Micrographia Restaurata: Or, the Copper-Plates of Dr. Hooke's Wonderful Discoveries by the Microscope, Reprinted and fully Explained:

This is a rare book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

Whereby the most Valuable Particulars in that Celebrated Author's Micrographia Are brought together in a narrow Compass; And Intermixed, occasionally, with many Entertaining and Instructive Discoveries and Observations in Natural History. London: Printed for and Sold by John Bowles, Printseller at the Black Horse in Cornhill ... , 1745. Folio. Bound in later quarter calf with marbled boards. (iv, 66, 4 pp.). With woodcut printer's device on title-page, 33 engraved plates 3 of which are folding, and numerous woodcut chapter tail-pieces throughout. Uncut. Occasional light foxing and faint dust-soiling. The inner hinge of the title-page has been expertly strengthened, a skilful repair to the top margin of the title-page where a 1762 signature has been excised and previous owner's name above title. Plates XXI and XXX have been expertly laid down, and some neat tear repairs to the margins of plates IV, VIII, XVIII and XXXIII. A very good, bright copy of the second edition of Hooke's celebrated Micrographia. Very rare. Note: Robert Hooke's role in the history of science is inextricably bound to his skill in mechanics and his allied perception of nature as a great machine. His multifarious contributions to 17th Century science are still felt today, either directly or through the influence they gave to contemporary and later scientists to methodically analyse his brilliant insights. Having finished his schooling at Westminster, Hooke entered Oxford in 1653 and was quickly invited to join a group of brilliant students and scholars around which the Royal Society later crystallized. The group included John Wallis, Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, Thomas Willis and others. They recognised and drew upon his immense talent, particularly in mechanics, and in return they introduced him to the new world of thought then fomenting the scientific revolution. Hooke's immense talent was reflected in his momentous involvement and work in many areas of 17th Century science. Hooke conducted experiments, made inventions, and delivered lectures in the areas of mechanics (he invented the modern air pump), chronometry, horology, surveying and architecture (he worked with Christopher Wren in rebuilding London after The Great Fire of 1666), microscopy, biology, optics, combustion, meteorology, celestial dynamics, and many other contemporary scientific topics. In 1665, the year before the great fire, Hooke published Micrographia, the most important book that he produced. If not the first publication of microscopical observations, Micrographia was the first great work devoted to them; and its impact rivalled that of Galileo's Sidereus Nunciush half a century before. For the first time, descriptions of microscopical observations were accompanied by profuse illustrations.Micrographia remains one of the masterpieces of 17th Century science. Like Galileo's Nuncius, Micrographia presented not a systematic investigation of any one question but a banquet of observations with courses from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Above all, the book suggested what the microscope could do for the biological sciences. Hooke's microscopic examination in Micrographia led to his coining the modern biological usage of the word ""cell"". In the animal realm, he inaugurated the study of insect anatomy. Hooke also used the book as a vehicle to expound his own scientific theories of light, optics, colour, and combustion. Isaac Newton's experiments, stemming directly from his reading of the Micrographia, became the foundation of Book Two of the Opticks, the source of the concept of periodicity in modern optics. The second edition of Micrographia titled Micrographia Restaurata (""Micrographia Restored""), here offered, was published eighty years after the first edition. By the mid eighteenth century the first edition was becoming scarce and the diction was thought to be quite archaic. As such, the second edition was published in 1745, complete with all of the spectacular engravings from the first edition, all but six of which were printed from the original copper plates, together with simplified versions of Hooke's observations in a more modern prose. (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Printing and the Mind of Man 147.)