Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15729

    Two sections of elm wood, microscopic images

    Date
    12 January 1680
    Creator
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p21
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 392mm
    width (page): 243mm
    Subject
    Description
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Robert Hooke. Leeuwenhoek drew these images himself.

    Two drawings of horizontal sections of elm wood, with Fig. 2 being a detail of a vessel.
    Transcription
    Olm, maer doorgaans ijpenhout genaemt
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Object history
    'Though not at all a great draughtsman, I have put the aspect of the wood to paper in red chalk to the best of my ability. I had a copy made in black chalk by another man, but when I tried to print it, I made the paper a little too wet and thus mostly spoiled it. Though the copy was very accurate, I yet send you enclosed my red-chalk drawing, because the little vessels figured' (Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, ed. by a committee of Dutch scientists, 17 vols [ongoing] (Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1939- ), III (1948), 144-87 (letter 54) (p. 165)).

    Microscopic observation of several wood barks, in Antoni Leeuwenhoek, ‘Several woods and their vessels’, Phil. Trans. vol. 13, no. 148 (June 1683), pp. 197-208, refs to figures throughout.

    The entire letter with all the images was also printed in Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Ontledingen en Ontdekkingen, van het Eyken, Olm, Boeken, Willegen, Elsen, Mauritius-Ebben, Palmen-hout, ende stroo. Van de Dierkens in de Hommen van Baars, Braassem, Voorn ende Zeelt (Leiden: Cornelis Boutesteyn, 1686), pp. 17-32.
    Related fellows
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
    Martin Lister (1639 - 1712, British) , Physician
    Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
    Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural Philosopher
    Associated place
    <The World>
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          > Netherlands
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