Fournier 1996

Fournier, Marian. The Fabric of Life: Microscopy in the Seventeenth Century. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

early 1660s, Hooke anticipated the microscope would discover nature's hidden secrets; by 1690s, microscopy had been abandoned by all but Leeuwenhock and a few amateurs, who continued investigating well into the c18 but whose "discoveries" did not contribute significantly to scientific innovation (6-7)

• principle investigators during this period: Hooke, Malpighi, swammerdam, Grew, and Leeuwenhoek

pre-1660, only one basic design for microscope used, which had been around ~50 years; post-1660, many different designs found in contemporary publications -- i.e., increased interest in microscope around 1660, although it had been around for almost half a century (4)

1. A New Instrument Appraised

1609-1610: Galileo creates an optical device for magnifying small things or distant objects; early version of the telescope

• not the first -- generally invented by spectacles manufacturers ca. 1600
• but Galileo did introduce telescope to scientific practice (10)
• Sidereus nuncius, 1610; discuses observations of the moon using his "perspicillum"

Kepler, Dioptrice, 1611; introduced changes to Dutch telescope known as "Keplerian arrangemetn", which almost replaced Dutch telescope by 1640

1620s, Cornelius Drebbel began making/distributing microscopes of Keplerian arrangmeent

early problems: inadequate/poor-quality glass; spherical aberrations because of refraction through curved lenses; chromatic aberration

field lens, a third lens that increased field of vision, introduced around 1650; Hooke used it for some work, then took it out for more detailed examinations (12)

adding more lenses could increase magnification, but tended to increase distortions

1660s, others began using only one very powerful lens to reduce distortions (13)

no microscope dated "unquestionably" from before 1670 survives (14)

most magnified around 50x, but up to 100x; with a resolution of at most ca. 3 microns; simple microscope superior to compound; between 1670 and 1750, little improvement in performance of both simple and compound microscopes (14)

Leeuwenhoek produced a small number of microscopes of superior quality, but most of the ~350 he made during his lifetime were standard for the time (16-7)

improvement in pivot, staging and lighting were introduced ~1660-1750 (18-9)

various designs/improvements (20-24)

insects were the first objects of microscopic study

• Galileo observed one in 1610
• Peiresc and his companion observed insects ~1622
• oldest extant illustration (1625) is of a bee, produced as two broadsheets: one entitled Apiarium, signed by Prince Cesi (studied in collaboration with Francesco Stelluti, Francesco Fontana), as a natural history of the bee; the second engraved illustrating the magnified external parts of the bee, headed Melissographia and signed by Stelluti (For images, see BibliOdyssey post: [[1]]; also, Digital Edition of the Apiarium/Melissographia: [[2]]
  • 1630, Stelluti re-used the illustration in his edition of Persius's poems, accompanied by more detailed description (book available online through ECHO: [[3]])