A personal view by Kenneth Clark

'All the greatest exponents of civilisation, from Dante to Goethe, have been obsessed by light-perhaps one could take it as the supreme symbol of civilisation. But in the 17th century light passed through a crucial stage. The invention of the lens was giving it a new range and power.' The telescope and the microscope revealed new worlds in space and in a drop of water; and the realism of Dutch painting carried a stage further the observation of human character.
Kenneth Clark's story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell and the Royal Society.
(Book £4.75, paperback £2.25: see p 51)