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HOOKE, Robert (1635-1703). Micrographia; or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and enquiries thereupon. London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665.
2° (301 x 181mm). Title in red and black with engraved arms of the Royal Society, 38 engraved plates after the author and Christopher Wren, 12 folding or double-page. (Some plates close cut by the binder to avoid the need for a short fold, plate 4 with slight stain and closed 60mm. tear, plate 34 with several tears along bottom fold, clean 38mm. tear to plate 37, a few other short tears to folding plates, plate 14 browned along outer edge of fold, D2 stained, S2 with slight tear at upper margin, occasional thumb-soiling.) Contemporary calf gilt (restoration along joints and to spine, bottom headband renewed).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Hooke's most celebrated work. 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 colours 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. In this copy, about 17 plates have been cropped by the binder to avoid the need for a fold, not with loss, but sometimes with the result that the extreme part of the image is concealed in the gutter. Dibner 18; Garrison-Morton 262; Heirs of Hippocrates 599; Horblit Science 50; Keynes Dr. Robert Hooke 6; Norman 1092; PMM 147; Wing H-2620.
2° (301 x 181mm). Title in red and black with engraved arms of the Royal Society, 38 engraved plates after the author and Christopher Wren, 12 folding or double-page. (Some plates close cut by the binder to avoid the need for a short fold, plate 4 with slight stain and closed 60mm. tear, plate 34 with several tears along bottom fold, clean 38mm. tear to plate 37, a few other short tears to folding plates, plate 14 browned along outer edge of fold, D2 stained, S2 with slight tear at upper margin, occasional thumb-soiling.) Contemporary calf gilt (restoration along joints and to spine, bottom headband renewed).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Hooke's most celebrated work. 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 colours 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. In this copy, about 17 plates have been cropped by the binder to avoid the need for a fold, not with loss, but sometimes with the result that the extreme part of the image is concealed in the gutter. Dibner 18; Garrison-Morton 262; Heirs of Hippocrates 599; Horblit Science 50; Keynes Dr. Robert Hooke 6; Norman 1092; PMM 147; Wing H-2620.
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