Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.1885
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Drone fly
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): 270mm
width (print): 270mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Microscopic study of a grey drone fly, or hover fly, eristalis tenax, showing its head, compound eyes, antenna and mouth.
Inscribed above: ‘XXIV’
Written in the associated text: ‘this outward skin, like the Cornea of the eyes of the greater Animals, was both flexible and transparent, and seem’d through the Microscope, perfectly to resemble the very substance of the Cornea of a man’s eye; for having cut out the clutter, and remov’d the dark and mucuous stuff that is subjacent to it, I could see it transparent like a thin piece of skin’
Plate 24 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: ‘XXIV’
Written in the associated text: ‘this outward skin, like the Cornea of the eyes of the greater Animals, was both flexible and transparent, and seem’d through the Microscope, perfectly to resemble the very substance of the Cornea of a man’s eye; for having cut out the clutter, and remov’d the dark and mucuous stuff that is subjacent to it, I could see it transparent like a thin piece of skin’
Plate 24 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.
Associated place