Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages discussion

“Robert Hooke (1635–1703) was not only a scientist, he was a mapmaking pioneer, architect, astronomer, biologist and ingenious experimenter. He was a founding member and ‘curator of experiments’ at the Royal Society, an academy at the cutting edge of scientific discovery in Britain.

Micrographia was the first important work on microscopy, the study of minute objects through a microscope. First published in 1665, it contains large-scale, finely detailed illustrations of some of the specimens Hooke viewed under the microscopes he designed. At the end of the book, there are observations of the stars and moon as seen through a telescope.
By changing our perspective, Hooke gives power and beauty to things that might otherwise be dismissed as disgusting or trivial – the surface of frozen urine, the eye of a grey drone-fly, a piece of moss, the body of a louse, an ant or a flea. Alongside the engravings, he writes entertaining accounts of his observations. Hooke is witty and even poetic, using similes to help us imagine the world he sees through his lenses.” Source

While I stopped reading the descriptions about 100 pages in because I didn't feel like I was gaining anything meaningful from them, I took time to look at all the drawings. It is interesting to consider how incredible these details were when Hooke published them - no one had see the way the legs of a flea work and it was a marvel. I wonder what Hooke would think about modern microscopes, capable of a much greater magnification than he ever achieved.