HOOKE, Robert.

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Micrographia: First edition of this landmark work of microscopy, with superb provenance: William Kirby, one of the founders of modern entomology. Hooke was the first to illustrate and describe the structure of biological tissue with the term "cell", using his refined design of the compound microscope. Published under the aegis of the Royal Society, the book reproduces the observations Hooke made in 1663 and 1664. A truly polymathic achievement, the text includes discussions of microscopic fungi, the life cycle of the mosquito, and the origin of lunar craters. Adding to this are designs for scientific instruments, a theory of the chemical process of combustion, and calculations on the relation between pressure and gas, the latter inspired by Hooke's work as Robert Boyle's laboratory assistant. Micrographia also contains the discussion of light and colour which led to Hooke's bitter dispute with Newton (with Hooke being a proponent of wave theory and Newton a proponent of particle theory). There is even a remarkably prescient hypothesis regarding the origin of fossils; in a tentative precursor to evolutionary theory, Hooke suggested that fossils implied the existence of extinct species and that it therefore stood to reason that there were species presently alive that had not always existed. "Hooke was one of the most versatile and brilliant scientists of all time, and his contributions to astronomy, optics, and all branches of physics, mechanics, technology, and architecture ar

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