Oude Kerk Monument Antoni - Wandeling Antoni

Final resting place

Antoni Leeuwenhoek's daughter Maria arranged for a mausoleum. His friend and poet Huibert C. Poot wrote an epitaph, which can still be read in the Oude Kerk.

Royal Society of London
Reinier de Graaf settles in Delft as a doctor in 1666 and befriends the nine-year-old Antoni. De Graaf introduces him to the Royal Society of London and insists that Antoni send his findings (letters) to the Royal Society, the British academy of sciences. Not long after, Reinier de Graaf dies unexpectedly at the age of 32. He is buried in the Oude Kerk in Delft, with its characteristic leaning tower. The church is also popularly known as the Oude Jan or De Scheve Jan.

Fungus, bees and lice
Mainly due to the superb quality of his lenses, he managed to discover many previously unknown small structures. That first letter contained details about the structure of fungus, a bee and a louse, details no one had ever seen before. When famous microscope researchers had improved their lenses, they could also see these things. The Royal Society was so interested that they asked him to write again, and eventually appointed him a Fellow of the Society.

Van Leeuwenhoek continued to research a wide range of subjects for the rest of his life. Sometimes others, such as the Royal Society or the VOC, would come up with subjects for him to research, but often he simply researched what he found interesting. On his deathbed, he even dictated a letter to the Royal Society about the disease he suffered from, a rare ailment of the diaphragm, diaphragmatic flutter. A disease now called 'Van Leeuwenhoek disease'. Van Leeuwenhoek died on 26 August 1723 at the age of almost 91.