Johannes Hoogvliet wrote Letter L-590 to James Jurin accompanying his Latin translation of Leeuwenhoek's last two letters

Date: 
September 4, 1723
L-number: 
L-590
Collected Letters volume: 
19

On his death bed, Leeuwenhoek asked Dr Jan Hoogvliet to translate a couple of letters into Latin and send them to the Royal Society. A week later, Hoogvliet sent them with the following covering note from himself to the James Jurin, secretary of the Royal Society.

The Latin title in Philosophical Transactions translates to “Letter of the most learned man Johannes Hoogvliet to Jacob Jurin, M. D. R. S. Secr. On the two posthumous epistles of the most famous man Antony van Leeuwenhoek”. The letter was printed directly before the two letters from Leeuwenhoek enclosed with it, Letter L-587 and Letter L-588, both dated August 1723.

Document: 

MS. Roy. Soc, No. 1413 ; H. 3. 112. Joannes Hoogvlietius to J. Jurin, Sec. R.S., 4 September 1723. Printed in Phil. Trans. (1724), vol. 32, p. 435.

Our venerable old Leeuwenhoek, being already in the throes of death, though none the less mindful of his art, ordered me to be called to him ; and raising his eyes, now heavy with death,' kept asking me in half-broken words if I would translate these two letters out of our native tongue into Latin, and send them, most distinguished Sir, to you. In obedience, therefore, to these commands of so great a man, with whom I had been for some years on terms of most intimate friendship I can do no less than send you, most learned Sir, this final gift of my dying a.nd most dear friend : hoping that these his last efforts will prove acceptable to you.

 

I pray that the Supreme Judge of all things may long bless Your Excellency, and the Eoyal Society : Farewell.

Sources
Year Author Title
1723 Hoogvliet, J. II. Epistola viri doctissimi Johannis Hoogvlietii ad Jacobum Jurin, M. D. R. S. Secr. De epistolis duabus posthumis viri celeberrimi Antonij a Leeuwenhoek, R.S.S.
2024 Leeuwenhoek, A. van Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters. Volume 19