Through the Eyes of the Lynx: Galileo and Microscope

Galileo and the Academy of the Lynx, or Accademia dei Lincei, were responsible for the first published report of observations made with a microscope (Apiarium, 1625), as well as with the telescope. At the same time Galileo was making his telescopic discoveries, he was also experimenting with lenses to magnify the small. Another member of the Lincei, Johann Faber, named Galileo’s new instrument a microscope. 

In antiquity, the lynx was renowned for possessing sharp eyesight at night. The founder of the Lincei, Federigo Cesi, believed that the eyes of the Lincei would peer more deeply into the secrets of nature than ever before. The keen eyes of the Academy of the Lynx stretched the boundaries of European thought in the life sciences just as with Galileo’s discoveries in the physical sciences.