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June 2026 Vol. 63 No. 10

Myriad, Microscopic and Marvellous is devoted to the life and work of the pioneering Dutch microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723). Given that little is known about van Leeuwenhoek's early life, much here is written as conjecture. However, 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. This biography draws on the extensive correspondence van Leeuwenhoek carried out with his scientific colleagues throughout the world. However, Dekkers (Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Netherlands) argues that van Leeuwenhoek should not be regarded as the father of microbiology: he was interested primarily in what was unusual, but he was no biologist—simply someone devoted to anything that was “interesting to look at, but that was all.” Although he offered minute descriptions of what he observed, “he never provided a systematic clarification or a synthesis of his ideas or findings.” Nevertheless, 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.

--J. W. Dauben, CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College

Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty.