Instrumental images : the visual rhetoric of self-presentation in Hevelius's Machina Coelestis

摘要

This article places the famous images of Johannes Hevelius's instruments in hisMachina Coelestis (1673) in the context of Hevelius's contested cometary observations and hisdebate with Hooke over telescopic sights. Seen thus, the images promote a crafted vision ofHevelius's astronomical practice and skills, constituting a careful self-presentation to his dis-tant professional network and a claim as to which instrumental techniques guarantee accurateobservations. Reviewing the reception of the images, the article explores how visual rhetoricmay be invoked and challenged in the context of controversy, and suggests renewed analyticalattention to the role of laboratory imagery in instrumental cultures in the history of science.