Announcements

New content and updates to the site will be announced here; you may also follow the project on Twitter to be informed of these.

23 December 2020
We have just added another Hooke book from the Sloane collection: a copy of William Whiston’s Vindication of the new theory of earth (London, 1698). It is noted to contain the inscription ‘R.Hooke…to M Billingsly Octo:17.1698’ and is currently at the British Library under the shelfmark 970.f.37.
Click here to see the entry for this book on our database.

14 November 2019
Yelda Nasifoglu (Faculty of History, University of Oxford) has just found Hooke’s inscription in Folger Shakespeare Library’s copy of John Evelyn’s edition of Roland Freart’s A parallel of the antient architecture with the modern (London, 1664)! On the front flyleaf, Hooke has noted paying J. Martin 0-13-0 for the copy on 14 October 1676, and the various markings in the book suggest he put it to good use. Stay tuned for Yelda’s blog entry on the subject.
Click here to see the entry for this book on our database.

27 October 2016
Alison Walker (the Sloane Printed Books Project, British Library) has located another Hooke book! This time it is John Speed’s 1631 edition of A prospect of the most famous parts of the world . . . bearing Hooke’s inscription that he obtained it from ‘Mr Shortgrave July 20 1669 1.5.0.’ We thank Alison for informing us of her discovery.
Click here to see the entry for this book on our database.

27 January 2016
We thank Boris Jardine (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge) for alerting us to Hooke’s inscription on a British Library copy of John Collins’ Sector on a Quadrant (London, 1658)!
Only the fragment “The Description of an Universal small Pocket Quadrant” (pages 277-84) from Hooke’s copy has survived but the title page bearing the inscription ‘Rob:Hooke’ (as well as Hans Sloane’s number G 520), it is possible it was purchased separately.
Click here to see the entry for this book on our database.

16 December 2015
Another Hooke book found! Anthony Tedeschi (Curator Rare Books and Fine Printing; Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand) has identified Hooke’s copy of Milton’s Areopagitica (London, 1644) in the Alexander Turnbull Library collection of the National Library of New Zealand. We thank him for letting us know of his discovery.
Click here to see the entry for this book on our database.

30 October 2015
Many thanks to Alison Walker (the Sloane Printed Books Project, British Library) who has informed us of the discovery of another book from Hooke’s collection!
Currently at the British Library (shelfmark 641.a.14.), it is Wilhelm Ernst Tentzel’s Epistola de sceleto elephantino (Gothae, [1696]) bearing the inscription ‘Presented to Robert Hooke Nov 4 1697 by the Royal Society’. It is not listed in the Bibliotheca Hookiana but appears to have made it into Hans Sloane’s collection afterwards.
Click here to see the entry on our database.

April 2015
Site opened to public access.