Ian Ehling
Head of Department
Lot 56
HOOKE, ROBERT. 1635-1702. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665.
10 December 2020, 11:00 EST
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HOOKE, ROBERT. 1635-1702.
Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: John Martyn and James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1665.
Folio (301 x 199 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 (32 folding), woodcut head-pieces and five-line initials. Contemporary paneled calf, rebacked. Plate 16 bound out of sequence.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF HOOKE'S MOST CELEBRATED WORK, with the title printed in red and black and dated 1665. "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK IN THE HISTORY OF MICROSCOPY, CONTAINING THE DISCOVERIES MADE WITH HOOKE'S NEWLY PERFECTED COMPOUND MICROSCOPE. 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). Dibner Heralds of Science 187; Garrison-Morton-Norman 262; Heirs of Hippocrates 599; Horblit Science 50; Keynes Dr. Robert Hooke 6; Norman 1092; PMM 147.
Folio (301 x 199 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 (32 folding), woodcut head-pieces and five-line initials. Contemporary paneled calf, rebacked. Plate 16 bound out of sequence.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF HOOKE'S MOST CELEBRATED WORK, with the title printed in red and black and dated 1665. "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK IN THE HISTORY OF MICROSCOPY, CONTAINING THE DISCOVERIES MADE WITH HOOKE'S NEWLY PERFECTED COMPOUND MICROSCOPE. 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). Dibner Heralds of Science 187; Garrison-Morton-Norman 262; Heirs of Hippocrates 599; Horblit Science 50; Keynes Dr. Robert Hooke 6; Norman 1092; PMM 147.