Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9449
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White plume moth
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): 184mm
width (print): 184mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Microscopic study of a white plume moth pterophorus pentadactyla, showing its head, body, legs and wings outspread.
Inscribed above: ‘Schem XXX’
Written in the associated text: ‘all the Body, Legs, Horns and the Stalks of the Wings, were covered over with various kinds of curious white Feathers, which did, with handling or touching, easily rub off and fly about, in so much that looking on my Fingers…I found by my Microscope, that they were several of the small Feathers of this little creature’
Plate 30 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 XXX’
Written in the associated text: ‘all the Body, Legs, Horns and the Stalks of the Wings, were covered over with various kinds of curious white Feathers, which did, with handling or touching, easily rub off and fly about, in so much that looking on my Fingers…I found by my Microscope, that they were several of the small Feathers of this little creature’
Plate 30 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