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Felicity Henderson is Senior Lecturer in Archives and Material Culture at the University of Exeter. She has published widely on Robert Hooke and the early Royal Society, and she is currently preparing a new edition of Hooke's diaries for Oxford University Press.Robert Hooke is one of the less accessible geniuses from the age of Isaac Newton (he invented microscopic science), so I pounced on <i>Robert Hooke’s Experimental Philosophy</i> by Felicity Henderson, the latest in the publisher’s refulgent <i>Renaissance Lives</i> series (they also publish the equally admired <i>Critical Lives</i> series).
- Duncan Fallowell, The Spectator 'Books of the Year 2024'
Seventeenth-century English polymath Robert Hooke played a pivotal role in developing scientific methodology, according to this enlightening debut history . . . The history illuminates the formative early years of science as a scholarly discipline, and Henderson makes a strong case that Hooke’s role in building that discipline has been unjustly overlooked. This intrigues.
Publishers Weekly
In this absorbing and wide-ranging study, Felicity Henderson charts the vast range of activities pursued by the virtuoso Robert Hooke, natural philosopher and architect, master of ingenious instruments and visionary projects. Hooke’s remarkable enterprises are here used with great skill and wit to explore the effective methods of inquiry and innovation developed in early modernity, and to illuminate the vivid and active worlds of commerce, knowledge and controversy that flourished in Restoration London.
Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge
In her splendid myth-busting account, Felicity Henderson searches out the true Robert Hooke, scrutinising his own words to reveal an inspired researcher who drew up the blueprint for modern science. Beautifully written and illustrated, this penetrating book explores the thoughts and activities of a man who profoundly influenced the future.
Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and author of Life after Gravity: Isaac Newton's London Career
Felicity Henderson’s book provides a fresh and engaging view of Robert Hooke, giving a vivid sense of his milieu in the workshops and coffee-houses of Restoration London, exploring the new world that he brought to light in his <i>Micrographia</i> and other writings, and filling out the ambitions for knowledge outlined in his intriguingly entitled “philosophical algebra”.
Michael Hunter, Emeritus Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, and author of The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenment
Introduction: Mad, Foolish and Phantastick
1 The Present Deficiency of Natural Philosophy
2 A city, where all the noises and business in the world do meet
3 Much Love and Service to all My Friends
4 These My Poor Labours
5 A Man Who Is Mechanically Minded
6 Curiosity and Beauty
7 An Excellent System of Nature
8 A Discourse of Earthquakes
Epilogue: The Teeth of Time
Chronology
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index