Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15731

    Two sections of willow wood, microscopic images

    Date
    12 January 1680
    Creator
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p25
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 393mm
    width (page): 245mm
    Subject
    Description
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Robert Hooke.

    Two drawings of the vessels in willow wood. F represents the real size of the object.

    From his letter Leeuwenhoek seems to assume that he has drawn the figures in red chalk himself.
    Transcription
    WIlligen Hout
    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>
       > Europe
          > Netherlands
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