Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters.
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.'
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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.