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RefNoEL/L6/38
LevelItem
TitleLetter, from Maria van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society, dated at Delft
CreatorLeeuwenhoek; Maria van (fl 1723-1724)
Date4 October 1723
DescriptionLetter written by daughter of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.
'Antonis Dochber ' means 'Anthony's daughter'
LanguageDutch
Extent1p
FormatManuscript
Place originDelft, South Holland, (United Provinces) Netherlands
Origin coordinates52.00667, 4.35556
Digital imagesView item on Science in the Making
AccessStatusOpen
RelatedMaterialVolumes EL/L1-L4 for letters from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.
In Clifford Dobell 'Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his "Little Animals" (1932), page 98, the author describes Maria's letter 'It made no pretensions to scientific knowledge or classical scholarship, and was written not in Latin but in homely, illiterate, and even ungrammatical Dutch. It was apparently dictated - not writen by herself - for it is inscribed in a handwriting different from the somewhat shaky signature. (Maria was then 67 years of age)'
Dobell provides a translation;
'Most Excellent Sirs
Instantly upon the sad death of my beloved father Anthonij van Lewenhoek, I took care to this my loss made known to you by our reverenced and most learned pastor, Peterus Griebus; addding thereto, that after the space of six weeks would be sent to the noble and far famed Royal Society, at London, a little cabinet with magnifying glasses, made of silver wrought out of the mineral by my dear departed father his very self; which same is now sent to Your Excellencies, even as my late father made it up, with six and twenty magnifying-glasses in their little cases: truly in itself a poor present to so celebrated a Royal Society, but meant to betoken my father's deep respect for such a learned Society , whereof my most beloved and dear Father, of blessed memory, hath had the honour to have been a fellow-member. Your most humble servitress now begs Your Excellencies, please to be so good as to let me have word whether this trifling gift is come safe into the hands of the far famous College, that I may rest content I have fulfilled my Father's wish.
Wherewith, most famous Gentlemen, your most respectful Servitress and my father;s Grief-stricken Daughter now and hereafter will ever be and remains Your humble Servant, Maria van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni's daughter
Delft, the 4th October 1723 New Style'
URLDescriptionAlso available on Early Modern Letters Online
URLhttp://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/profile/work/cf5abc80-8f6a-4689-910d-311c39aad7e9
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