Accession No

0844

Brief Description

compound microscope, campani type; Italian; circa 1680

Origin

Italy

Maker

Class

microscopes

Earliest Date

1680

Latest Date

1680

Inscription Date

Material

hide (leather); wood (boxwood, other); metal (brass); glass

Dimensions

bag length 130 mm; breadth 70 mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from N.E. Landall.

Inscription

Description Notes

Green tooled leather on boxwood body; turned wooden objective holder (lens missing); screw fit dust cap. Push fit draw-tube with turned wooden eyepiece and dust cap; threaded for field lens (missing); threaded brass collar round body screws into brass stand and operates focus; stand with 3 legs to brass stage with circular aperture with brass ring above and below the aperture and a screw thread on the lower side; glazed above and below. Cylindrical tooled leather case, push fit cap; (4 object wooden slide; talc and ring box - [not original, not mentioned by Whipple]

References

'A Brief History of the Microscope'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/microscopes/brief-history-microscope

Events