Case studies

What about Leeuwenhoek's written Dutch?

At the one extreme: the slovenly word avalanches of an uneducated amateur written in a crude Dutch full of errors and syntactical tangles.

At the other extreme: the precise observations of a brilliant naturalist written in the vernacular of its day as it was practiced by learned people everywhere.

Where between those extremes did Leeuwenhoek move during his career?

The case studies in this section analyze ten samples of Leeuwenhoek's writing by closely examining the letters at the level of the words and then the sentences.

Words

  • spelling
  • capitalization
  • diction (word choice)

Sentences

  • style
  • punctuation
  • syntax (sentence structure)

The case studies then analyze the transcriptions in Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters and the translations in Philosophical Transactions, Hoole's Selected Works, and Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters.

Samples from the letters below can help quantify our understanding of Leeuwenhoek's written Dutch. All but one of the letters from which the samples came was published in Philosophical Transactions. Four were excerpted by Hoole. The ten span all six decades of Leeuwenhoek's letter-writing career. Six of them were published in Dutch and Latin by Leeuwenhoek. The ten include most of the known Philosophical Transactions translators as well as all of the Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters translators.

No date AB addressed to Philosophical Transactions translator Hoole Alle de Brieven transcriber tanslator
2 1673年08月15日 2 Henry Oldenburg vol 9 no 102 Oldenburg vol 1 p 39 Mendels Swaen
18 1676年10月09日 26 Henry Oldenburg vol 12 no 133 Oldenburg vol 2 p 61 Mendels Swaen
26 1678年09月27日 40 Nehemiah Grew Oldenburg vol 2 p 381 Mendels Querido
42 1684年07月25日 81 Royal Society vol 15 no 168 Aston? vol II p 97-106, 133-134, 137-138 vol 4 p 253 Damsteegt Bunnemeijer
43 1685年01月05日 82 Royal Society vol 15 no 170 Aston? vol I p 126-128 vol 5 p 3 Damsteegt Hollander
71 1692年03月07日 119 Royal Society vol 18 no 213 Lodewijk? vol I p 24-34 vol 8 p 273 Damsteegt van Loo
128 1700年07月09日 214 Hans Sloane vol 22 no 263 Miller vol II p 235-241 vol 13 p 141 Damsteegt Dikshoorn
1703年02月05日 240 Royal Society vol 23 no 286 Chamberlayne vol 14 p 181 Damsteegt Dikshoorn
VII 1713年06月28日 302 Royal Society vol 28 no 337 Chamberlayne vol 17 p 121 Damsteegt Kegel-Brinkgreve
XLVII 1720年01月09日 347 Royal Society vol 31 no 367 Sprengell vol 19 p unk Damsteegt Kegel-Brinkgreve, Anderson

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from each, about 1,000 words in the middle with figures

- Dutch

- Philosophical Transactions English

- Hoole

- Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters English

No date AB words in ms Philosophical Transactions Hoole A de Brieven
2 1673年08月15日 2
18 1676年10月09日 26
26 1678年09月27日 40
42 1684年07月25日 81
43 1685年01月05日 82
71 1692年03月07日 119
128 1700年07月09日 214
1703年02月05日 240
VII 1713年06月28日 302
XLVII 1720年01月09日 347

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Count number of words

number of sentences (either period or end of paragraph)

number of paragraphs

readability of the English?

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