This is an image of a  philosopher’s cabinet, engraving (on copper?) by “I. Friedlein fec”, who was Johnann Friedlein, an emigree from North Germany to Denmark, and who worked ca. 1680-1705. It shows the tools of the trade for someone working in natural philosophy (the name “scientist” would not come into use for another 130+ years or so¹) and is an interesting insight into a small, polite gentleman’s club for experiment and investigation.

The men surround a decent collection of scientific instruments–I can locate a compass, dividers, oil lamp, magnifying glass, microscope²  (at the right elbow of the figure on the right), terrestrial and celestial globes,  a (large) clock, barometer, and various weights and scales, and  behind it all looms a rather large refracting telescope³ (is it five inches?) 

For all of these expensive and current instruments, the lighting these gentlemen set up for themselves is pretty poor, though of course it does add to the mystery and dark experience of the image.  

Here’s another example of Friedlein’s  work, a frontispiece to Cryptographia, oder geheime Schrifften by Johann Balthasar Friderici, printed in 1685:

Nyt dansk kunstnerlexikon: bd. Indenlandske kunstnere (fortsættelse …)by Philip Weilbach:

Notes:

1. “Scientist”, in the Oxford English Dictionary (“science” is a much older word in English):