Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
![Portrait by [[Jan Verkolje]], after 1680](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Anthonie_van_Leeuwenhoek_%281632-1723%29._Natuurkundige_te_Delft_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-957.jpeg)
Raised in Delft, Dutch Republic, Van Leeuwenhoek worked as a draper in his youth and founded his own shop in 1654. He became well-recognized in municipal politics and developed an interest in lensmaking. In the 1670s, he started to explore microbial life with his microscope.
Using single-lensed microscopes of his own design and make, Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and to experiment with microbes, which he originally referred to as , or . (translated into English as ''animalcules'', from )|group="note"}} He was the first to relatively determine their size. Most of the "animalcules" are now referred to as unicellular organisms, although he observed multicellular organisms in pond water. He was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, red blood cells, crystals in gouty tophi, and among the first to see blood flow in capillaries. Although Van Leeuwenhoek did not write any books, he described his discoveries in chaotic letters to the Royal Society, which published many of his letters in their ''Philosophical Transactions''. Provided by Wikipedia
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Published: 1722
Superior document: Opera Omnia, Seu Arcana Naturae Ope Exactissimorum Microscoporum Detecta, experimentis variis comprobata, Epistolis, Ad varios illustris Viros, Ut Et Ad integram, ... datis, Comprehensa, & Quatour Tomis distincta [3]