Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters.

Author: 
Leeuwenhoek, A. van
Volume: 
1 - 20
Publisher: 
Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger
Year: 
1939 - 2024

Starting in 1939, an evolving committee of Dutch scientists and, increasingly, historians, has slowly made its way through all 300+ surviving letters from Leeuwenhoek, as well as an almost equal number of letters to him, many known only by reference in other letters and sources. In volume 1, the editors stated that 'The aim of the project is to produce a critical edition of the text of van Leeuwenhoek’s letters with a modern English translation, with philological, historical and scientific annotations, internal references, and photos of drawings and engravings.'

Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters
year vol no
ltrs

letters

 years editors
1939 I 21 1 [1] – 21 [14] 1673-1676 C.G. Heringa
1941 II 21 22 [15] – 42 [27] 1676-1678
1948 III 27 43 [28] – 69 1679-1682 A. Schierbeek
1952 IV 12 70 [37] – 81 [42] 1683-1684
1957 V 8 82 [43] – 89 [48] 1685-1686
1961 VI 12 90 [49] – 101 [56] 1686-1687 J.J. Swart
1964 VII 8 102 [57] – 109 [64] 1687-1688
1967 VIII 10 110 [65] – 119 [71] 1688-1692
1976 IX 14 120 [72] – 133 [79] 1692-1694 J. Heniger
1979 X 14 134 [80] – 147 [90] 1694-1695 L.C. Palm
1983 XI 22 148 – 169 [102] 1695-1696
1989 XII 37 170 [103] – 206 [121] 1696-1699
1994 XIII 21 207 [122] – 227 [139] 1700-1701
1996 XIV 21 228 [140] – 248 1701-1704
1999 XV 21 249 – 269 1704-1707
2014 XVI 25 270 - 294 1707-1712
2018 XVII 34 295 – 327 [XXIV] 1712-1716 L.C. Palm, H.J. Zuidervaart, D. Anderson, & L. Entjes
2024 XVIII 31 L-533-L-563 1716-1717 Douglas Anderson, Lodewijk Palm & Huib J. Zuidervaart
2024 XIX 37 L-564-L-601 1720-1724 Douglas Anderson, Lodewijk Palm & Huib J. Zuidervaart
2024 XX 193 L-000-L-529 1673-1716 Douglas Anderson, Lodewijk Palm, Lizzy Entjes & Huib J. Zuidervaart

Volumes 1 - 16

Volumes 17 - 20

Over 85 years, the format and editing standards have changed considerably. In the larger early volumes, the Dutch original and English translations are printed on facing pages and the text is supplemented with copious scientific footnotes. By the final three volumes, the Dutch letter in its entirety is followed by its English translation, the scientific footnotes are largely eliminated, and the historical and linguistic footnotes have been kept to a minimum. Also, the final three volumes incorporate the new L-numbers for each letter, a comprehensive numbering system that was not possible until the complete corpus was known. The final volume 20 contains mostly letters to Leeuwenhoek and some letters from Leeuwenhoek that were missed in the previous volumes, many of them known only by reference in other letters or sources.