Figures in Period 1

Leeuwenhoek published none of these letters, and thus none of the figures. Henry Oldenburg and Nehemiah Grew, the editors of Philosophical Transactions, published 46 of the figures, marked with asterisks on the table below, in 10 of the 15 letters that had figures.

In the decades after Leeuwenhoek's death, translations of his letters appeared excerpted and summarized in French, Dutch, and German. Probably because of the expense and trouble of engraving new plates, few of the figures were reproduced.

  • In 1749, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, wrote a long response to a series of Leeuwenhoek's letters about reproduction, including three of the letters from Period 1: Letter 22 of November 1677 to William Brouncker, without the one figure, and two to Nehemiah Grew. Letter 24 of March 18, 1678, 9 figures and Letter 25 of May 31, 1678 with 8 figures. Buffon included the figures showing sperm of dogs, rabbits, and cocks.
  • In 1755, all ten figures in Letter 1 and two of the eight figures in Letter 25 were published in Collection Academique.
  • In 1775, van Someren re-translated the Philosophical Transactions excerpts in Letters 3, 4, 5, and 6 back into Dutch. He published them and the six figures illustrating Letters 4 and 5 in Genees- en heelkundige proeven en aanmerkingen vervat in de Philosophical Transactions.
  • In 1779 and 1780, Nathanael Gottfried Leske published 20 figures in Abhandlungen zur Naturgeschichte, Physik und Oekonomie: all of the ten illustrating Letter 1, eight of the nine with Letter 24, and two of the eight with Letter 25.
date written AB/CL # AvL/Cole # # figs
1673-04-28 1 1 * 10
1673-08-15 2 2 * 3
       
1674-06-01 8 4 * 4
1674-07-06 9 5 * 2
1674-12-04 13 8 * 1
       
1675-01-22 15 9 1
1675-02-11 16 10 2
1675-03-26 17 11 6
       
1676-02-22 21 14 4
1676-04-21 22 15 * 4
1676-07-28 25 17 3
1676-10-09 26 18 * 4
       
1677-11-00 35 22 * 1
       
1678-03-18 38 24 * 9
1678-05-31 39 25 * 8
1678-12-26 41 26a 3
       65

Bold - original drawings preserved at Royal Society
* - figures published in Philosophical Transactions

Letters without figures:

                      AB #  AvL #             
1674-04-07      5      3    Henry Oldenburg
1674-09-07    11      6    Henry Oldenburg
1674-10-19    12      7    Henry Oldenburg
1675-08-14    18    12    Henry Oldenburg
1675-12-20    19    13    Henry Oldenburg
1676-05-29    23    16    Henry Oldenburg
1677-03-23    31    19    Henry Oldenburg
1677-05-14    32    20    Henry Oldenburg
1677-10-05    33    21    Henry Oldenburg
1678-01-14    37    23    Robert Hooke
1678-09-27    40    26    Nehemiah Grew
1679-02-21    42    27    Nehemiah Grew