Hans Sloane

Antony's:

visitor and editor

Birth or Baptism date:

April 16, 1660

Death or Burial date:

January 11, 1753

As editor of Philosophical Transactions, volumes 19 to 28 from 1695 to 1713, Sloane published 69 of Leeuwenhoek's letters, more than half of his whole contribution to Philosophical Transactions. This was the most prolific period of Leeuwenhoek's scientific career. The portrait on the right was painted by Godfrey Kneller in 1716, when Sloane was 56 years old.

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What happened?

Date	Event
December 19, 1685	Francis Aston and Tancred Robinson abruptly resigned as the secretaries of the Royal Society, just a week after they had been reelected
February 6, 1686	The Royal Society elected Edmond Halley as clerk
November 30, 1693	Hans Sloane was elected Secretary of the Royal Society and editor of Philosophical Transactions, publishing 68 articles by Leeuwenhoek over the next twenty years
February 17, 1696	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-284 of 17 February 1696 on behalf of the Royal Society to encourage Leeuwenhoek
December 18, 1696	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-311 of 1696-12-18, as instructed by the Royal Society
March 4, 1699	Listed as a correspondent of Claude Burlet by the Académie des Sciences of Paris
January 1, 1700	Visited (possibly) by Hans Sloane, his editor at Philosophical Transactions
June 2, 1700	Royal Society discussed Letter L-364 and wanted Leeuwenhoek to try to find worms in other animals
June 8, 1700	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-369 to Leeuwenhoek about translation problems and parasitic worms
July 15, 1700	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-374 to Leeuwenhoek about the three living larvae that he was sending
July 19, 1700	Received Letter L-374 from Hans Sloane with larvae to examine
August 14, 1700	John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about whether his Dutch was good enough to translate Leeuwenhoek's letters
November 9, 1700	John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about difficulties translating Leeuwenhoek's letters, full of "frequent tautologies, incoherent expressions, ungrammatical & unsyntaxical sentences without number"
November 29, 1700	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-379 of 1700-11-29 to Leeuwenhoek about the reception of his recent letters at the Royal Society
April 24, 1701	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-387 of 1701-04-24 to Leeuwenhoek to introduce him to his new translator, John Chamberlayne
June 6, 1701	John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about difficulties translating Leeuwenhoek's Dutch, "so abstruse that even his own countrymen cannot explain him"
September 27, 1701	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-394 to Leeuwenhoek personally thanking him for the bequest of 26 magnifying glasses
November 18, 1701	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-396 to Leeuwenhoek to express the thanks of the Royal Society for the bequest of 26 magnifying glasses and as a cover letter for Letter L-395 from John Somers
April 1, 1702	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-402 of sometime before April 1702 to introduce James Vernon when he visited Leeuwenhoek
November 1, 1703	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-411 sometime before November 1703 as a cover letter for the book on Peruvian silver mines and some numbers of Philosophical Transactions
March 15, 1704	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-421 of sometime between March and July 1704 about sending a packet of Philosophical Transactions and encouraging further research
December 2, 1704	John Chamberlayne wrote Letter L-430 of 2 December 1704 about a dinner with an archbishop and bishop, who gave him an odd ash from a haystack fire that Sloane had enclosed with Letter L-429
December 2, 1704	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-429 of 1704-12-02 to Leeuwenhoek as a cover letter for Letter L-430 and enclosing a piece of ash from a haystack fire
December 6, 1704	John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane that even native Dutch speakers have trouble helping him translate Leeuwenhoek's letters
February 13, 1705	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-432 of 13 February 1705 about recent letters and the Royal Society's good wishes
November 10, 1705	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-440 of 10 November 1705 about recent letters
May 4, 1707	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-451 to Leeuwenhoek about not having received letters from him and to introduce visitor Gilbert Burnet
June 3, 1707	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-453 on behalf of the Royal Society about recent letters and numbers of Philosophical Transactions
November 4, 1707	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-460 of 4 November 1707 on behalf of the Royal Society about recent letters and as cover for an enclosure of a "hairy substance"
August 1, 1708	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-466 of sometime before 28 August 1708 on behalf of the Royal Society that recent letters have been received with pleasure and read to the attentive members
October 15, 1708	John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about difficulties translating Leeuwenhoek's "ungrammatical language"
August 22, 1709	Dr. Archibald Adams wrote a letter to Hans Sloane about the making of microscopes after he had visited Leeuwenhoek
December 1, 1709	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-473 to introduce a visitor, Alexander Stuart, as a curious world traveler.
January 2, 1710	Visited by Alexander Stuart and two Scots gentlemen
January 4, 1710	Alexander Stuart wrote to Hans Sloane about his visit to Leeuwenhoek's house
October 24, 1713	Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-500 to Leeuwenhoek about responses to his recent letters

Learn more

Related sources:

Year	Author	Title
1665	various	Philosophical Transactions
1686 - 1711	Sloane, H. (ed.)	Secretarial minute books of Royal Society meetings
1714	Leeuwenhoek, A. van	An Extract of a Letter from Mr. Anthony Van Leeuwenhoeck, F. R. S. Dated October the 12th. 1713. Concerning the Fibres of the Muscles, &c.

Learn more about ...
Hooke: "A single votary, Mr. Leeuwenhoek"
Period 5 - 1702-1712
Specimens: Sperm
Who wrote letters to Leeuwenhoek?

Related letters:

What Leeuwenhoek wrote ...
Wrote Letter L-315 of 1697-02-19 to Hans Sloane about sending Sesde Vervolg der Brieven and wanting to receive the latest Philosophical Transactions and the works of Malpighi
Wrote Letter L-360 of 1699-09-25 to Hans Sloane to request a reaction to previously sent letters and as cover letter for Letter L-361 of the same day to the Royal Society
Wrote Letter L-364 of 1700-01-02 to Hans Sloane about liver fluke, gnat larvae, circulation of blood in a frog, and little animals in its feces
Wrote Letter L-370 of 1700-06-14 to answer Hans Sloane's Letter L-369 that he has examined the sperm of many animals, but if there is any animal that the Royal Society would like him to investigate, he will do so.
Wrote Letter L-372 of 1700-07-09 to Hans Sloane about red blood cells in flounder and salmon, how their oval form changes shape to pass through capillaries, and the sperm of a young cock
Wrote Letter L-375 of 1700-07-27 to Hans Sloane about experiments with the larvae of cheese flies received from Sloane a week earlier and the treatment of his wife's toothache with vitriol
Wrote Letter L-377 of 1700-09-07 to Hans Sloane to follow up on Letter L-375 to Sloane about fly larvae in cheese
Wrote Letter L-378 of 1700-10-26 to Hans Sloane about black flies on fruit trees, aphids, comparing the parthenogenetic procreation of aphids with sperm, and the development of the pupae of moths
Wrote Letter L-380 of 1700-12-25 to Hans Sloane about the sperm of a ram and his objections to Nicolaas Hartsoeker's claim to have discovered sperm first in 1678 when Leeuwenhoek had written to the Royal Society about sperm in 1677
Wrote Letter L-382 of 1701-01-28 to Hans Sloane about gall on a willow and more about larvae from cheese
Wrote Letter L-391 of 1701-06-21 to Hans Sloane about the claimed qualtity of other people's magnifying glasses, injuries to the cornea, and the impossibility of observing the smallest particles of matter
Wrote Letter L-397 of 1701-12-06 to Hans Sloane as a cover letter for Letter L-398 to John Somers
Wrote Letter L-412 of 1703-11-03 to Hans Sloane to thank him for sending recent numbers of Philosophical Transactions and the book on Peruvian silver mines, also as a cover letter for Letter L-413
Wrote Letter L-470 of 1709-09-10 to Hans Sloane, a cover letter for the following Letter L-471 to John Chamberlayne.
Wrote Letter L-489 of 1712-11-08 to Anthonie Heinsius about the muscle fibres of a whale
Wrote Letter L-499 of 1713-10-12 to Hans Sloane as a cover letter for a copy of Letter L-489 on muscle fibres of a whale and a request for new numbers of Philosophical Transactions and a list of fellows of the Society to be sent to relatives in Rotterdam

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Life in Holland

in the 1600's

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in the 1600's

Hans Sloane

Life in Holland

in the 1600's