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  In 1674, microbiologist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek made 'his most sensational discovery', writes historian Geertje Dekkers in her revealing, finely illustrated biography.

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  Nature

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  When it comes to the details of his scientific work, for which he was made a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, this book offers considerable detail, including numerous illustrations of what he observed with his single-lens microscopes, which were hardly larger than a human thumb . . . Dekkers offers a richly illustrated, carefully documented overview of a pioneer of the microscope and the astonishing things it enabled a dedicated observer to record and thereby make known to the world. Recommended

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  Choice

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  This book is by far the best biography of Van Leeuwenhoek to date. It is thoroughly documented, very well written (at times very funny), and [strikes] the right balance between academic discourse and the common-sense approach so cherished by Van Leeuwenhoek . . . A must-read for anyone interested in Van Leeuwenhoek and, more generally, the cultural world of the Dutch seventeenth century.

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  Eric Jorink, Professor at Leiden University and co-editor of Newton and the Netherlands

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  Van Leeuwenhoek is deservedly famous in Holland for his astonishing microscopic discoveries but he’s almost unknown elsewhere. This is an informative and entertaining introduction to his life and work, setting his observations of micro-organisms, blood cells and so on in the context of everyday life and the big scientific questions of early modern Europe. It restores Van Leeuwenhoek to his rightful place alongside Hooke, Newton, Leibniz and other great scientists of his time.

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  Felicity Henderson, Senior Lecturer in Archives and Material Culture at the University of Exeter and author of Robert Hooke’s Experimental Philosophy

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  We may know of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek the microscopist, but what of Van Leeuwenhoek the man? Geertje Dekkers offers a concise and captivating taste of his world as revealed by his copious letters. Come back to seventeenth-century Delft and see where microscopy was born.

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  Brian J. Ford, Hon FRMS, Hon FLS, author of The Leeuwenhoek Legacy

Introduction: Lost Wonders
One Child of Honest Parents
Two Meeting the Minuscule
Three Globules and Stalks
Four Mind-Bogglingly Multitudinous
Five Little Animals and the Most Addle-Pated Propositions among Physicians
Six Openness and Smokescreens
Seven Strange Curiosities and Senseless Details
Eight Busy Times in Het Gouden Hoofd
Nine Little Animals and Cells

References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
list of illustrations
Index

Geertje Dekkers is a historian and journalist who works for the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as well as Historisch Nieuwsblad and de Volkskrant.