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The Discoverers' Lens: A Photographic History of the Simple Microscope 1680-1880
By Raymond V. Giordano
Photography by Spartan Giordano
The growing scholarship on the single lens/simple microscope in the history and development of the life sciences from the 17th century on has in recent years directed greater attention to these most often attractive and cleverly designed small optical instruments. The reassessment of the simple microscope, long overdue, has rightfully positioned it as a key instrument of discovery form the time of Leeuwenhoek in the late 17th century through the pioneering researches of Robert Brown and Charles Darwin in the mid-19th century.
Over thirty years ago, Raymond V. Giordano, an antiquarian and dealer in antique scientific instruments and rare science books, began forming a collection of simple microscopes with the intention of documenting their development from 1680 to 1880. The mission from the start was to assemble a comprehensive, historically-based collection that would permit the exhibition and exploration of the entire field from the point of view of the objects themselves. The culmination of this longterm project is the 127 instrument Singular Beauty Collection. These select simple microscopes have been twice publicly exhibited, first at the MIT Museum from September, 2006 to October, 2007, and second at The Linda Hall Library in Kansas City from April to September, 2009. This significant and handsome collection has as its new home The Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. There it will enhance their presentation of a natural history exhibition in their new museum building which is currently under construction. Allowing the instruments themselves to tell their important story has always been the goal of this endeavor, and in that spirit, Classical Science Press will be publishing a lush, richly illustrated, large format book with nearly 300 fine color illustrations by photographer Spartan Giordano and bi-lingual (English and French) descriptive text by Raymond V. Giordano. A preface by the director of The Confluence Museum, Michel Côté, and introductory essays by Deborah G. Douglass, Ph.D., curator of science and technology at the MIT Museum, and Anthony Turner, independent scholar and expert on the history of scientific instruments, will enhance the publication.
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