Microscopy, 18th Century Two tarantulas, 1736

Microscopy, 18th Century Two tarantulas, 1736. Engraving of a tarantula ¿from Baglivi (top), and a tarantula ¿from the natural spider in Sir Hans Sloanes collection. Giorgio Baglivi (1668-1707) was professor of anatomy and medicine at Rome. Hans Sloane (1660-1753) was a physician and naturalist whose library was bequeathed to the British Museum. From ¿A natural history of spiders, and other curious insects by Eleazar Albin (active 1713-1759), with copper plate illustrations, (London, 1736). Albin was greatly influenced by Robert Hooke's (1635-1703) 'Micrographia', published in 1664, the first important work on microscopy. It contains illustrations of some of the specimens Hooke viewed under the compound microscope that he designed, as well as the microscope itself. ©SSPL/Science Museum