English Names
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
Other Names
Anton, Anthon, Anthony, Antonie, Antony, Anthonie, Antoni, Antonio, Anthoni or Antonij van Leeuwenhoek
Date, Country, and City of Birth
October 24, 1632, Delft, The Netherlands
Date, Country, and City of Death
August 26, 1723, Delft, The Netherlands
History of Life
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek did not invent the microscope, but his work was crucial to open the way to make microscopy a cornerstone for the advancement of biology (Fig. 1). He was born in Delft, Holland, in 1632. This was the time of Newton, Leibniz, Hooke, Malpighi, Valsalva, and his fellow countrymen Spinoza, Huygens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, among others. Europe was facing the 30 Years War, one of the most devastating conflicts in its history. However, at the same time, the Netherlands was flourishing. Anywhere else in Europe, roughly 95% of the population was involved in agriculture. But, in the Netherlands, townspeople became more numerous than rural folk. Farmers were...
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References and Further Reading
Bulloch, W. (1938). The history of bacteriology. New York: Dover.
Ford, B. J. (2010). The discovery by Brian J Ford of Leeuwenhoek’s original specimens, from the dawn of microscopy in the 16th century. Available from: http://www.brianjford.com/wavintr.htm. Retrieved 13 Jun 2010.
Gest, H. (2004). The discovery of microorganisms by Robert Hooke and Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, fellows of the Royal Society. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 58(2), 187–201.
Harris, H. (1999). The birth of the cell (1st ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Parker, V. (1965). Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 53, 442–447.
Porter, R. (1997). The greatest benefit to mankind: A medical history of humanity (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
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da Silva, V.D. (2017). Van Leeuwenhoek, Antonie (1632–1723). In: van den Tweel, J.G. (eds) Pioneers in Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41995-4_562
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41995-4_562
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