HIS NAME AND LANGUAGE 305 
The Swedish traveller Bjérnstahl, who visited Leeuwen- 
hoek’s tomb in 1774, says that the name should be pronounced 
“ Tewenhuk” (more germanico). Jam not prepared to dispute 
this: it is perhaps as near the truth as my own foregoing 
attempt to imitate the sound in English. But when the same 
writer adds! that the name ‘‘ Leeuwenhoek” means “ einen 
Greif” [i.e., a griffin], I must part company with him. This 
strange interpretation appears, indeed, to rest upon nothing 
but an erroneous inference from the mutilated heraldic device 
on the tombstone covering Antony and his daughter Maria— 
which still shows a flying eagle bearing a scutcheon, on which 
the Leeuwenhoek coat-of-arms was formerly emblazoned.” 
It will be evident, therefore, that there is now no real 
mystery enshrouding the name “ Leeuwenhoek”. We know 
well enough how to spell it, how to speak it, what it means, 
and where it came from. Any doubts which may still exist 
about it are, apparently, due to mistakes or misunderstandings 
manufactured by credulous or incompetent commentators. 
No profound research is needed to arrive at such a conclusion : 
it must be obvious to everybody—no matter what his nation- 
ality—who devotes more than passing attention to the matter. 
(ii) LEEUWENHOEK’S LANGUAGE 
Leeuwenhoek’s only language was Dutch—not the modern 
literary language of the Netherlands, nor Old Dutch (properly 
so called), but the ‘‘ Nether-Dutch ” commonly spoken in the 
Province of South Holland in the XVIJ Century. It is a 
language far removed from that of “Reynard the Fox” 
(Vanden Vos Reinaerde, written circa A.D. 1250), and is not 
even so archaic as the Dutch Bible (which dates from 1637, 
though—like the English—it contains much earlier elements). 
Consequently, for any educated Hollander of the present day 
it is no harder to understand than colloquial English of the 
same period is nowadays to an educated Englishman. 
IT have heard it said that Leeuwenhoek’s language is 
more like Cape Dutch—the “ Taal” or “ Afrikaans” now 
1 Vide Bjornstahl (1780-84) ; Vol. V, p. 364 of German translation (1782). 
? The coat-of-arms proper (now gone) consisted of a don rampant azure, 
tongued and clawed gules, in a field or. See Haaxman (1875), p. 125, and 
Morre (1912), p. 15.—The grave was despoiled during the French occupation 
of Delft. 
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