Part II (Hooke’s annotations)

As already noted, over ninety books attributed to Hooke are still extant. The whereabouts of nine of these are currently unknown, leaving only their traces in the auction catalogues where they last appeared.1 Less than a handful are in known private collections while the rest are publicly available, though dispersed between libraries in the United Kingdom and the United States.2

This section provides an overview of the annotations and other traces Hooke left in these extant books. While they vary greatly, we may loosely categorize these into three groups: acquisition notes, inserted manuscript leaves, and marginal annotations.

1. Acquisition notes

Most of Hooke’s annotations are simple acquisition notes that have been instrumental in identifying the books from his library (figs. 2, 2a, 3, 3a, 4, 4a, 6, 6a, 7, 7a, 8, 8a, 11, 11a, and 13).3 His purchases from auctions and booksellers have already been studied; to these we are able to add further information regarding the catalogues associated with these auctions, as well with the surviving lists of desiderata, the shopping lists Hooke prepared prior to attending auctions.4 Some details about the books that were presented to Hooke by friends or the authors themselves are also noted.

i. Auctions

It may be of scholarly interest to be able to identify not only the books Hooke purchased but also the ones that were available to him and that he did not acquire for various reasons. To this end, we include the following list where we note some of the specific auctions Hooke made his purchases from and provide references to the corresponding catalogues in chronological order. Rather than all the auctions mentioned in the diaries, the list is limited to the extant books and it is not designed to be exhaustive.

  • We may confidently connect one of the books that have survived from Hooke’s library to the 1678 auction by Moses Pitt. While it appears to have lost its acquisition note, the British Library copy of Pietro Accolti’s Lo Inganno de gl’ occhi, prospettiva practica (Firenze, 1625) containing a leaf of notes and sketches in Hooke’s hand is most probably ‘Lo Inganno’ that Hooke listed among the twenty-eight books he had ‘Received from Pits Auxion’ on 24 December 1678 (figs. 5 and 5a), eight days after he had recorded bidding 3s for ‘Acolti, Inganuo De Glochi’.5 We find the same book as lot 2 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Folio’ on page 7 of the Bibliotheca Hookiana [hereafter BH], listed as ‘Prospettiva Practica di Piet. Accolti, con Fig.’ The lengthy catalogue of Pitt’s auction, which included the library of the Dutch theologian Gisbert Voet (1589–1676), may be identified as Catalogus variorum librorum inst[r]uctissimæ bibliothecæ præstantissimi doctissimique viri in Anglia defuncti, ut & aliorum in omnibus scientiis atque linguis insignium, ex bibliothecæ clarissimi Gisberti Voetii emptorum cum multis aliis tum antiquis tum modernis nuperrimæ ex variis partibus Europæ advectis quorum auctio habebitur . . . Novembris 25, 1678, where Accolti’s book is listed as lot 22, ‘Lo Inganno de Gl’occhi, Prospettiva pratica di Piet. Accolti, Fiorenze, 1625’, on page 1 of ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’.6 (The digitized version of the catalogue available via EEBO is from an imperfect copy missing more than fifty of the 226 pages, including the entire section on foreign language books; in fact only seven of Hooke’s purchases can be found in this online version.7) To help with the proper identification of all of the twenty-eight books Hooke purchased, we have included Appendix B listing their corresponding page and lot numbers in Pitt’s catalogue, along with other details such as the price Hooke paid for the book, and the price it fetched at the auction after his death.
  • According to Hooke’s acquisition note, he purchased the second edition of Walther Ryff’s German translation of Vitruvius’s De architectura (Basel, 1575) from Millington’s auction on 8 November 1689 (figs. 6 and 6a).8 While the ESTC does not list an auction catalogue by Millington close to that date, the anonymous A Catalogue of English, French, Italian, Dutch and Spanish books in all volumes . . . will be sold by auction . . . on 6th of November, 1689, lists an undated Basel edition of a ‘Vitruvii Architectura Germanicè’ as lot 37 in ‘Italici Folio cum diversis Libris Figurarum in omnibus Voluminibus & Linguis Gall. Ital. Germ. Belg. & Angl. descript.’ on page 16, making it possible that this auction was in fact associated with Millington.9
  • Hooke bought Santorio Santorio’s Methodi vitandorum errorum omnium (Geneva, 1631) on 7 February 1691 from another Millington auction, that of the library of the theologian Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688) (figs. 7 and 7a). The catalogue Bibliotheca Cudworthiana, sive catalogus variorum librorum plurimis facultatibus . . . quorum auctio habenda est . . . secundo die Februarii, 1690/1 indeed lists this book as lot 58 in ‘Libri Medici, Philosophici, Mathematici, in Quarto’ on page 28.10
  • The ‘May 25 1691 Cl. Auct[ion]’ acquisition note on the front pastedown of Hooke’s copy of David Haex’s Dictionarium Malaico-Latinum et Latino-Malaicum (Rome, 1631) suggests that it may have been purchased from an auction by John Bullord (figs. 8 and 8a). The book is listed as lot 145 in ‘Books in Quarto’ on page 7 of Bullord’s A Catalogue of Books of Two Eminent Mathematicians . . . which will be exposed to sale by way of auction . . . 21st of . . . May, 1691, and Hooke’s note indicating ‘Cl. Auct[ion]’ is mostly likely referring to the mathematician Detlev Clüver (1645–1708) whose inscription ‘Dethlevi Cluveri Romae 1674’ is found on the same page (fig. 8b). This raises the possibility that Clüver was one of the two anonymous mathematicians whose libraries were being auctioned off by Bullord.11 It may be noteworthy that the book does not appear on Hooke’s surviving list of desiderata from this particular Bullord auction.12
  • Two books that Hooke purchased ‘ex Auct. Husseana’ and ‘Aucti Hussey’ on 8 and 10 October 1691 have survived. Although the Catalogue of Divinity, History, Physick, Mathematical Books, &c. . . . will be sold by auction . . . seventh of Oct. 1691 . . . was published anonymously and does not mention Christopher Hussey’s name, both of Hooke’s purchases are listed: Bonaventura Cavalieri’s Directorium generale uranometricum (Bologna, 1632) is lot 63 on column 9 (recte 6) in ‘Libri Mathematici in Quarto’, and Philipp Jakob Sachs von Lewenhaimb’s Gammarologia, sive Gammarorum, vulgo cancrorum consideratio physico-philologico-historico-medico-chymica (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1665) is lot 299 on column 23 in ‘Libri Miscellanei in Octavo & 12o’.13
  • Another auction Hooke attended in October 1691 and from which he acquired James Gregory’s Optica promota (London, 1663) was by Bullord. The latter’s A Catalogue of Excellent Greek, Latine and English Books, . . . which will be sold by auction . . . on . . . the 13th of Octob. 1691 lists a ‘Gregorii optica’ on page 9 as lot 83 in ‘Libri Theologici, Historici, Miscellanei, &c. in Quarto’ section.14
  • Hooke purchased at least two books from the auction of the Bibliotheca Selectissima librorum omnigenorum . . . quorum auctio habebitur . . . nono die Novembris, 1691 which appears to have taken place under Richard Lapthorne’s care in November and December 1691.15 One was Nicolo Antonio Stelliola’s Il Telescopio over Ispecillo celeste (Naples, 1627), the other David Browne’s Art of Fair Writing (St. Andrews, 1622).16
  • The catalogue of Millington’s auction, Bibliotheca Luculenta, sive catalogus librorum . . . horum auctio fiet . . . xxxi diei Januarii 1693/4, lists a copy of John David Rhys’s Cambrobrytannicae Cymraecaeve linguae institutiones et rudimenta . . . (London, 1592) as lot 164 in ‘Libri Miscellanei, in Folio’ on page 15, confirming Hooke’s note that he bought his copy at the Millington auction on 3 February 1694.17
  • Hooke purchased Clement of Alexandria’s Opera Graece et Latine quae extant . . . (Cologne, 1687) from another Millington auction held just a few of weeks later, that of the library of Thomas Grey. The book is listed in the auction catalogue, Bibliotheca Greyana, sive catalogus librorum . . . quorum auctio habebitur . . . 8. Febr. 1693/4, as lot 17 in ‘Libri Theologici in Folio’ on page B1r.18
  • Hooke’s copy of Daniello Bartoli’s Del Ghiaccio e della Coagulatione (Rome, 1681), the provenance of which has been recently identified, was bought at ‘Littlebury’s Auct[ion]’ on 26 May 1696. It is listed in Bullord’s catalogue Bibliopolii Littleburiani pars secunda . . . quorum auctio fiet . . . 11. Maii, anno 1696 as lot 317 in ‘Libri Medici, Physici, & Mathematici. Quarto’ on page 17.19
  • In April 1697 Hooke purchased a copy of Battista Fregoso’s Factorum dictorumque memorabilium lib. IX (Antwerp, 1565) at Bullord’s auction of the library of Robert Grove, late Bishop of Chichester. The auction catalogue, The Library of the Right Reverend Father in God, Robert, late Lord Bishop of Chichester . . . will be sold by auction . . . on . . . the 27th [of April 1697] . . . lists this book as lot 375 in ‘Libri Miscellanei, Octavo’ on p. 24.20

ii. Lists of desiderata

Surviving manuscripts illustrate how Hooke prepared lists of desiderata from the catalogues prior to attending the auctions. Inserted into the British Library copy of Pieter van der Aa’s Catalogus librorum, historici, litteratores, antiquarii, numismatici, aliique miscellanei . . . (Leiden, 1692) are three manuscript leaves in Hooke’s hand.21 They contain a list of more than ninety lots matching Bullord’s A Catalogue of Books of Two Eminent Mathematicians . . . which will be exposed to sale by way of auction . . . 21st of . . . May, 1691, from which Hooke probably purchased the aforementioned copy of Haex’s Dictionarium Malaico-Latinum (figs. 8 and 8a).22 In addition to books on natural philosophy and mathematics, the list comprises maps, travel books, and works of literature, including an illustrated English edition of Don Quixote. What this list of desiderata does not include is Haex’s dictionary, signalling perhaps an impromptu purchase decision on the day of the auction.

Earlier lists dating to 1687 and 1688 have also survived in the archives. We find nine items from Millington’s auction catalogue Bibliotheca selectissima diversorum librorum . . . quorum auctio habebitur . . . 18 die April, 1687 scribbled on the verso of a lecture Hooke read on 20 July 1687 (now Royal Society MS Cl.P/20/76; figs. 9 and 9a); and British Library, MS Sloane 1039, fols. 143v-150v, contains longer lists from five separate catalogues, all of which have been identified. (Further details on these lists of desiderata and the corresponding auction catalogues may be found in Appendix C.) We have not been able to identify an auction catalogue corresponding to the list of mostly French books on fol. 151r; however we may confidently date the list to sometime after 1694, since while most of the books are from the 1680s and 1690s, the penultimate item is a copy of the ‘Journal des Scavans in 12o for ye year. 1694’. Lacking lot numbers, it may have been intended as a shopping list of items to search for; in 1680, Hooke had sent such a list to Edmond Halley (1656–1742) during the latter’s trip to the continent (figs. 10 and 10a).23

iii. Gifts received

Hooke’s acquisition notes indicate that some of the books in his library entered as gifts from friends or as presentation copies from authors.

In October 1673, Hooke received a copy of Thomas Willis’s De Anima Brutorum (Oxford, 1672) from the archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson (1630–1694) as a memento of John Wilkins (1614–1672) who had died the year before.24 Wilkins, a founding member of the Royal Society, had been a benefactor of Hooke’s since the two had met at Oxford in the 1650s, and the book itself had been presented by the author to Wilkins in April 1672. Two other gifts that have survived are the linguist Justus Georgius Schottelius’s Teutsche Sprachkunst (Braunschweig, 1641) presented by Theodore Haak (1605–1690) in March 1684, and the Venetian mathematician Francesco Barozzi’s Cosmographia in 4 libris (Venice, 1585) presented ‘by Mr. Man’ in December 1698.25 Pieter van der Aa’s catalogue mentioned earlier may also be added to this list, as it was given to Hooke free of charge by Smith.26

iv. Authors’ presentation copies

Authors’ presentation copies received from continental virtuosi include François Payen’s Selenelion ou apparition lunisolaire en l’Isle de Gorgone (Paris, 1666) with a full letter bound with the volume, and Johannes Hevelius’s Machina coelestis (Danzig, 1673-79), volume 2 of which was inscribed to Hooke by the author.27 The latter book, as is well known, elicited a strong response from Hooke, culminating in his Animadversions on the First Part of the Machina Coelestis (London, 1674).28 Vincenzo Viviani, Galileo’s ‘last disciple’ and after 1696 a member of the Royal Society, presented a copy of his Enodatio problematum universis geometris propositorum (Florence, 1677) to Hooke with an undated inscription.29 Considering the publication date, this book might indeed be the Viviani Hooke lent to the mathematician John Collins (1626–1683) on 18 July 1678, and again on 27 December 1679, a few weeks after delivering it to Sir Joseph Williamson (1633–1701), the president of the Royal Society, with whom Hooke had had previous conversations on mathematics.30

Four other surviving presentation copies are from other fellows of the Royal Society. George Ent (1604–1689), also a member of the Royal College of Physicians, and whom Hooke had described as ‘eminently Ingenious and Learned’ in the Micrographia, presented a copy of the second edition of his Apologia pro circulatione sanguinis (London, 1685) in August 1686 (figs. 11 and 11a); and Alexander Pitfeild, frequently mentioned in Hooke’s diaries as ‘Pif’, presented his translation of Claude Perrault’s Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux as Memoir’s for a Natural History of Animals (London, 1688) in January 1688.31 Not listed in the BH are two other surviving presentation copies: John Beaumont’s geomorphological work The Present State of the Universe (London, 1694) inscribed on 4 July 1694, and John Flamsteed’s The D[octrine] of the Sphere (London, 1680), the latter addressed to Hooke as the professor of geometry at Gresham College.32

To these we can add two more presentation copies − this time from Hooke himself. Bearing the inscription on the imprimatur page ‘This is for my highly Esteem’d freind Mr. Godfry/ From his very humble servant Rob: Hooke’, and possibly William Brouncker’s signature on the verso of the title-page, is one of the two surviving presentation copies of the 1665 edition of the Micrographia (figs. 12 and 12a). Previously owned by E. N. da C. Andrade and Haskell F. Norman, the book was sold to an anonymous buyer at the 1998 Christie’s auction of the Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine.33 The other copy, now at Emory University, was inscribed by Hooke as ‘Ex dono authoris’ and presented to Sir William Jones (bap.1630–1682), the lawyer and politician who commissioned Hooke to build a country house in Wiltshire in the 1680s.34

* This is a collaborative effort, but Part I was chiefly written by William Poole with contributions from Felicity Henderson; and Part II by Yelda Nasifoglu.

Part I, section 4 ❮ back || next ❯ Part II, section 2

  1. In the Robert Hooke’s Books Database, see auct_BH_748, auct_BH_776, auct_BH_833, auct_BH_864, auct_BH_1427, auct_BH_2350, extra_BH_5, extra_BH_30, extra_BH_31. []
  2. See auct_BH_108, auct_BH_846, auct_BH_2246. []
  3. See tables I & III in Mandelbrote, ‘Sloane’s Purchases’, pp. 120-8 and 133-41. Twelve additional books have been discovered since the publication of this article: auct_BH_465, auct_BH_776, auct_BH_833, auct_BH_847, extra_BH_3, extra_BH_4, extra_BH_9, extra_BH_25, extra_BH_29, extra_BH_30, extra_BH_31, extra_BH_32. []
  4. See Part I for a detailed discussion about Hooke’s book-purchasing activities, as well as gifts he presented and received, as revealed in his diaries. []
  5. Diary, ed. Robinson and Adams, pp. 388, 390. For Accolti’s book, see auct_BH_295. []
  6. English Short Title Catalogue, or ESTC, citation no. R232197. Sources on this auction include John Lawler, Book Auctions in England in the Seventeenth Century (1676-1700) with a Chronological List of the Book Auctions of the Period (London: Elliot Stock, 1898), pp. 120-24; and LRH, pp. 33-34. It is noteworthy that one of the distributors of this catalogue was Edward Millington, whose name thus appears in print for the first time as associated with an auction; see Brian Cowan, ‘Millington, Edward (c.1636–1703)’, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, May 2005; online edn, Jan 2008). []
  7. The EEBO version, digitized from a copy at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is available online. Although imperfect, it is nonetheless a useful copy with interleaved manuscript pages of alphabetical lists of books and prices from previous and later auctions. It is perhaps similar to the ‘register’ referred to by Richard Lapthorne in his 24 September 1692 letter to Richard Coffin; searching for a rare copy of Athanasius Kircher’s Phonurgia nova for Coffin, Lapthorne explained that he had consulted, either directly or via the bookseller Robert Littlebury, ‘an Ingenious man yt hath taken paines to keep an alphibiticall Register of most books & prices yt have been sold in our London Auctions, And in one Voets Auction found this booke [lot 250 of ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’ on page 47] printed beyond sea 1673 fol. wth figures, price 9s. 6d. . . .’ This same price is noted in manuscript in the margin of this digitized catalogue. Lapthorne’s letter is quoted in Michael Treadwell, ‘Richard Lapthorne and the London Retail Book Trade 1683-1697’, in The Book Trade and Its Customers, 1450-1990: Historical Essays for Robin Myers, ed. Giles Mandelbrote, Arnold Hunt, and Alison Shell (Winchester: St. Paul’s Bibliographies, 1997), pp. 214, 221n35; and it is partially reproduced in ‘Letters, 1692’, ‘Book Trade References in the Lapthorne-Coffin Correspondence 1683-1697’, Michael Treadwell and Ian Maxted, eds., Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History no. 11 (2001). []
  8. Ryff’s edition of Vitruvius is BH, lot 293 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Folio’ on p. 7; see auct_BH_314. []
  9. The catalogue (ESTC citation no. R171066) is available online via the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. []
  10. Santorio’s book is BH, lot 159 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 11; see auct_BH_492. Millington’s auction catalogue (ESTC citation no. R214526) is available online via EEBO. []
  11. Haex’s book is BH, lot 313 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 15; see auct_BH_656. Bullord’s catalogue (ESTC citation no. R230265) is available online via EEBO. On Clüver, see Enrico Pasini, ‘Korrespondenten von G. W. Leibniz: 12. Detlev Clüver geb. um 1645 in Schleswig -gest. den 21. Februar 1708 in Hamburg’, Studia Leibnitiana 26 (1994), pp. 108-24. For his correspondence with the mathematician John Wallis (1616–1703), see the Early Modern Letters Online database. []
  12. This list is inserted into another auction catalogue owned by Hooke, and is now at the British Library; see below and Appendix C. It should also be noted that no other viable auction or catalogue matching the time period appears in Harold Mattingly, I. A. K. Burnett, and Alfred W. Pollard, List of Catalogues of English Book Sales, 1676-1900, Now in the British Museum (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees [of the British Museum], 1915), pp. 10-11. Due to the period it covers Hooke’s own manuscript list of auctions (MS Sloane 1039, fols. 177r-178r, reprinted in Gunter, ed., Early Science in Oxford, vol. 10, pp. 66-7) is not helpful in this case. []
  13. Hussey’s catalogue (ESTC citation no. R229863) is available online via EEBO. Cavalieri’s book is BH, lot 408 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 17, and Sachs von Lewenhaimb’s book is BH, lot 267 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Octavo’ on p. 27; see auct_BH_756 and auct_BH_1251. []
  14. Gregory’s book is BH, lot 505 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 19; see auct_BH_864. Bullord’s catalogue (ESTC citation no. R230316) is available online via EEBO. []
  15. The auction catalogue (ESTC citation no. R230317), which was published anonymously, is available online via EEBO, however only the title-page and page 30 appear to have survived in this scanned version. On Lapthorne’s connection to this auction, see Treadwell, ‘Richard Lapthorne’, pp. 210-211, 220n28; and the Lapthorne correspondence between October and December 1691 in ‘Book Trade References in the Lapthorne-Coffin Correspondence 1683-1697’. []
  16. Stelliola’s book is BH, lot 509 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 19 and Browne is lot 336 in ‘English Books in Octavo’ on p. 51; see auct_BH_868 and auct_BH_2441. []
  17. Rhys’s book is BH, lot 167 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Folio’ on p. 5; see auct_BH_182. Millington’s catalogue (ESTC citation no. R39610) is available online via EEBO. []
  18. Clement of Alexandria’s book is BH, lot 1 in ‘ Libri Latini, &c. in Folio’ on p. 1; see auct_BH_1. Millington’s catalogue (ESTC citation no. R177695) is available online via EEBO. []
  19. Bartoli’s book is BH, lot 133 in Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 10; see auct_BH_465. We are grateful to Liam Sims at the Rare Books Department, University of Cambridge, for his help in identifying the book and for the reference to Bullord’s auction catalogue; the latter (ESTC citation no. R229633) is available online via EEBO. []
  20. Fregoso’s book is BH, lot 116 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Octavo’ on p. 24; see auct_BH_1097. Bullord’s auction catalogue (ESTC citation no. R213427) is available online via EEBO. []
  21. Pieter van der Aa’s catalogue (extra_BH_2) bears the British Library shelfmark S.C.117.(1.); it is not listed in the BH but has been attributed to Hooke through his acquisition note on A2r as well as the handwriting of the inserted manuscript folios; see Mandelbrote, ‘Sloane’s Purchases’, pp. 130-31. Hooke’s inscription indicates that the catalogue was given to him by ‘Mr Sam: Smith gratis’, i.e. Samuel Smith (bap. 1658, d. 1707), the publisher of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. []
  22. See note 11 above. []
  23. See note 6 in Part II, section 2. []
  24. Mandelbrote, ‘Sloane’s Purchases’, p. 140; Lisa Jardine, The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man who Measured London (London: Harper Perennial, 2003), pp. 73-5, where the title-page with Hooke’s inscription is reproduced on p. 74; Julianne Simpson, ‘From London to Toronto: a Case-Study of the Dispersal of Sloane’s Library’, in From Books to Bezoars: Sir Hans Sloane and his Collections, ed. Alison Walker, Arthur Macgregor, and Michael Hunter (London: The British Library, 2012), p. 222, see also pp. 221-4 on how Hooke’s copy may have ended up in the collection of the Wellcome Library. Willis’s book is listed in the BH as lot 196 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 12; see auct_BH_535. []
  25. Mandelbrote, ‘Sloane’s Purchases’, p. 122 and 125. While Barozzi’s book does appear in the BH as lot 453 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Octavo’ on p. 31 (auct_BH_1443), Schottelius’s book (extra_BH_24) does not. []
  26. See note 21 above. []
  27. Payen’s letter has been reproduced and translated in Poole, ‘Antoine-François Payen’, pp. 256-7. While Payen’s book (extra_BH_20) does not appear in the BH, Mandelbrote suggests it may have been included among the ‘aliis Tractatib.’ in lot 438 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 17; see Mandelbrote, ‘Sloane’s Purchases’, p. 120, and auct_BH_788. Hevelius’s book is BH, lot 202 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Folio’ on p. 5; see auct_BH_220. []
  28. Sources on the Hooke-Hevelius controversy include Janet Vertesi, ‘Instrumental Images: the Visual Rhetoric of Self-presentation in Hevelius’s Machina Coelestis’, The British Journal for the History of Science 43 (2010), pp. 209-43; and Voula Saridakis, ‘Converging Elements in the Development of Late Seventeenth-Century Disciplinary Astronomy: Instrumentation, Education, Networks, and the Hevelius-Hooke Controversy’ (unpub. Ph.D. diss., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001). []
  29. Hooke may have owned two copies of this book; it is listed twice in the BH as lot 597 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Quarto’ on p. 21, and as lot 21 in ‘Libri in Albiis, in Quarto’ on p. 54; see auct_BH_956 and auct_BH_2578. Sources on Viviani include Luciano Boschiero, ‘Robert Southwell and Vincenzio Viviani: Their Friendship and an Attempt at Italian–English Scientific Collaboration’, Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies 26 (2009); and Luciano Boschiero, ‘Post-Galilean Thought and Experiment in Seventeenth-Century Italy: the Life and Work of Vincenzio Viviani’, History of Science xliii (2005). []
  30. Robinson and Adams, eds., Diary, pp. 331, 367, 375, 433, 434. It is also plausible that the book in question was the more popular De maximis & minimis (Florence, 1659), Viviani’s conjectures on Apollonius’s conics, a copy of which is listed in the BH as lot 232 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Folio’ on p. 6 (auct_BH_251). Hooke noted seeing a copy ‘at Scots’ on 17 October 1673 and may have purchased one from the bookseller Kettleby on 14 January 1675; see ibid., 65, 142. While Viviani had donated a copy to the Bodleian Library, De maximis & minimis had been in circulation in England since 1661 when the bookseller James Allestry purchased forty copies; see Boschiero, ‘Robert Southwell and Vincenzio Viviani’, p. 97. []
  31. Robert Hooke, Micrographia (London: Jo. Martyn and Ja. Allestry, 1665), p. 105. Ent’s book is BH, lot 208 in ‘Libri Latini, &c. in Octavo’ on p. 26, and Pitfield’s translation is BH, lot 86 in ‘English Books in Folio’ on p. 40; see auct_BH_1869 and auct_BH_1191. []
  32. See extra_BH_3 and extra_BH_9. []
  33. The inscription has also been reproduced in The Haskell Norman Library of Science and Medicine, Part II: Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June 1998, (New York: Christie’s, 1998), pp. 220, 223; see also Diana H. Hook and Jeremy M. Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science & Medicine, vol. 1 (San Francisco: Jeremy Norman & Co., Inc., 1991), pp. xxxv, 397-8; see extra_BH_31. []
  34. On Sir William Jones, see Paul D. Halliday, ‘Jones, Sir William (bap. 1630, d. 1682)’, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008); as Hooke’s client, see Howard Montagu Colvin, ‘Robert Hooke and Ramsbury Manor’, in Essays in English Architectural History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 191-4; and H. J. Louw, ‘New Light on Ramsbury Manor’, Architectural History 30 (1987), pp. 45-9. See extra_BH_32. []