Robert Hooke, Micrographia; or, some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. With observations and inquiries thereupon (London, 1665). This is one of the first books I looked at after I started working as a rare book librarian in a history of medicine collection. The illustrations are astonishing, and Hooke (1635–1703) drew them himself (although he paid someone else to engrave them).
He did not have a happy life: he fought with many of his other scientific contemporaries and suffered personal losses and illness. But the natural world transported him. Reading his descriptions of the plants, insects, crystals, etc., that he observed under the microscope reveals him in all his humanity and is transporting. Micrographia is one of my favorite books to share with many audiences: school groups, tourists, medical students, etc. If I looked at it every single day for the rest of my life I would never get tired of it.
by Arlene Shaner
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