Figures
Figures in Leeuwenhoek's letters
The table shows, period by period, the distribution of the 1220 figures and the 163 letters that they illustrated. While these periods were not Leeuwenhoek's, they are based on his self-publications, Works I - IV.
On Lens on Leeuwenhoek, these figures can be accessed in three ways:
- Letter by letter. See Periods 1 - 7 on the right sidebar Letters menu.
- Through the publications in which they appeared, both Leeuwenhoek's Dutch and Latin volumes and the excerpts published by others, chiefly the Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions. See The Works on the right sidebar menu.
- Through the section Leeuwenhoek's Cabinet of Wonders, where they will be organized by the type and part of each specimen as well as the system, function, or process that Leeuwenhoek was studying. See the Scientific career section.
| Period | # yrs |
Letters AB / CL # |
Letters w/ observations AvL / Cole # |
# of letters w/ figures |
# figures | figs/yr | # figures sent to Royal Society |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 1, 1673 - February 28, 1679 |
6 | 1 - 42 | 1 - 27 | *** 16 of 28 | 65 | 11 | |
| 2 (Works I) | March 1, 1679 - December 31, 1686 |
8 | 43 - 96 | 28 - 52 | 24 of 25 | 219 | 27 | |
| 3 (Works II) | January 1, 1687 - April 30, 1694 |
7 | 97 - 137 | 53 - 83 | 28 of 31 | 315 | 45 | |
| 4 (Works III) | May 1, 1694 - April 24, 1702 |
8 | 138 - 236 | 84 - 146 | 35 of 63 | 194 | 24 | |
| 5 | April 25, 1702 - June 30, 1712 |
10 | 237 - 294 | [147] - [190] | 29 of 44 | 244 | 24 | |
| 6 (Works IV) | July 1, 1712 - December 31, 1717 |
6 | 295 - 346 | I - XLVI | 22 of 46 | 144 | 23 | |
| 7 | January 1, 1718 - December 31, 1723 |
6 | 347 - 364 | [XLVII] - [LXI] | 9 of 15 | 46 | 8 | |
| 51 | * 364 |
** 251 | 163 of 252 |
1227 |
24 |
* Leeuwenhoek wrote his letters over a period of 50 years and 4 months between 1673 and 1723. Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters numbered them consecutively, 1 to 364. Only around two-thirds of them contained scientific observations.
** Leeuwenhoek numbered 1 to 146 and I to LVI the letters that contained scientific observations for a total of 192 letters. He published 165 of them himself, excluding the first 27 and the 59 published between 1702 and 1712 and after 1718, all published in Philosophical Transactions. By adding those 59 letters, Cole (1937) expanded Leeuwenhoek's list with numbers 147 to 190 and XLVII to LXI for a total of 251 letters with scientific observations. (Cole's numbers are in square brackets on the table above. Cole also filled in with a, b, c and once even d for letters not numbered by Leeuwenhoek but written between letters he did number.)
*** In his letter of December 26, 1678, to Constantijn Huygens, Leeuwenhoek drew 3 figures of the scales on butterfly wings in response to drawings sent to him by Constantijn's son Christiaan. This letter was not numbered by Leeuwenhoek; it is #26a in Cole and #41 in Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters.
Figures in pre-1800 publications
| # | details | |
|---|---|---|
| all figures in all letters | 1,227 | different figures in 163 letters |
| Originals at Royal Society | 279 | drawings in 43 of the first 294 of the 364 letters |
| AvL's first 27 letters | 65 | figures in 16 of 27 letters |
| AvL's self-published letters (Works I - IV) | 872 | figures in 109 of 165 self-published letters in Dutch and Latin |
| Philosophical Transactions | 604 | figures in 86 of 117 Philosophical Transactions articles |
| AvL's self-pub and Philosophical Transactions | 306 | figures in 39 letters/articles in 165 self-published letters and in Philosophical Transactions |
| Philosophical Transactions and not in AvL self-pub | ||
| French, German, other Latin | 136 | figures in 22 of 83 letters |
| other Dutch and English | 22 | figures in 5 of 24 letters |
| English (Hoole) | 378 | figures in 57 of 79 letters with 635 figures; the 57 have only 545 figures because Hoole omitted 90 of them |
Total: 2,28? possible variants of the 1,227 figures
Total: 2,00? printed figures and variants
(check these totals)
Figures in self-published letters
Summary: 865 figures in 108 of 165 letters
| # ltrs | # ltrs w/ figs |
figs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works I (Period 2) | |||
| Brieven | 25 | 24 | 219 |
| Works II (Period 3) | |||
| Vervolg | 8 | 8 | 76 |
| Tweede | 7 | 7 | 99 |
| Derde | 8 | 7 | 83 |
| Vierde | 8 | 6 | 57 |
| 31 | 28 | 315 | |
| Works III (Period 4) | |||
| Vijfde | 13 | 7 | 48 |
| Sesde | 11 | 5 | 32 |
| Sevende | 39 | 23 | 114 |
| 63 | 35 | 194 | |
| Works IV (Period 6) | |||
| Send-Brieven | 46 | 22 | 144 |
| Totals | 165 | 109 | 872 |