Withering-type botanical microscope, 1780
The “Withering-type Microscope” is named for its inventor, Dr. William Withering (1741-1799), an English physician and botanist who graduated with a degree in medicine 1766 in Edinburgh. Inspired by the taxonomical work and systematic classification of Carl Linnæus (1707-1778), Withering (1776) applied the Linnaean taxonomical system of classification to British plants in a seminal, two volume work, A Botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in the British Isles. The earliest reference to a small botanical microscope of Withering’s design appeared in the first edition of this book. There, Withering indicated this microscope was developed for field dissections of flowers and other plant parts. While there is no surviving example of this exact design, close relatives of this type do exist, made either completely of brass or of ivory with brass pillars. Ivory models can be tentatively dated to 1776-1785, as by 1787 a newer model with a hollowed stage in an all-brass configuration already predominated. In turn, it was preceded by the brief appearance of a transitional brass model but with solid stage of ivory or horn (seen here). This version is extremely rare and must have been produced in very small numbers. By 1787 all these varieties were not recorded anymore in the literature.
Withering-type botanical microscope, 1780
The “Withering-type Microscope” is named for its inventor, Dr. William Withering (1741-1799), an English physician and botanist who graduated with a degree in medicine 1766 in Edinburgh. Inspired by the taxonomical work and systematic classification of Carl Linnæus (1707-1778), Withering (1776) applied the Linnaean taxonomical system of classification to British plants in a seminal, two volume work, A Botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in the British Isles. The earliest reference to a small botanical microscope of Withering’s design appeared in the first edition of this book. There, Withering indicated this microscope was developed for field dissections of flowers and other plant parts. While there is no surviving example of this exact design, close relatives of this type do exist, made either completely of brass or of ivory with brass pillars. Ivory models can be tentatively dated to 1776-1785, as by 1787 a newer model with a hollowed stage in an all-brass configuration already predominated. In turn, it was preceded by the brief appearance of a transitional brass model but with solid stage of ivory or horn (seen here). This version is extremely rare and must have been produced in very small numbers. By 1787 all these varieties were not recorded anymore in the literature.
References: SML: A242712; Goren 2014.
References: SML: A242712; Goren 2014.
Prof. Yuval Goren's Collection of the History of the Microscope
German "Screw-Focus" Microscope, ca. 1650
This is the earliest microscope in this collection, most likely dating to the mid-17th century. It is formed of a small (4 cm long) cylinder made of bone (probably cow metatarsal), with a lens on top housed in a cylindrical wood ring covered by a bone disk. An opening at the side of the instrument allows an insect to be impaled on a steel spike, attached to a bone screw that can be turned in or out for focusing. The entire instrument measures merely 5 cm long.
The microscope in our collection has a matching cylindrical box made of wood (probably mahogany) and has an ivory base. As seen in the picture, the box exactly fits the small microscope and may be original, but this is not certain.
There are a few more examples of this microscope. One of them appears in Giordano (2012: # 6), where it is generally attributed to the 17th century. Another example was sold on eBay in 2017 and is currently in a private collection in the US. It may be attributed to a Dutch or German origin and may be tentatively dated to ca. the middle or second half of the 17th century.
Pocket-sized optical instruments such as this one became popular during this time. They were intended to satisfy the curiosity of the people in natural history, especially insects (thus the term "flea glass", or vitrum pulicarium in Latin). This was undoubtedly fueled by studies such as those by Francesco Stelluti (1577-1652), Federico Cesi (1585-1630) and Jan Swammerdam (1637–1680) about the the physiology of insects.
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