The Collected Letters of Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek - Volume 16 PDF

PREFACE

The Leeuwenhoek project was incorporated in the Huygens Institute (now Huygens ING) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in The Hague of which I was a member until 1 January 2009. I thank the director at that time, Dr H. Wals, as well as the staff for their support.

Preparing this edition has been part of my duties as a lecturer at the Institute for the History and Foundations of Science of Utrecht University. Here I want to thank my colleagues and the staff members of the institute for their support.

Thanks are due in particular to Professor Damsteegt, who has taken care of the transcrip tions of the letters, and provided linguistic annotations wherever necessary. He has also helped in many other ways. The scientific annotations which do not deal with linguistic problems were written by me, when unsigned, or by one of my collaborators (with signature; see the List of Co-workers). For their assistance I here offer my thanks.

The Dutch texts were translated by Mrs Dr E. Kegel-Brinkgreve.

In various ways also Professor A. van Helden, Ms C. Klützow (Huygens ING), and Professors M.J. van Lieburg and G.P.W. Vanpaemel have contributed to the realization of this volume, for which I thank them here.

The work of the editor was made possible by funding from the Huygens Institute. The Huygens ING subsidized the printing of this volume.

Several libraries and archives have given permission to publish the letters in their possession. For this the Royal Society in particular should be thanked; the members of its staff have helped me in many ways.

In volume XVI of The Collected Letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek 25 letters of Van Leeuwen hoek have been included, all of them written in the period from July 1707 to June 1712.

The letters were written to six distinct addressees. The larger part was addressed to the Royal Society in London in general (sixteen letters); and to three of its fellows in particular: John Chamberlayne (280, and 281), who translated the letters of Van Leeuwenhoek for the Royal Society¹, Hans Sloane (297), and James Petiver (287). Five letters were addressed to Anthonie Heinsius, Grand Pensionary of Holland, who was interested in Van Leeuwenhoek's work until his death in 1720.

The correspondence collected in this volume shows the lasting interest evinced by the Royal Society in Van Leeuwenhoek's work. This would change in later years².

¹ For this and for the translation problems facing the Royal Society see the Introductions to the volumes 13 and 14 of the Collected Letters, PALM, "Leeuwenhoek and other Dutch correspon dents", in particular pp. 196-197, and VERMIJ & PALM, "Chamberlayne".

² See the Preface to vol. 17 of the Collected Letters, and PALM, "Leeuwenhoek and other Dutch correspondents", p. 197.