The book traces major concepts including: the creation of the visual effects of accuracy through careful action and training; the development of visual judgment and connoisseurship; the role of a network in the production of knowledge; balancing readers’ expectations with representational conventions; and the effects of acts of collecting on the creation and circulation of knowledge. On the one hand, this study uncovers that approaches to knowledge production were different in the seventeenth century, as compared with in the twenty-first century. On the other, it reveals how the early modern struggle to sort through an overwhelming quantity of visual information - brought on by major changes in image production and circulation - resonates with our own.

Meghan C. Doherty is the Director of the Museum of the White Mountains at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, NH. Her research focuses on the connections between art and science as seen in the visual culture of the early Royal Society of London.

ntroduction
‘Claiming the Resemblance of Life’
‘The Best in the World in this kind’
‘An accurate impression is in far higher esteem’
‘Each Judgement of his Eye’
‘Examining it according to my usual manner’
Chapter 1: ‘Innocent Witch-craft of Lights:’ Developing Visual Judgment through Printed Books
The Magic of Projection
A Young-Mans Time Well Spent
‘Draw and Engrave their Schemes with Delight and Assurance’
‘A fit subject for our kingdomes knowledge and practice’
Conclusion
Chapter 2: ‘A New Visible World:’ Developing a Visual Vocabulary for the Microscopic
The Visual Culture of Early Microscopy
Developing a ‘sincere Hand and a faithful Eye’
Making ‘a Plain Representation’
Engraving ‘the True Form’
Chapter 3: ‘Nearly Resembling the Live Birds:’ Collecting and Collating for the Reformation of Natural History
Resembling the Text: The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus)
Resembling the Printed Record: The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
Resembling the Living: The Smew (Mergus albellus)
Resembling the Dead: The Great Grey Gull
Conclusion
Chapter 4: ‘These Rude Collections:’ Accumulating Observations and Experiments
‘The present figure of Saturn’
‘With so much care and exactness’
Conclusion
Conclusion