30 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS ‘“‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
draper and haberdasher, and are the earliest known examples 
of his handwriting. The shorter of these bills is here 
reproduced’ in Plate V: the longer and earlier shows similar 
items (silk, cloth, buttons, tape, ribbon, braid, etc.) sold to 
Johannis Heijnsbroeck in 1658. In view of its singular 
interest I give a complete translation of the bill exhibited 
in the Plate: 
Praise be to God! the 19th day of December 1659. In Delft. 
Mr. Pieter Heijnsbroeck debtor 
To Antony Leeuwenhoeck for the following 
— Shop-wares — 
4t ells* red kersey - - - @ 26 stivers th’ell - - - | 5.| 10.{ 8.° 
24 dozen buttons and button-loops - - - - - - - - pata i eel hese 
1 ell white bombazine @ 9 stivers - - - - -- - - Ae a es 
ogra cilicc= Case Stia ats cane eae too eee ou xia Gees 
24th ditto | 2 ells wide filoselle [?] ribbon - - - - - - - - - - - =| (ta eos 
Total, G2) L723: 
The contents hereof paid unto me 
this 15th day of June in the year 1660. 
Antony Leeuwenhoeck 
Leeuwenhoek’s wife Barbara died on 11 July 1666,* when 
they had been married twelve years: and not long afterwards 
—on 25 January 1671°—he contracted a second marriage with 
*This little document has already been printed by Morre (1919), who 
discovered it among the estate-papers relating to the Delft “court of 
chancery ” (Boedelpapieren der Delftsch Weeskamer, dossier No. 105). It 
has also been referred to by Mr Bouricius, to whose widow and Dr A. 
Schierbeek I am indebted for the photograph from which my plate has been 
made. 
*The Dutch ell at this period was approximately a modern metre, and 
therefore less than an English ell (45 inches). 
*The columns stand respectively for florins (guilders), stwivers (stivers), 
and pennings. 16 pennings—1 stuiver; and 20 stuivers = 1 florin (about 
1/8 in modern English money). 
* fide Haaxman. She was buried on July 14 in the Old Church 
(Schierbeek, 1930). 
° fide Bouricius. 
