The microscope in the Dutch Republic : the shaping of discovery / Edward G. Ruestow.

Author
Ruestow, Edward G. (Edward Grant), 1937- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Cambridge [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Description
xii, 348 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks QH204 .R84 1996 Browse related items Request

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    Subject(s)
    Summary note
    Emphasizing the work of Jan Swammerdam and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, The Microscope in the Dutch Republic dissects the social, cultural, and emotional circumstances that shaped early microscopic discovery. Arguing that the aspects of seventeenth-century Dutch culture widely assumed to have favored the lens actually impeded its serious use, Ruestow focuses on social contexts and on Swammerdam and Leeuwenhoek's social sensibilities as the key source of their commitment to the new instrument. He also analyzes how they drew upon their cultural background to vest microscopic images with meaning, though with strikingly different emphases. Having underscored how their influential contributions to the debates over generation also illustrated the problematic role of early microscopic observations, Ruestow concludes with reflections on the eighteenth-century decline and the nineteenth-century resurgence of microscopic research and the impact of institutionalization.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-337) and index.
    Contents
    • 1. Of Light, Lenses, and Glass Beads
    • 2. Seeming Invitations
    • 3. Obstacles
    • 4. Discovery Preempted
    • 5. Swammerdam
    • 6. Leeuwenhoek I: A Clever Burgher
    • 7. Leeuwenhoek II: Images and Ideas
    • 8. Generation I: Turning against a Tradition
    • 9. Generation II: The Search for First Beginnings
    • 10. New World.
    ISBN
    • 0521470781 ((hardback))
    • 9780521470780 ((hardback))
    • 9780521528634
    • 0521528631
    LCCN
    95045548
    OCLC
    33357871
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