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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° (290 x 192mm). Title in red and black with engraved vignette of the Royal Society's arms, 38 engraved plates after the author, 20 folding. (Some plates cropped with slight loss of image, many folding plates with clean tears repaired on verso and with narrow section excised from lower inner blank margin, plate 2 detached and unevenly cut at both outer and inner margin, plate 12 cut down at inner margin and rehinged onto preceding text leaf, plate 16 hinged on stub after plate 21, plate 22 with 20mm. diameter hole in blank area, plate 34 with several repaired tears affecting image, several plates near end hinged on binding stubs, quire 2G to end wormed at inner margin.) Near contemporary tree sheep, covers with Greek key roll, spine in gilt-tooled compartments with red morocco lettering-piece (extremities rubbed, upper joints splitting, old repairs to covers which are slightly bowed). Provenance: A few manuscript corrections; 'R.W.' (monogram on bookplate, concealing earlier shelf mark); John Blagrove (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. This was one of the earliest books to appear under the imprint of the Royal Society. The minutes of a Royal Society meeting on 6 July 1663 record that 'Mr. Hooke was charged to shew his microscopical observations in a handsome book to be provided by him for that puprpose,' and their expectations were undoubtedly met in a book whose plates are among the first and best of their kind. As Keynes notes, the 28-page preface includes a description of the newly-perfected compound microscope which was used for the observations, and 'contains many reflections on human faculties and the importance of scientific discoveries in general,' as well as 'microscopy in particular.' Although the main emphasis is on insects, the 60 subjects chosen for the 'Observations' are intriguing in their diversity, and the table at the end enlarges on what they involve. Newton was one of the scientists who read Micrographia diligently, making copious notes on it in a manuscript now at Cambridge, and even after a lapse of 300 years the fascination of the plates themselves is undiminished. 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° (290 x 192mm). Title in red and black with engraved vignette of the Royal Society's arms, 38 engraved plates after the author, 20 folding. (Some plates cropped with slight loss of image, many folding plates with clean tears repaired on verso and with narrow section excised from lower inner blank margin, plate 2 detached and unevenly cut at both outer and inner margin, plate 12 cut down at inner margin and rehinged onto preceding text leaf, plate 16 hinged on stub after plate 21, plate 22 with 20mm. diameter hole in blank area, plate 34 with several repaired tears affecting image, several plates near end hinged on binding stubs, quire 2G to end wormed at inner margin.) Near contemporary tree sheep, covers with Greek key roll, spine in gilt-tooled compartments with red morocco lettering-piece (extremities rubbed, upper joints splitting, old repairs to covers which are slightly bowed). Provenance: A few manuscript corrections; 'R.W.' (monogram on bookplate, concealing earlier shelf mark); John Blagrove (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. This was one of the earliest books to appear under the imprint of the Royal Society. The minutes of a Royal Society meeting on 6 July 1663 record that 'Mr. Hooke was charged to shew his microscopical observations in a handsome book to be provided by him for that puprpose,' and their expectations were undoubtedly met in a book whose plates are among the first and best of their kind. As Keynes notes, the 28-page preface includes a description of the newly-perfected compound microscope which was used for the observations, and 'contains many reflections on human faculties and the importance of scientific discoveries in general,' as well as 'microscopy in particular.' Although the main emphasis is on insects, the 60 subjects chosen for the 'Observations' are intriguing in their diversity, and the table at the end enlarges on what they involve. Newton was one of the scientists who read Micrographia diligently, making copious notes on it in a manuscript now at Cambridge, and even after a lapse of 300 years the fascination of the plates themselves is undiminished. 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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