Customer Reviews

Micrographia

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Hooke's greatest work documents a superbly curious mind at the height of its powers. The official experimenter of the Royal Society had his hand in most of the significant projects of the early sci. rev. but it is in microscopy that he made his biggest mark with these drawings made from his own observations. There is something exhilerating for all of those who prefer the small and exquisite over the cosmic and grandiose in Hooke's advertisement for the beauty of the fly.
His other observations ranging from the nature of sparks to gravity catch his lively intellect on the wing. It is a pity that Dover did not make this book either prettier to look at or quite a lot cheaper. The cover is appalling and the reproductions of the text and plates below scratch. A general introduction might have been welcome too; a treatment of Hooke the eternal puzzler and artist rather than the controversial crank who squabbled famously with Newton and Huygens over priority issues( the latter tediously covered in the new Jardine book which should be avoided). Still, it is nice to have this great book in print.