Wrote Letter L-105 of 1680-05-13 to Robert Hooke to gratefully accept his election as a foreign member of the Royal Society and to acknowledge the receipt of his diploma

Date: 
May 13, 1680
Standard reference information
L-number: 
L-105
Leeuwenhoek's number: 
31b
Collected Letters number: 
59
Collected Letters volume: 
3

Text of the letter in the original Dutch and in English translation from Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters at the DBNL - De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren.

The original manuscript on one quarto page, written and signed by Leeuwenhoek, is preserved at the Royal Society (MS. 1884. Early Letters L1.55).


Leeuwenhoek wrote this letter to Robert Hooke to accept his election as a foreign member of the Royal Society and to acknowledge the receipt of his diploma.

The text of the letter in full:

I received your very welcome letter of 12 April O.S., and saw from it that the Honourable members of the Royal Society took great interest in my last observations. Also that you had nominated me in a meeting of that Society and that all the votes were to take me as a member. A few days after the receipt of this letter, a box came to hand, enclosing the sealed Diploma, which I beheld affectionately and gratefully. And as regards yourself, I am, not only now, but shall remain all the days of my life with gratitude, Sir,

He closed:

Your very obliged servant,
Antonj Leeuwenhoeck.

Note the spelling of his name, with the Dutch long i and the ck at the end.