Credit: © The Royal Society
                             
                         
                     
                         
                         
                             
                                 Image number: RS.1886
                             
                         
                         
                     
                 
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            Stone, sponge and seaweed
                                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): 300mm
width (print): 180mm
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            width (print): 180mm
                                Subject
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Content object
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Description
                            
                            
                                Microscopic study of three specimens: Fig. 1. a sample of stone extracted from a quarry in Kettering, Northamptonshire [top]; Fig. 2. the fibres in a piece of sponge [bottom right], and; Fig. 3. an isolated section of seaweed [bottom left]. 
Inscribed above: ‘Schem IX’
Written in the associated text: ‘It [the stone] is made up of an innumerable company of small bodies, not all of the same size or shape, but for the most part, not much differing from a Globular form, nor exceed they one another in diameter above three or four times; they appear to the eye, like the Cobb or Ovary of a Herring […]’
Plate 9 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 IX’
Written in the associated text: ‘It [the stone] is made up of an innumerable company of small bodies, not all of the same size or shape, but for the most part, not much differing from a Globular form, nor exceed they one another in diameter above three or four times; they appear to the eye, like the Cobb or Ovary of a Herring […]’
Plate 9 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