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Micrographia
Scheme 34 in Micrographia, Robert Hooke, 1665, printed book. Mount Wilson Observatory Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 487000:0930.
Micrographia
The Micrographia inspired scientists when it was published in 1665 and it continues to inspire scientists today. Written and illustrated by Robert Hooke, it is the first major work to share a scientist’s observations made through a microscope.
MICRO small • GRAPHIA writing
MICRO small • SCOPE view and observe
An alternative title to this work is Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses.
This book shares the information that the author discovered while using magnification to make observations of small specimens. The written sections of this book are in English, not Latin, making it accessible to a wide range of readers. In addition to written information, Micrographia includes highly detailed illustrations of some of the specimens Hooke observed. These illustrations offer readers the first ever glimpses of the microscopic world. The microscopic observations in Micrographia are arranged into five broad classes: artificial, minerals, vegetable, hairs and feathers, and insects. Hooke also included telescopic observations at the end of the book, but these are not the focus. In revealing the previously unseen details of our world to readers, Hooke captivated the attention and the imaginations of both scientists and nonscientists.
Robert Hooke
Hooke's hair under a microscope in Scheme 5 in Micrographia, Robert Hooke, 1665, printed book. Mount Wilson Observatory Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 487000:0930.
Robert Hooke began his education at home, where he was taught by his father. After his father died when he was 13, Hooke apprenticed himself to an important portrait painter. In this apprenticeship, he learned the artistic skills he would later use to create the illustrations in Micrographia. He left his apprenticeship to attend an elite preparatory school in London followed by Oxford University.
After university, Hooke wanted to join The Royal Society, a new London-based group dedicated to natural knowledge (a precursor to scientific thinking). While Hooke’s inheritance paid for his schooling, he did not have the same access to generational wealth as his peers. Because he was not wealthy, he was not accepted as an equal by the members of the Royal Society. Despite not being considered a social or professional equal, Hooke’s scientific abilities were recognized by the members of the Royal Society, and he became their curator of experiments. He was asked to give microscopy demonstrations to the society. The drawings he created during these demonstrations were the starting point for his microscopic illustrations.
Like most people in England at that time, Hooke was Christian and his religious beliefs influenced his approach to science. Hooke was motivated by discovering new details about God’s original design of the natural world. Hooke’s approach to science is part natural history and part theology (the study of God).
No known portraits of Hooke survive. The only visual images we have of Hooke’s physical body are the microscopic samples he included in Micrographia, such as the close up of his hair.
New Technology
Scheme 1 in Micrographia, Robert Hooke, 1665, printed book. Mount Wilson Observatory Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 487000:0930.
Robert Hooke did not invent the microscope, and he was not the first person to publish observations made with the help of a microscope. Microscopes were invented about 50 years before Hooke began his observations, and Hooke built on the early work that had been done with microscopes. While microscopes had been around for a half century, Hooke popularized the use of microscopes to help with the systematic study of nature.
The microscopes Hooke used were compound instruments with two lenses. The smaller lens was placed near the specimen and the longer lens was placed near the observer’s eye. The degree of magnification (how much bigger the specimen appeared) depended on the focal lengths of the two lenses and how they were matched. With good lenses, these microscopes could magnify to several hundred times the original size. Most microscopes Hooke had access to magnified to about one hundred times the original size.
These microscopes were difficult to use. Adjusting the telescope to focus was a challenge, especially when trying to focus on three-dimensional objects like Hooke was. Even when focused well, these microscopes produced distorted images. It required a high degree of technical skill to operate these microscopes, a high degree of expertise to correctly interpret the images, and a high degree of artistic skill to accurately translate the observations to paper.
A New Perspective
For the first time ever, it was possible to see the joints in an insect’s leg, the cells in a piece of cork, the unique structures of snowflakes, and more. The Micrographia revealed a whole new world to readers and offered a new perspective on familiar objects.
Hooke’s Christian beliefs shaped the perspective he offered to viewers. In Christian creation mythology, God gave the first two humans many abilities, but he took these abilities away when the humans broke one of God’s rules. These abilities included heightened senses. Hooke believed that, prior to being punished by God, humans were able to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste everything in the world. The microscope allowed humans to regain some of these sensory abilities and to increase their understanding of the natural and perfect design of God’s world.
In the Micrographia, Hooke argues that all human-made objects are imperfect, and that all natural objects and creatures are perfect and beautiful. The first section of the book uses illustration and writing to describe the appearance of common human-made objects when viewed under a microscope. While looking at these objects, Hooke identified inconsistencies so small they are not visible to the human eye without magnification. He followed his exploration of human-made objects with writings and illustrations of objects and creatures from nature. Hooke especially emphasized the beauty and perfection of natural features that are often considered ugly or gross such as frozen urine, fly eyes, moss, lice, ants, and fleas. He created many of these nature-based illustrations as fold-outs so they could be much larger than the book and capture and convey as many beautiful details as possible. Through his illustrations, Hooke offered readers a new way of seeing both the natural and human-made world.
Use the prompts below to look closely at Hooke’s illustration of human-made fabrics and Hooke’s illustration of the flea, a common carrier of disease in Europe at the time.
Questions & Prompts
- Look closely.
- Look closely at the illustration of fabrics. What is the first thing you notice? What holds your attention?
- Look closely at the illustration of a flea. What is the first thing you notice? What holds your attention?
- Adopt a perspective.
- Adopt Hooke’s perspective. What evidence does the fabric illustration provide to support Hooke’s argument that human-made objects are imperfect?
- Adopt Hooke’s perspective. What evidence does the flea illustration provide to support Hooke’s argument that the natural world is beautiful and perfect?
- Consider the process.
- What do you think Hooke’s process was for observing and drawing the fabric? What challenges might he have faced?
- What do you think Hooke’s process was for observing and drawing the flea? What challenges might he have faced?
- Compare and contrast.
- What similarities do you notice between these two illustrations?
- What differences do you notice between these two illustrations?
A New Science
In addition to offering readers a new perspective on the natural and human-made worlds, the Micrographia offered readers a new way of doing science. Hooke and the other scientists at The Royal Society developed an approach in which scientists make observations using specially designed instruments to answer specific questions. This new way of doing science emphasized observation and experimentation.
The invention of the microscope and other sensory-enhancing instruments (such as the telescope) allowed scientists to make observations and conduct experiments they never could have before. Because human senses are imperfect, Hooke and the other scientists at the Royal Society stressed the importance of disciplined, verifiable observations and the importance of reliable instruments.
In the preface to the Micrographia, Hooke writes that a person only needs “a sincere hand, and a faithful eye, to examine, and to record, the things themselves as they appear” (1665, p. [viii]).
Hooke emphasized the importance of observation and experimentation in his work. Hooke divided his book into 55 observations, and each observation is an experiment to answer the question “What does this object or creature look like on a microscopic level?”
Hooke faced several challenges during his experiments. He needed to select specimens to observe, figure out how to prepare the specimens for observation, and respond to the challenge of lighting since the same specimen can look very different depending on how it is lit. Read Hooke’s introduction to his 34th observation and use the questions and prompts below to make inferences about his scientific approach.
Excerpt from Micrographia, Robert Hooke, 1665, printed book. Mount Wilson Observatory Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 487000:0930.
Questions & Prompts
- In your own words, describe Hooke’s process for observing and drawing the eyes and head of a fly. How did Hooke select his specimen? How did Hooke prepare his specimen for study? How did Hooke respond to the challenge of lighting?
- Which part of his process do you find most surprising? Why?
- Scientists today also study insects under the microscope. What processes might they have in common with Hooke’s process? In what ways do you think their processes will differ?
- If you could ask Hooke one question about his scientific process, what would you ask him? Why?
- Scheme 24 (which Hooke calls the “24. Scheme”) is included in the illustrations below. Look closely at the illustration. Can you see evidence of Hooke’s process in the final illustration?
View the Microscopic World
The illustrations in Micrographia are some of the most important artworks in the history of science. Hooke made discoveries that changed the way people thought about the world and that encouraged people to explore the world further through scientific practices. Use the questions and prompts below to look closely at a few of Hooke’s illustrations.
Questions & Prompts
Choose one of the above illustrations. Allow the prompts and questions below to guide your observation. Once you’re done, you can choose a second illustration and repeat the process. Compare your responses for the two illustrations. You can also compare your responses to those of a peer.
- Look closely at your chosen illustration. What do you notice first? What do you notice after looking for a full minute?
- How did Hooke use observations of the natural world when creating this work?
- How did Hooke use his imagination and creativity when creating this work?
- Does this work remind you of anything? What? Why?
- What do you think Hooke was trying to communicate? What do you see in the object that makes you think that?
- How does Hooke’s culture affect his understanding of natural history and science?
- Write a scientific description of the specimen based on what you can learn from illustration.
References and Resources
British Library. n.d. “Micrographia by Robert Hooke, 1665.” Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/micrographia-by-robert-hooke-1665.
Chapman, Allan. 2005. England’s Leonardo: Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution. London: Institute of Physics Publishing.
Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d. “The Discovery of Cells” n.d. Britannica. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/science/biology/The-discovery-of-cells.
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. n.d. “Hooke, Micrographia (1665).” Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.huntbotanical.org/library/show.php?9.
The National Library of Wales. n.d. “Micrographia.” Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/printed-material/micrographia#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-296%2C-1%2C4098%2C5464.
The Royal Society. 2020. “Micrographia: Turning the Pages of Robert Hooke’s Masterpiece.” YouTube Video, July 14, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7M40Yo0R2E.
Wragge-Morley, Alexander. 2020. Aesthetic Science: Representing Nature in the Royal Society of London, 1650-1720. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
