title: [Margaret Cavendish vs Robert Hooke: An impossible duel].
abstract: In 1665, Robert Hooke published his major work in microscopy, Micrographia, a defense of experimental philosophy. The following year, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, published at her own expense a treatise and a novel that undermined the basis of this new science. The dispute broke out at the initiative of the Duchess, in the context of a vast controversy about the legitimacy and the efficiency of optical instruments in natural philosophy. All the figures of the dual are used, except one: the counterattack. Cavendish, indeed, was alone on the battlefield. Is it possible to call a dual a battle with only one combatant? This particular case of dispute that stops owing to the shortage of combatants is the subject of this article.
authors.affiliation: CRAL/EHESS, 96 boulevard Raspail, 75006, Paris, France. f.aittouati@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Frédérique
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aït-Touati
keywords: Margaret Cavendish; Robert Hooke; controversy; dispute; dual; natural philosophy; optical instruments