Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9437
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Nettle and wild oat
Date
1665
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
After
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural Philosopher
Object type
Library reference
RCN 45230
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 304mm
width (print): 196mm
width (print): 196mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Microscopic study of two specimens, Fig. 1. a nettle [top], Fig. 2. the beard of an oat, in two parts [centre], Fig. 3. transverse of the beard of an oat [bottom right as viewed], and a hygrometer.
Inscribed above: ‘Schem XV’
Written in the associated text: ‘A Nettle is a Plant so well known to everyone, as to what the appearance of it is to the naked eye, that it needs no description; and there are very few that have not felt as well as seen it […] And here we must recourse to our Microscope, and that will, if almost any part of the Plant be looked on, shew us the whole surface of it very thick set with turn-Pikes, or sharp Needles, of the shape of those represented in the 15 Scheme’
Also in the associated text: ‘But the use that has been made of it [the beard of an oat], for the discovery of the various constitutions of the Air, as to driness and moistness, is incomparably beyond any other…Provide a good large Box of Ivory, about four Inches over…let all the sides of this Boc be turned of Basket-work…the more holes are, the better, that so the Air may have the more free passage to the inclosed Beard…after the manner represented in the 4. Figure of the 15. Scheme.’
Plate 15 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 XV’
Written in the associated text: ‘A Nettle is a Plant so well known to everyone, as to what the appearance of it is to the naked eye, that it needs no description; and there are very few that have not felt as well as seen it […] And here we must recourse to our Microscope, and that will, if almost any part of the Plant be looked on, shew us the whole surface of it very thick set with turn-Pikes, or sharp Needles, of the shape of those represented in the 15 Scheme’
Also in the associated text: ‘But the use that has been made of it [the beard of an oat], for the discovery of the various constitutions of the Air, as to driness and moistness, is incomparably beyond any other…Provide a good large Box of Ivory, about four Inches over…let all the sides of this Boc be turned of Basket-work…the more holes are, the better, that so the Air may have the more free passage to the inclosed Beard…after the manner represented in the 4. Figure of the 15. Scheme.’
Plate 15 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