2024-09-03T17:15:40-04:00

Illustrated half-title page for Arcana Naturae Detecta depicts women standing on a pedestal at a table covered with food. The eye of providence, representing the eye of God, bestows rays of light towards the table. One woman with winged ears and eyes dotting her draped cloth looks through a microscope at a figure holding a bird. In the foreground a woman sits holding the sun and a book that reads "J. van Schaak fecit" representing the name of the engraver. She stands upon a figure with scientific instruments at her side. A man leans upon the pedestal and is draped in a sash stating "occult quail" or "what is hidden." Another man holds a snake. In the background, a blindfolded man with a prosthetic leg and a cane holds the hand of a woman who is holding a scepter. Text underneath the plate states "Delphis Batavorum apud Henricum Crooneveld CIO IOC XCV" being the place of publishing, publisher and date.

In this pioneering work on microscopy, engraved plates detail the physiology of natural history specimens. Known as the "Father of Microbiology," Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is considered one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. After writing numerous letters to the Society regarding his scientific findings, van Leeuwenhoek finally was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1680 in spite of their earlier skepticism of his research. His work with the microscope revealed microbes, which he referred to as animalcules, and are now known as unicellular organisms. The title page, frontismatter and a single fold-out plate have been digitized from this work.