diagram, Micrographia, Robert Hooke, 1667.jpg|Hooke's drawing of a [[louse]]
File:HookeFlea01.jpg|Hooke's drawing of a [[flea]]
File:Hooke-microscope.png|Hooke's microscope
File:RobertHookeMicrographia1665.jpg|Hooke was the first to apply the word "[[Cell (biology)|cell]]" to biological objects: [[Cork (material)|Cork]].
File:Hooke-gnat.jpg|Hooke's drawing of a [[gnat]]
File:Compoundeye.png|Hooke's drawing of a grey [[dronefly]]
File:Hooke-bluefly.jpg|Hooke's drawing of a blue fly
</gallery>

==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. ''Micrographia''{{'s}} 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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pepys.info/1665/1665jan.html | title=Samuel Pepys Diary, 21 January 1665 | access-date=13 December 2015}}</ref>

==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.''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/09/science.research |title=Eureka! Lost manuscript found in cupboard |last=Sample |first=Ian |date=8 February 2006 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=16 January 2014}}</ref> She observes, "Hooke's use of the term "schema" to identify his plates indicates that he approached his images in a [[diagram]]matic manner and implies the study or visual [[dissection]] of the objects portrayed." Identifying Hooke's schema as 'organization tools', she emphasizes:<ref name="Neri">{{cite book |last=Neri |first=Janice |editor1-last=O'Malley |editor1-first=Therese |editor2-last=Meyers |editor2-first=Amy R. W. |title=The Art of Natural History |publisher=National Gallery of Art |date=2008 |pages=83–107 |chapter=Between Observation and Image: Representations of Insects in Robert Hooke's Micrographia |isbn=978-0-300-16024-6}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Hooke built up his images from numerous observations made from multiple vantage points, under varying lighting conditions, and with lenses of differing powers. Similarly, his specimens required a great deal of manipulation and preparation in order to make them visible through the microscope.}}

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."<ref name="Neri" />

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

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
{{wikisource|Micrographia|''Micrographia''}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Hooke's Micrographia Diagrams from the National Library of Wales}}
* Engraved copperplate illustrations from a first edition of ''[https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/9g54xj51s 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]]'s [https://web.archive.org/web/20190202042542/https://digital.sciencehistory.org/ Digital Collections])
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15491 Project Gutenberg ''Micrographia'' text]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131203040046/http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/hooke/hooke.html Turning the Pages] - virtual copy of the book from the National Library of Medicine
*''[https://catalog.lindahall.org/permalink/01LINDAHALL_INST/1nrd31s/alma991863803405961 Micrographia]'' - full digital facsimile at Linda Hall Library
*[http://blogs.nature.com/london/2007/10/08/transcribing-the-hooke-folio Transcribing the Hooke Folio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111023215850/http://blogs.nature.com/london/2007/10/08/transcribing-the-hooke-folio |date=23 October 2011 }}
*{{Internet Archive|micrographiaorso1670hook}}
* {{librivox book | title=Micrographia| author=Hooke}}

{{History of biology}}
[[Category:Robert Hooke]]
[[Category:1665 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:1665 in England]]
[[Category:1665 in science]]
[[Category:English non-fiction literature]]
[[Category:Biology books]]
[[Category:Microscopes]]
[[Category:Microscopy]]
[[Category:Cell imaging]]
[[Category:Royal Society]]
[[Category:Illustrated books]]