Architecture

• Historic England ascribes a brick-built gazebo of 1672 at Crooms Hill in Greenwich to Hooke.
• Hooke designed a building for Magdalene College, Cambridge, which may be the Pepys Library. The College website describes Hooke as the "founder of modern structural engineering".
• Ragley Hall, designed for Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway, in 1680 but not completed until after his death.
  • Diary entries and photographs.
• Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire, built in the 1680s for the lawyer and politician Sir William Jones.
• Although usually credited to Christopher Wren, contemporary accounts suggest that it was Hooke who played the major role in the design and construction of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
• Shenfield Place, Essex, built in the 1680s for Lord John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery, who was President of the Royal Society from 1686 to 1689.
• Dr Richard Busby, the headmaster of Westminster School, was also appointed Prebendary of Westminster Abbey on 5th July 1660, and Treasurer four days later. His former pupil Hooke subsequently had considerable involvement with both. (Smith, 2006)
• In the Abbey, he re-paved the Choir or Quire in 1676 (which survives), and in 1688 and 1693 worked on the north window in conjunction with Wren, as well as the Henry VII Chapel. Hooke was rewarded for his service to the Abbey by his appointment as Surveyor with an annuity of £20 on 14th January 1691, retiring in June 1693.
• Hooke's only surviving work in the School is the entrance portico and stairs. He also designed Dr Busby's Library, which was bombed during the Second World War but later rebuilt, and now its "ceiling and bookcases are scarcely different from the originals of the seventeenth century".
• Hooke drawings amongst the Wren papers
• Church of St Mary Magdalene, Willen, commissioned by Richard Busby in 1680.
  • Diary entries and photographs.
  Hooke also designed for Busby the altar rails, communion table, font, pavement and pulpit for St Nicholas Church, Lutton. (Smith, 2006)

Lost buildings

Other buildings by Hooke have since been demolished, including:

• Bethlehem Hospital (Bethlem, or Bedlam), originally on the site of what is now Liverpool Street Station, rebuilt at Moorfields in 1676, and moved to St George's Fields in 1828. See also Historic hospitals.
  • Diary entries and drawings.
• College of Physicians, rebuilt at Warwick Lane, London, in 1675. In 1825 the physicians moved to a more fashionable address at Pall Mall East. The anatomy theatre was demolished in 1866, and the rest destroyed by fire in 1879.
  • Diary entries and drawings.
• Escot House, in Talaton, Devon. Built in about 1680 for Sir Walter Yonge, burned down in 1808.
• The screen in Merchant Taylors' Hall, destroyed by bombing in World War 2.
• Merchant Taylors' School, Suffolk Lane, London. Built 1674-5 for the Merchant Taylors' Company, demolished 1875.
• Montagu House, Bloomsbury, London. Built 1675-9 for Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, gutted by fire 1686. Rebuilt to a similar design (possibly by Hooke again, Worsley 2004) and became the first home of the British Museum. The present Museum building stands on the site.
  • Diary entries and drawings.
• According to Batten, it is likely that Hooke worked on the rebuilding of the Navy Office in Seething Lane after it had been destroyed by fire in 1673, and that he produced a draft ground plan (Batten, 1936, p.86).
• Haberdashers Askes Hospital, Hoxton, London. A school and almshouse built in 1692 for the Haberdashers' Company using funds provided by Robert Aske, rebuilt 1826.
  • Diary entries and drawing.
• Hooke also adapted or enlarged, and laid out the garden at, Londesborough Hall, 1676-8, for Richard Boyle, the 1st Earl of Burlington and brother of Hooke's employer and mentor Robert Boyle. It was demolished in 1819, but Historic England ascribes surviving Grade I listed gates, gate piers, flanking walls and abutments to Hooke.

The architectural historian Giles Worsley has suggested that, on the basis of personal and professional links and stylistic analogies, Hooke might have been the architect of various other major houses, the responsibility for the design of which has always been problematic, including Petworth and Boughton. (Worsley 2004).

Hooke's Hospital of Bethlehem [Bedlam] at Moorfields, London: seen from the north. (Image 3)

The Monument in 1753 (Image 4)

Church of St Mary Magdalene, Willen (Image 5)

Ramsbury Manor from the north-east (Image 6)

Rebuilding London after the Great Fire

The task of leading the rebuilding of London after the fire of 1666 was handed to a committee of six men. Three represented the King, of whom the best known is Sir Christopher Wren, and three represented the City of London, including Hooke.

In the aftermath of the fire, private land was taken by the City for new and widened streets, new markets, wharves alongside the Fleet River, and quays and wharves along the northern bank of the Thames. The amount of compensation paid by the City to owners of property depended on the location of the site and the area of ground lost. Hooke worked on the measuring and staking out of widened streets and new building foundations, mediating subsequent property disputes, and writing certification of the areas of ground taken away. It is estimated that he dealt with about 3,000 of the 8,394 foundations recorded by the City treasurer, and about half of the areas of ground taken away for streets and other new works.

• Michael Cooper, 'Robert Hooke's work as surveyor for the City of London in the aftermath of the Great Fire', Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, in three parts (these are freely available summaries of articles of which the full versions are limited to subscribers)
• Part 1: Robert Hooke’s first surveys for the City of London, vol.51, issue 2 (1997)
• Part 2: certification of areas of ground taken away for streets and other new works, vol.52, issue 1 (1998)
• Part 3: settlement of disputes and complaints arising from rebuilding, vol.52, issue 2 (1998)

In the next phase of the reconstruction process, Wren and Hooke together designed and supervised the building of many of the new properties. Wren is usually credited every time, but in some cases Hooke took the lead. One example is the Monument. Erected in Fish Street Hill, close to the source of the fire in Pudding Lane, this 202ft column is now thought to be principally the work of Hooke, signed off by Wren (Walker, 2011).

• The Monument
• Hooke drawing amongst the Wren papers

Lisa Jardine (Jardine 2003) states that Hooke's 1672-83 diary records his visits to about thirty of the London churches then being rebuilt after the Great Fire, and adds, "In many cases these visits are sufficiently numerous to suggest that, even if he was not the design architect, he nevertheless played a significant role in their final built form". Anthony Geraghty, who catalogued the Wren papers at All Souls College, Oxford (Geraghty, 2007), suggests that Hooke's duties within Wren's office have been exaggerated, but his analysis is based upon the authorship of the drawings rather than overall supervision of the rebuilding, and it is noteworthy that he sometimes quotes Hooke's diary in relation to designs drawn by somebody else, such as St Peter, Cornhill.

In the past, Wren has usually been credited with the rebuilding of all of these churches. It is certainly true that he led and supervised the campaign but Paul Jeffery suggests that "Wren's contribution to the rebuilding [of] the parish churches in terms of design was numerically modest, with Hooke having the greater part of the task and the greater number now to his credit" (Jeffery 1996, p.66). It now seems likely that Hooke made a major contribution to the following at least:

• St Benet's, Paul's Wharf (Inwood 2002, p.136; Cooper 2003)
  • Hooke drawings amongst the Wren papers
• St Edmund the King (Jardine 2003; Cooper 2003)
• St James, Piccadilly (Geraghty, 2007)
  • Hooke drawings amongst the Wren papers
• St Margaret Lothbury (Heyman 2006, p.154, quoting Colvin, 3rd ed., 1995)
• St Martin within Ludgate (Inwood 2002, p.136; Jeffery 1996, pp.95-96)
• St Peter upon Cornhill (Heyman 2006, p.164)

This document summarises a property dispute between Will Sanders, a draper, and John Rowley, a skinner. The pair had once shared a house and shop on Ludgate Hill, one of the areas destroyed by the fire. Sanders no longer wanted Rowley to occupy the second story of his house but agreed to allot him a space next door. Hooke and his fellow surveyor John Oliver approved of this plan, signing the document at lower right. (Image 7)

St Benet's, Paul's Wharf. The church avoided major Victorian remodelling, and was one of only four City churches to escape bombing in 1939-45. (Image 8)

St Paul's Cathedral

Although he had no formal role (Geraghty, 2007), Hooke seems to have assisted Wren on the construction of the new St Paul's Cathedral.

Wren's son and biographer says of his father in Parentalia, that "He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure. ... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead".

On 5th June 1675, Hooke records in his diary, "At Sir Chr. Wren ... He promised Fitch at Paulls. He was making up my principle about arches and altered his module by it". (Heyman 2006)

A pen and ink study of about 1690, drawn by Wren, which is now in the British Museum (not the one illustrated here), shows that the design for the brick cone duly employed "a formula devised by Robert Hooke in about 1671 for calculating the curve of a parabolic dome and reducing its thickness. Hooke had explored this curve, the three-dimensional equivalent of the 'hanging chain', or catenary arch: the shape of a weighted chain which, when inverted, produces the ideal profile for a self-supporting arch." (Designs for the Dome, c.1687-1708)

 
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Construction of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, showing the internal brick cone between two cupolas (Image 9)

Archives and records

Facsimile of a letter to Isaac Newton, written in Hooke's own hand from Gresham College, 1679 (Image 10)

Bibliography

Title page of Bibliotheca Hookiana, the auction catalogue prepared after Hooke's death (Image 11)

Title page of Micrographia, 1665 (Image 12)

Biography

• John Aubrey, Brief lives. Full text available. Aubrey was a close friend of Hooke. His book was not published in his lifetime. This edition was published in 1898 and edited by Andrew Clark.
• Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal Society of London. Full text available. The first edition of 1667 was followed by many later editions. This is the "second edition corrected", published in 1702, at the end of Hooke's life.

John Ward's account of the Gresham College professors (1740) includes a long biography of Hooke:

• The lives of the professors of Gresham college: to which is prefixed the life of the founder, sir T. Gresham. With an appendix, consisting of lectures and letters, by the professors, with other papers. Full text available

Thomas Sprat's history was "supplemented and continued" by Thomas Birch in 1756. Birch explained in his preface that "Admired as his [Sprat's] performance is in general ... the earliest and ablest members of that body, as well as their successors, still wished that the account of its institution and progress had been more full and circumstantial in the narration of the facts related by him, and inlarged by inserting many others of equal importance which were omitted".

• The History of the Royal Society of London. Full text available

Although now enhanced and partially superseded by more recent scholarship, R.T. Gunther's Early science in Oxford (1930-38), is still a rich source of information on Hooke's life and work, including many facsimile copies of Hooke's writing in his own hand. Of the fifteen volumes in the series, no fewer than five are wholly devoted to Hooke. The whole series is freely available online from the Internet Archive:

• vol.6, The Life and work of Robert Hooke, part 1. Full text available
• vol.7, The Life and work of Robert Hooke, part 2. Full text available
• vol.8, The Cutler lectures of Robert Hooke. Full text available
• vol.10, The Life and work of Robert Hooke, part 4, Tract on capillary attraction, 1661. Diary, 1688 to 1693. Full text available
• vol.13, The Life and work of Robert Hooke, part 5, Micrographia, 1665. Full text available

The diary of Robert Hooke, 1672-1680 edited by H.W. Robinson and Walter Adams (Taylor & Francis, 1935) also includes an account of Hooke's life (password required for copyright reasons).

Societies and websites

Apart from Gunther, there are many other biographies of Hooke available online. Amongst the most useful are:

• The Robert Hooke Society, Freshwater. Based in Hooke's birthplace of Freshwater, Isle of Wight, the society aims to promote public awareness of his life and achievements and to encourage research. The Society holds meetings, maintains a Robert Hooke Exhibition at the Island Planetarium, Fort Victoria, and has set up a 8.5-mile circular Robert Hooke Trail from Fort Victoria to Freshwater Bay, connecting sites on the Island associated with him.
• Isle of Wight History Centre. The site includes much information about Hooke's family and its home on the Island.
• Royal Society of London. Hooke was a member and employee from 1662 until the end of his life. The site includes some freely available facsimile documents relating to Hooke from the Society's archives.
• Westminster School. Hooke attended the school between about 1650 and 1654.
• School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews.
• Wikipedia

Online presentations

A number of talks and programmes about Hooke and his work are freely available online. As in his own day, Gresham College still offers free public lectures:

• Gresham College

Other presentations include:

• Great lives: Robert Hooke. Matthew Parris discusses Hooke with David Attenborough and Lisa Jardine (BBC Radio, 2008)
• In our time: Robert Hooke. Melvyn Bragg, David Wootton, Patricia Fara and Rob Iliffe discuss the life and work of Robert Hooke (BBC Radio, 2016)
• London's Leonardo: Robert Hooke at the dawn of modern science, by Professor Michael McBride of Yale University (New York University, Abu Dhabi Institute, 2013, via YouTube)
• Micrographia: turning the pages of Robert Hooke's masterpiece (Royal Society, 2020, via YouTube)
• Rediscovering Robert Hooke. Lisa Jardine talks about the rediscovery of a folio of minutes by Robert Hooke (Royal Society, 2006, via YouTube)
• Robert Hooke: victim of genius, featuring Simon Schaffer and Alan Chapman amongst others (BBC4 TV, 2009, via YouTube)

Publications

See also the books and diaries listed in the Bibliography.

 
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Memorial at the junction of Hooke Hill and School Green Road, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. (Image 15)

Broad Street facade of Gresham College in Bishopsgate, 1740 (Image 16)

Hooke's lodgings (9) with observation turret above (Image 17)

1930s photograph of the memorial window to Robert Hooke in St Helen's Bishopsgate, destroyed during the IRA bombings of the early 1990s. (Image 18)

Plaque on a building close to St Helen's Bishopgate. (Image 19)

Science

Although Robert Hooke was an active researcher and experimentalist in a wide variety of scientific fields, few bear his name.

Hooke's Law is a principle of physics that states that the force needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance is proportional to that distance. "Hooke's atom", also known as harmonium or hookium, is so called because its scientific characteristic is a consequence of Hooke's law.

• What is Hooke's Law?
• Wikipedia on Hooke's Law
• Hooke's atom

Hooke is recognised as having identified the cellular structure of plants, and coining the term. When he looked at a sliver of cork through his microscope, he noticed some "pores" or "cells" in it. The Hooke Medal is awarded every year by the British Society for Cell Biology and recognises an emerging leader in cell biology.

• The Hooke medal
• Robert Hooke, the man who discovered cells

The principle of the universal joint has been known since antiquity, but in Helioscopes (1676) Hooke was the first to use the modern term: "The Universal Joynt for all these manner of Operations, ... I shall now more particularly explain" (p.14). As a result, the device is sometimes known as Hooke's joint.

• 'Robert Hooke's 'universal joint' and its application to sundials and the sundial-clock', by Allan Mills in Notes and records: the Royal Society journal of the history of science, vol.61 (2007), pp.219-236. Full text available

As early as October 1664, Hooke had been drawing the lunar surface using 'a thirty foot Glass' (probably his well-documented 36-foot telescope), and when he gained access to a 60-foot instrument he produced even better images. "His drawing of the region around the lunar crater Hipparchus shows what a superlative astronomical draughtsman he really was" (Chapman 2005). "The fact is that this is the first detailed drawing ever of any lunar crater, and it is surprisingly accurate, as you can affirm by comparing it to a modern photo of the region" (Ashworth 2022). There are craters named after Hooke on the Moon and on Mars, and also an asteroid.

• Hooke (Lunar crater)
• Hooke (Martian crater)
• Asteroid 3514 Hooke

The rest of Hooke's scientific endeavours have been largely overlooked until recently. Ellen Tan Drake suggests that "Hooke was highly respected in his day, a fact that would seem to be contradicted by his extraordinarily bad luck and almost consistently 'bad press' that plagued him for too long". She points out that,

Robert Hooke "was the first to prove the Power and Towneley hypothesis by experimentation now known as Boyle's Law. He was the first to invent a pocket watch using a spring-balance wheel, but Christiaan Huygens is generally credited with the invention, and the date-inscribed pocket watch he presented to Charles II in 1675 to prove his priority is now lost. He was the first to track a comet in 1665 and propose that it was the same that came in 1618 and predicted that it would come again in another interim of the same duration. But the discovery of the periodicity of some comets is attributed to Edmond Halley who was nine years old at that time. Hooke was the first to express clearly and concisely a theory of combustion based on experimentation but John Mayow has been given the credit. He anticipated Newton in some of the fundamental ideas underlying the Universal Law of Gravitation, notably the concept of centripetal force, necessary for the full comprehension of the gravitational problem, and communicated his ideas to Newton but never received credit. He was the first to describe the iridescent interference colours seen when light falls on a layer of air between two thin glass plates but, ironically, these are known as 'Newton's Rings'. He designed both the great dome of St Paul's Cathedral and the Monument to the fire of 1666, but both are generally attributed to Christopher Wren. Finally, as has been shown in this paper, he was the true founder of the science of geology, but Steno is generally praised for this role." – Drake 2006, p.147.

Because of this, there are few online resources that highlight Robert Hooke's achievements in the scientific field. Useful summaries include:

• Hooke's books: a blog post about Hooke's microscopy based on an exhibition curated by Stephen Greenberg held at the National Library of Medicine in the United States in 2007. Greenberg was Head of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts for the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.
• The Micrographia microscope: Jane Desborough, then Associate Curator of Science at the Science Museum in London, explores the Museum's collection of Robert Hooke microscopes.
• Famous scientists
• Wikipedia

 
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An image from Hooke's Lectiones Cutlerianae, 1679 (Image 20)

Hooke's drawing of cells in cork, 1665 (Image 21)

Hooke's drawing of the moon crater now called Hipparchus, 1665. (Image 22)

Hooke's compound microscope, 1665 (Image 23). He used an oil lamp with flask for a light condenser and focused on a specimen by moving the whole microscope up or down. (Todd Helmenstine)

The air pump that Hooke built for Robert Boyle (Image 24)

Hooke's drawing of ammonites (Image 25). He recognised them as the remains of living creatures. "Most of his contemporaries thought that 'figured stones' were ... a lusu naturae, a trick of nature" (Drake 2006, p.136)

Hooke's zenith telescope (Image 26)

Portraits

For three hundred years there has been no known extant portrait of Robert Hooke. Some believe that Sir Isaac Newton might have been responsible for this, whilst others doubt that such a portrait ever existed. Felicity Henderson has summarised the arguments:

• Hooke, Newton, and the 'missing' portrait

There have been some attempts to reconstruct a portrait from contemporary descriptions of Hooke's appearance, including those by John Aubrey and Richard Waller. Of these modern reconstructions, the best known are the series of paintings by Rita Greer. Examples of her work are on display at Gresham College, the Open University and Willen Church:

• Paintings by Rita Greer

The Isle of Wight History Centre has conjectured that the wax seal on an assignment of a mortgage between the town of Newport and Robert Hooke, signed and sealed on 2nd February 1684/85, which is held by the County Record Office, represents Hooke himself.

• Is this the face of Robert Hooke?

Professor Lawrence Griffing of Texas A&M University has recently made the case for Portrait of a mathematician by Mary Beale (1633-99) being the missing portrait of Hooke. Beale was known to Hooke. :

• Philip Mould, Portrait of a Mathematician c.1680. (Historical Portraits Picture Archive).
• Lawrence R. Griffing, The lost portrait of Robert Hooke?, Journal of microscopy, vol.278, no.3 (2020), pp.114-122. This is a freely available summary of an article of which the full version is limited to subscribers. Professor Griffing has also summarised his discovery elsewhere:
  • The mystery of the missing portrait of Robert Hooke, 17th-century scientist extraordinaire.

The painting was sold by Sotheby's in June 2006, but the identity of the buyer has not been made public.

Griffing's argument has been described as "unconvincing", but he has responded in its defence:

• Christopher Whittaker, Unconvincing evidence that Beale's Mathematician is Robert Hooke, Journal of microscopy, vol.282, no.2 (2021), pp.189-190.
• Lawrence R. Griffing, Comments on Dr Whittaker's letter and the article, Journal of microscopy, vol.282, no.2 (2021), p.191-192.

 
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Portrait of a mathematician by Mary Beale (Image 27)

References

1. Ashworth (2022): William B. Asworth, Jr., 'Scientist of the day – Robert Hooke'. (Ashworth is Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Missouri, and this article is on the Library's blog.)
2. Batten (1936): Marjorie Isabel Batten, 'The Architecture of Dr Robert Hooke FRS', Walpole Society (London), vol.25 (1936-37), pp.83-113. Partial text available
3. Chapman (2005): Allan Chapman, 'Hooke's telescopic observations of Solar System bodies', in Paul Kent and Allan Chapman, Robert Hooke and the English renaissance (Gracewing, 2005), pp.106-107.
4. Cooper (2003): Michael Cooper, Robert Hooke and the rebuilding of London (Sutton, 2003), p.190.
5. Drake (2006): Ellen Tan Drake, 'Hooke's ideas of the terraqueous globe and a theory of evolution', in Robert Hooke: tercentennial studies, edited by Michael Cooper and Michael Hunter (Routledge, 2016).
6. Geraghty (2007): Anthony Geraghty, The Architectural drawings of Sir Christopher Wren at All Souls College, Oxford: a complete catalogue (Lund Humphries, 2007), especially the chapter entitled 'The drawings: technique and purpose'. Also available online.
7. Heyman (2006): Jacques Heyman, 'Hooke and Bedlam', in Robert Hooke: tercentennial studies, edited by Michael Cooper and Michael Hunter (Routledge, 2016), p.164.
8. Inwood (2002): Stephen Inwood, The Man who knew too much (Macmillan, 2002).
9. Jardine (2003): Lisa Jardine, The Curious life of Robert Hooke (HarperCollins, 2003), p.152.
10. Jeffery (1996): Paul Jeffery, The City churches of Sir Christopher Wren (Hambledon Press, 1996). Despite its title, the contribution of Robert Hooke to London's post-Fire church building campaign is discussed throughout this book. There are many references to him in the text which are not mentioned in the index, such as pp.175-177.
11. Purrington (2006): Robert D. Purrington, 'After the Principia', in Robert Hooke: tercentennial studies, edited by Michael Cooper and Michael Hunter (Routledge, 2016), footnote 3, p.320.
12. Smith (2006): Edward Smith, 'Hooke and Westminster', in Robert Hooke: tercentennial studies, edited by Michael Cooper and Michael Hunter (Routledge, 2016), pp.219-32.
13. Walker (2011): Matthew F. Walker, 'The limits of collaboration: Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and the designing of the Monument to the Great Fire of London', Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, vol.65, no.2 (20th June 2011), pp.121-143. Abstract available
14. Worsley (2004): Giles Worsley, 'Taking Hooke seriously', The Georgian Group journal, vol.14 (2004), pp.1-25.

 
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Image acknowledgments

So far as we know, all of the images reproduced on this page are in the public domain. We shall immediately take down on demand any that are still in copyright.

1. Robert Hooke's signature. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
2. The plaque on The Monument. As part of a project to improve the area around the pillar in 2007 it was possible to take a space in the paving for a large (4ft square) carved stone. The stone was quarried at Caithness and made its long journey down to London to be carved at the workshop of Richard Kindersley. It can be seen from the entrance to the Monument Underground Station. Wording is by Dr Allan Chapman. Photograph by Rita Greer, reproduced under this licence.
3. Engraving of Bethlehem Hospital [Bedlam] at Moorfields, London: seen from the north, with people walking in the foreground. Image from the Wellcome Collection via Wikimedia Commons.
4. Extract from a drawing of The Monument by Sutton Nicholls between 1725 and 1728, held by the British Library.
5. Church of St Mary Magdalene, Willen. Image by Chris Nyborg, CC BY-SA 3.0 from Wikimedia Commons.
6. Ramsbury Manor from the north-east. Image from In English homes by Charles Latham and H. Avray Tipping (Country Life, 1909), vol.3, p.159, via Wikimedia Commons.
7. Report dated 4th July 1670, signed by Hooke, settling a dispute about a property on Ludgate Hill. Image courtesy of Seth Kaller, Inc.
8. Photograph by George Rex of St Benet's church, Paul's Wharf, from Wikimedia Commons. The caption says "nominally built by Wren's company but designed by Dr Robert Hooke".
9. Extract from a drawing of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral © Penn State University Library, reproduced under this licence.
10. Facsimile of letter from Robert Hooke to Sir Isaac Newton, written from Gresham College, January 17th, 1679. Image from Early science in Oxford, by R.T. Gunther, vol. X, p.55.
11. Cover page of Bibliotheca Hookiana. Photograph © Rare Book Hub.
12. Cover page of Micrographia. Photograph © Wellcome Trust, reproduced under this licence.
13. View of Freshwater village and church, reproduced from an engraving by Thomas Barber in Picturesque illustrations of the Isle of Wight (Simpkin & Marshall, 1834). Image from Isle of Wight Historic Postcards, further information from Isle of Wight History Centre.
14. Hookes Cottage on Hooke Hill, Freshwater. Photograph from The West Wight remembered, by Eric Toogood (published by the author, 1984, pages unnumbered). Much more information on this house: Isle of Wight History Centre.
15. Memorial stone to Hooke at the junction of Hooke Hill and School Green Road, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
16. The Broad Street facade of Gresham College in Bishopsgate 1740, by George Vertue (1684-1756) from Wikimedia Commons.
17. Extracts from Vertue's drawing from vol.10 of Early science in Oxford by R.T. Gunther.
18. Memorial window to Robert Hooke in St Helen's Bishopsgate. Destroyed by IRA bombing in the 1990s. A 1930s photograph from A London inheritance: a private history of a public city.
19. Plaque on a building close to St Helen's Bishopgate. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
20. Drawing of a spring, extracted from Robert Hooke's Lectiones Cutlerianae published in 1679. From Wikimedia Commons.
21. Hooke's drawing of cells in cork, from Micrographia (1665), schem.XI, facing p.115. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
22. Hooke's drawing of the moon crater now called Hipparchus, from Micrographia (1665), schem.XXXVIII, facing p.244.
23. Drawing of Robert Hooke's microscope from Micrographia (1665), schem.I, facing p.1. Photograph © Wellcome Trust, reproduced under this licence.
24. Drawing of the air pump that Hooke built for Robert Boyle. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
25. Drawing of ammonites from The Posthumous works (1705) edited by Waller. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
26. Robert Hooke's zenith telescope, from An Attempt to prove the motion of the Earth from observations (1674), plate 1, figure 4. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
27. Portrait of a mathematician by Mary Beale, about 1680. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

 
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Page last amended 14th May 2024