The Letters
Period 2 - 1678-1682

editor: Nehemiah Grew

The tables reveal three gaps in van Leeuwenhoek's publishing history with the Royal Society. The two later gaps, period 4 and period 6 associated with Halley as editor, are marked by the cells shaded red. However, the first gap occurred early in van Leeuwenhoek's career, during period 2 in the years after Oldenburg's death.

In London

After the death of Oldenburg in September 1677, Philosophical Transactions entered a period of turmoil. For 138 (some sources say 136) numbers over 12 volumes, Oldenburg had been the only editor. He relied for manuscripts on his extensive personal international network, he paid for the printing out of his own pocket, and much of the distribution went back out to that personal network, including van Leeuwenhoek.

In November 1677, Robert Hooke and Nehemiah Grew were elected the Society's two secretaries to replace Oldenburg and Thomas Henshaw. No one involved with the Society had the contacts or funds to continue the Philosophical Transactions.

According to Birch's records of the Society's discussions and Hooke's notes, in January 1678, Hooke argued not to continue the journal, and Grew argued otherwise. The Society voted to publish articles from Oldenburg's backlog, so Grew published number 139 in February 1678.

Later that year, as shown in the # pubs column on the table on the left, Grew published in number 140, as two articles, excerpts about teeth, bones, and hair from one van Leeuwenhoek letter, that of May 31, 1678.

The following year, 1679, finishing volume 12, Grew published in number 142, as one article, excerpts about human sperm from three van Leeuwenhoek letters: November 1677, March 1678, and (another excerpt from) May 31, 1678. It was translated into Latin because it discussed human reproduction.

The most important event in this period was van Leeuwenhoek's election as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1680. After Hooke's success the previous fall replication van Leeuwenhoek's claims, there was no opposition to his election. According to Birch's History, the Society went to the effort of sending van Leeuwenhoek an official declaration and seal.

Van Leeuwenhoek was so proud of being a fellow that the declaration and seal are on the table in front of him in the Verkolje portrait (right).

The Letters

From 1678 through the end of 1683, according to Cole, van Leeuwenhoek wrote 23 letters that were eventually published. In addition to the March and May 1678 letters published by Grew in volume 12, three others were eventually published in Philosophical Transactions:

the letter of January 12, 1680, addressed to Hooke, about wood vessels, was published by editor Robert Plot in volume 13, 1683.

the letters of April 5, 1680, addressed to Hooke and the letter of May 13, 1680, addressed to the other secretary, Thomas Gale, about rat semen, mussels, and oysters, were published by editor Richard Waller thirteen years later in volume 17, 1693.

Of the remaining 18, Hooke published six (parts of four of which were selected by Hoole), one of the two in Microscopium (the other dated from October 1677, in period 1) and five in Philosophical Collections. One, the letter of October 5, 1677, announced van Leeuwenhoek's observations of spermatozoa and correct description of their function.

That left 12 letters. One, as discussed below, was published by van Leeuwenhoek. The other 11 remained unpublished until the 20th century.

Most of the 23 letters were written to Hooke or Grew. Several were written to Constantine Huygens and to Thomas Gale after he replaced Grew as secretary. Two others went to Lambert Van Velthuysen, a medical doctor from Utrecht and also one of Spinoza's critics and correspondents.

In Delft

Now look at these years from van Leeuwenhoek's point of view. He did not know that publication would resume or that he had a forty-five year research and publishing career ahead of him.

What he knew was that his observations caused a stir in London. As recounted on the "No Longer Any Doubt" page, he had passed the Royal Society's peer review of the validity and reliability of his observations. He had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. And then the journal seems to cease publishing.

Would the folks in London get re-organized? Should van Leeuwenhoek seek another outlet for his letters? The only other possibility after the on-again off-again Robert Hooke was the French Journal des Scavans.

He decided to publish them himself.

Early in this period, 1678, he wrote that he was "not inclined to edit a book." Yet by the beginning of the next period, 1684, he began a steady schedule of publication of his letters.

He published the letters as is, generally in chronological order, without introduction or commentary or even editing. Apparently, he still wasn't inclined to "edit a book", and this historical-archive approach was his way of responding to the situation in London.