Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Abstract

THE first volume of this great undertaking was published in 1939 and was reviewed in Nature of that year¹. The edition is lavishly produced, the format being an 'off'-size octavo 11½ in. x 8½ in., beautifully printed on a good heavy paper, and suitably bound. The spacing of the text is unnecessarily generous, and clearly suggests a time when economy in paper and labour could be disregarded. Although the present volume was printed before the War, it was not published until 1941, and so far only two copies have reached Britain. Assuming that the enterprise is not compelled to sacrifice the completeness of the first two volumes, the letters will require another ten volumes of five hundred pages each, and a final volume of biography, critical essays and bibliography will bring the total to thirteen. The Commission, however, has estimated for twenty volumes, which, if correct, will dangerously postpone the completion of the work, and interest in a long-drawn-out publication is apt to waver and expire before the end of the task has been reached.

Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

(The Collected Letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek) Uitgegeven, geïllustreerd en van aanteekeningen voorzien door een Commissie van Nederlandsche geleerden (Edited, illustrated and annotated by a Committee of Dutch scientists). Deel (Volume) 2. Pp. 506 + 29 plates. (Amsterdam: N. V. Swets and Zeitlinger., 1941.)