The Collected Letters of Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek - Volume 17

Lodewijk C Palm, Huib Zuidervaart, Douglas Anderson, Elisabeth Entjes

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780415586429
• eBook ISBN: 9781315358659
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

The contents of the letters published here, again show the great range of subjects that occupied Van Leeuwenhoek: from sugar candy, the shape and crystal structure of diamonds, the dissolution of silver crystals in aqua fortis to gold dust from Guinea dissolved in aqua regia and the dissolution and separation of gold, silver, and copper.

Every volume in the Series contains the texts in the original Dutch and an English translation. The great range of subjects studied by Van Leeuwenhoek is reflected in these letters: instruments to measure water, pulmonary diseases; experiments relating to the solution of gold and silver; salt crystals and grains of sand; botanical work, such as duckweed and germination of orange pips; description on protozoa. blood, spermatozoa and health and hygiene, for example and harmfulness of tea and coffee and the benefits of cleaning teeth.

PREFACE

The idea of a scientifically sound edition of the surviving correspondence of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek emerged following the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of his death in 1923¹. The project began in 1931 during the preparations for the third centenary of Leeuwenhoek’s birth, after which the first volume was published in 1939. That volume was “edited, illustrated and annotated by a committee of Dutch scholars”. Formally, this working group was a committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). The core of it was formed by Professor Gerard A. van Rijnberk (who, as chairman of the Leeuwenhoek Commission signed the preface of volumes 1 through 4) and Gerard C. Heringa, professor of histology at the University of Amsterdam, who served as content editor, backed by the expertise of a large number of specialists.

After Van Rijnberk’s death in 1953, the project was continued by the now renewed Leeuwenhoek Commission, with regularly changing leadership. The gavel has over the years been wielded by successors professors William Kouwenaar [1952–1954], Albert J. Kluyver [1954–1956], Henry W. Julius [1956–1971], Marinus A. Donk [1972], Gerrit A. Lindeboom [1972–1981], French A. Stafleu [1981–1991] and Harry A.M. Snelders [1991–2000].

The Leeuwenhoek project, from the very beginning an initiative of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, was effectively housed at an institute of the KNAW in 1994. This “Constantijn Huygens Institute for text editions and intellectual history” in The Hague has since been absorbed into the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (Huygens ING) in Amsterdam. The Leeuwenhoek Commission functioned initially as a project committee within the institute. Meanwhile, however, the responsibility for the edition has been fully transferred to the Huygens ING.

As mentioned above, the first two volumes of The Collected Letters were published under the editorship of Gerard C. Heringa. After his resignation in 1942, the final editing was successively in the hands of Abraham Schierbeek, private lecturer at the University of Leiden (vol. 3 to 5 – 1948 to 1957); J.J. Swart, attached to the then Biohistorical Institute of Utrecht University (vol. 6 to 8 – 1961 to 1967); and Johannes Heniger, also working at the Utrecht Biohistorical Institute (vol. 9 – 1976). After that, until 2016, the editing of The Collected Letters was carefully tended by Lodewijk C. Palm, who performed this work in addition to his job as a lecturer

Instituut (dl. 9 – 1976). Daarna is tot 2016 de redactie van Alle de Brieven verzorgd door Lodewijk C. Palm, die deze werkzaamheden verrichtte naast zijn functie als universitair docent aan het Instituut voor Geschiedenis [later ook ‘en Grondslagen’] van de Natuurwetenschappen van de Universiteit Utrecht. Van 1994 tot 2009 was hij bovendien verbonden aan het Huygens Instituut van de KNAW Onder Palm’s verantwoordelijkheid zijn in deze periode zijn zes volumes (de delen 10 t/m 16 – 1979 t/m 2014) verschenen. Ook dit zeventiende deel is nog grotendeels door Palm samengesteld. Na zijn pensionering is de zorg voor het project medio 2016 overgedragen aan de ondergetekenden, een en ander nog steeds onder auspiciën van het ‘Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis’ te Amsterdam.

Vele anderen hebben bijgedragen tot de inhoud van dit deel. De hulp van wijlen de hoogleraar Boudewijn C. Damsteegt (1915–2003) verdient hier bijzondere erkenning; hij heeft de transcriptie van de brieven voor zijn rekening genomen en de tekst waar nodig van taalkundige aantekeningen voorzien; ook op andere manieren is hij behulpzaam geweest. De wetenschappelijke annotaties zijn, voor zover niet taalkundig van aard, alle van de hand van Lodewijk Palm. De Engelse vertaling van de brieven is van de hand van wijlen mevr. Elze Kegel-Brinkgreve (1923–2002), op plaatsen aangevuld of verbeterd door Douglas Anderson.

Wat betreft de kwaliteit van Van Leeuwenhoeks proza gaat zijn leeftijd steeds meer een rol spelen (in 1712 werd hij tachtig jaar oud): veel vaker dan in vorige uitgaven is de tekst van de gedrukte uitgave A een verbetering ten opzichte van die van het manuscript. In de vertaling van de brieven is meestal die verbeterde tekst gevolgd. Alleen in heel opvallende gevallen is dit in de Engelse vertaling geannoteerd.

Op verschillende manieren hebben ook Coenraad M. Ballintijn, Rob H. van Gent, Albert van Helden, mw. Conny Klützow, Ad Leerintveld, Mart J. van L...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Letter 295
• Letter 296 [I]
• Letter 297 [II]
• Letter 298-A [III]
• Letter 299 [IV]
• Letter 300 [V]
• Letter 301 [VI]
• Letter 302 [VII]
• Letter 303 [VIII]
• Letter 304
• Letter 305 [IX]
• Letter 306 [X]
• Letter 307 [XI]
• Letter 308 [XII]
• Letter 309 [XIII]
• Letter 310 [XIV]
• Letter 311 [XV]
• Letter 312
• Letter 313
• Letter 314 [XVI]
• Letter 315 [XVII]
• Letter 316
• Letter 317 [XVIII]
• Letter 318
• Letter 319
• Letter 320 [XIX]
• Letter 321
• Letter 322 [XX]
• Letter 323
• Letter 324 [XXI]
• Letter 325 [XXII]
• Letter 326 [XXIII]
• Letter 327 [XXIV]
• List of quoted literature
• Weights and measures used by Leeuwenhoek
• Index of names and subjects
• List of figures