Micrographia

Micrographia Or Some Physiological Descriptions Of Minute Bodies Made By Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon By Robert Hooke. Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY. By the Council of the ROYAL SOCIETY of London for Improving of Natural Knowledge.

Micrographia is a historic book by Robert Hooke, detailing the then thirty-year-old Hooke's observations through various lenses. Published in September 1665, the first major publication of the Royal Society, it was the first scientific best-seller, inspiring a wide public interest in the new science of microscopy. It is also notable for coining the biological term cell. Observations:

Hooke most famously describes a fly's eye and a plant cell (where he coined that term because plant cells, which are walled, reminded him of a monk's quarters). Known for its spectacular copperplate engravings of the miniature world, particularly its fold-out plates of insects, the text itself reinforces the tremendous power of the new microscope.