This is a facsimile in full color of the first printing of the famous book by Robert Hooke, in 1665, which unrevealed to the world the existence of another one, much smaller but as rich as the former can be. Also, it brought to our knowledge for the first time that all living forms in nature are made of cells. This discovery and the word to name it were made and coined by Robert Hooke, and explained in Micrographia.

But this book is also known worldwide for its spectacular plates whose details and quality of engraving were unmatched in 1665, and remain exceptional to date, to the point that they often match the quality of our modern photography. This last fact testifies about the amazing pictorial and technical performances the making of his Micrographia claimed more than three hundred years ago. These exceptionally large plates still are costly to print and to be inserted in a book today. That is why all ulterior reprints and facsimiles of Micrographia, with its plates printed at their original sizes, remain rare and pricey books for bibliophiles.

In the aims to offer a facsimile of Micrographia with a selection of its best and largest plates (thirteen) printed in full size for an affordable price we proceeded as follows.
Each and every of the plates of the first printing are present at their right place in this facsimile, but their sizes are reduced to this of a single page (about 9 inches high). However, we put an additional section at the end of the book that encompasses a selection of the best and largest plates at their original size, printed in tiles. This solution is offering you several options for enjoying them at their full size, or for setting them framed and put in display in an office. So you can just admire the amazing details and quality of their engraving, or:

1. you can also carefully cut the pages of this additional section at the edge of their printing, then set them side by side glued on a large drawing cardboard, so as to obtain real full sized copies for decorative purpose or else;

2. you can copy the pages with a color or black and white copier, and then repeat the same operation as above;

3. or, still better, you can scan these pages with a digital scanner, and set their pictures side by side using the elementary functions of a photomontage software, before making them printed with a good quality poster printer.

The plate of a the flea (the largest of the book), for example, is separated into nine high resolution tiles which, once reunited, make a poster of about 27 x 16 inches (702 x 418 millimeters). Further instructions in this book will help you to make great posters from these tiled plates of Micrographia.

Adam Hart-Davis