Essay review. Robert Hooke under the microscope

Three centuries after Hooke's death his contributions to late seventeenthcentury thought are only beginning to be examined in their totality. Hooke's reputation as a leading experimentalist and founding father of The Royal Society has been obscured by the success of his rival Isaac Newton and proNewtonian historiography that has portrayed him as the man who thought of the grand idea second, an innovative figure who vindictively accused Newton and others of plagiarism despite his own failures to publicize his discoveries or to carry his many projects to completion. These four books attempt to rescue Hooke from historical neglect. As Jardine in her biography explains, the goal is to retrieve Hooke and his genius, and give him back the status he undoubtedly deserves today, as a groundbreaking thinker and brilliant experimentalist, a founding figure in the European scientific revolution.