Visualizing the Unknown

How do scientists represent the previously invisible? How do they convince their peers, and communicate their observations with microscopes to a larger audience? Here, images are of crucial importance. A well-constructed scientific illustration could say more than a thousand words.

This project (2021-2027) explores the genesis of visual representations of the micro-world in early modern Europe. Observing strange and unknown structures, microscopists such as Robert Hooke, Johannes Swammerdam, Marcello Malpighi and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek faced unprecedented challenges. They had to find ways to correspond about the unknown world of insect-anatomy, bodily fluids and micro-organisms. To do so, they developed new visual idioms to analyze, interpret and shape their observations. Our hypothesis is that the practices developed in the seventeenth century, are still of great relevance today.

In the same decades, a novel appeared: the scientific journal, starting with the Philosophical Transactions in 1664. Images included in these publications had a powerful impact on readers, becoming crucial for the dissemination, discussion and confirmation of new knowledge.

To many, the scientific image seems an unproblematic, transparent agent. However, the process of observation, perception and representation was not – and still is not – self-evident. How can people be convinced that previously unthinkable creatures really exist? How are images constructed and manipulated to convey a message?

This project aims at unravelling the trajectory from microscopic observation to the dissemination of visual reports. As we will show, the traditional narrative on microscopy – the stronger the lens, the better the observation – needs to be reconsidered. Of crucial importance were techniques of preparation, light, and pictorial techniques. These factors are mostly left out of the historical sources, but become evident in reconstructing the original observations. Our team consists of artists, scholars and scientists – thereby bringing together fields of expertise that in the seventeenth century often were united in one single person. The project has given – and will give – input to exhibitions, public lectures, articles, books and an education program (for more details scroll to Events and Publications).

Background image: Johannes Swammerdam, Drawing of a bee’s eye, c. 1677. fol. 31v, Ms BPL 126 B. Leiden University Library