The Life of Robert Hooke

Abstract The intellectual biography of Robert Hooke should he written by a committee of experts-a large committee. Hooke has done so much and contributed to so many fields of human endeavor that no single author could possibly do him justice. Besides Richard Waller’s 1705 summary of Hooke’s life in The Posthumous Works, the best biographies remain those of Margaret ‘Espinasse and E. N. da C. Andrade, dating to the 1950s. Gunther’s multivolume chronicle of Hooke’s life and work is an invaluable source. Yet even these excellent accounts can only touch upon certain aspects in his life while emphasizing others. And of course, the publication of Hooke’s diary in 1935 has illuminated both his personality and facts in his life.1 Many articles dealing with individual points in Hooke’s life have been written over the last 40 years. When a team of scholars led by Michael Hunter and Simon Schaffer (1989) recently convened for a much needed symposium on Hooke, what came forth, albeit of distinct value, was a collection of articles on some specific but disjointed aspects of Hooke’s life and work. Although it was not the goal of this symposium to represent Hooke in one conference and volume, their effort, with its broad range of topics, demonstrates the difficulty or impossibility of such a task.