Experiment, theory, representation

Robert Hooke's material models

Matthew C. Hunter

pp. 193-219

in: Roman Frigg, Matthew C. Hunter (eds), Beyond mimesis and convention, Berlin, Springer, 2010

Abstract

Robert Hooke's Micrographia of 1665 is an epochal work in the history of scientific representation. With microscopes and other optical devices, Hooke drew and then oversaw the engraving of Micrographia's plates, images that amount to little less than revelations from beneath the range of human vision (Fig. 1). In bristling detail, molds flower into putrid bloom, crystals protrude like warts from mineral skins and, for the first time in history, cells are brought to the eyes of a general viewership. So historical scholarship has shown us, Hooke was especially well equipped to make these wondrous images. A product of Oxford's lively scientific community of the 1650s and a protégé of the chemist Robert Boyle, he possessed intimate knowledge of the "new sciences' of the seventeenth century and a particular gift as an experimentalist.

Cited authors

Hooke Robert