Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.1869
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Flea
Date
1665
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
After
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural Philosopher
Object type
Image reference
Library reference
RCN 45230
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 305mm
width (print): 440mm
width (print): 440mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Microscopic study of a flea, showing one eye, its antenna, genal comb, palpus, thorax, legs, planar bristles, abdomen and sternite.
Inscribed above: ‘Schem XXIV’
Written in the associated text: ‘as for the beauty of it, the Microscope manifests it to be all over adorn’d with a curiously polish’d suit of sable Armour, neatly jointed, and beset with multitudes of sharp pins, shape’d almost like Porcupin’s Quills, or bright conical Steel-bodkins; the head is on either side beautify’d with a quick and round black eye’
Plate 34 from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia: or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon (1665), the first fully-illustrated book on the topic of microscopy. In the preface Hooke asserts that he had discovered ‘a new visible World’.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703) British natural philosopher was a founding member of the Royal Society, elected in 1663. Before his career with the Royal Society, Hooke had been apprenticed to painter Peter Lely (1618-1680), where he learned to draw and paint. Though he did not engrave the images in Micrographia himself they were engraved after his illustrations.
Inscribed above: ‘Schem XXIV’
Written in the associated text: ‘as for the beauty of it, the Microscope manifests it to be all over adorn’d with a curiously polish’d suit of sable Armour, neatly jointed, and beset with multitudes of sharp pins, shape’d almost like Porcupin’s Quills, or bright conical Steel-bodkins; the head is on either side beautify’d with a quick and round black eye’
Plate 34 from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia: or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon (1665), the first fully-illustrated book on the topic of microscopy. In the preface Hooke asserts that he had discovered ‘a new visible World’.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703) British natural philosopher was a founding member of the Royal Society, elected in 1663. Before his career with the Royal Society, Hooke had been apprenticed to painter Peter Lely (1618-1680), where he learned to draw and paint. Though he did not engrave the images in Micrographia himself they were engraved after his illustrations.
Transcription
Schem XXXIV
Associated place