While the story of the big has often been told, the story of the small has not yet even been outlined. This text provides a history of the small and the invisible, meditating on how dust has been experienced and the small has been imagined across the ages. Examining a thousand years of Western civilization - from the naturalism of medieval philosophy, to the artistry of the Renaissance, to the scientific and industrial revolutions, to the modern worlds of nanotechnology and viral diseases - the book offers a story of the genesis of the microcosm.