Bought a garden outside the walls of the city
Bought a garden outside the walls of the city, Geldeloose Pad to the east of the Buitenwatersloot. He added to it in 1670 and sold it on December 29, 1693. He referred to it in Letter 30 of April 5, 1680 to Robert Hooke as “my garden outside the town”.
Further evidence of Leeuwenhoek's ownership came on March 20, 1693. Johan van Elst bought a garden with a little garden house on the Geldeloose Pad outside of the Waterslootsepoort. On the east lay property that Elst already owned, to the west the garden owned by Leeuwenhoek, and to the north and south public lanes that gave access to the gardens.
Note:
The Delftsche Courant in May 1943 published an excerpt involving Leeuwenhoek from a 1934 German novel about Leibniz by Egmont Colerus. A year later, Petra Beydals published a review that took the author to task for painting an unflattering portrait of Leeuwenhoek as an uneducated, classless lout. In her article, Beydals noted erroneously that Leeuwenhoek bought this garden in 1666.
Collected Letters 3, p 213 n
No surviving transactions records for Leeuwenhoek's purchase.
Van Elst mention of Leeuwenhoek:
Notary Adriaen van Leeuwenhoeck, Delft ONA inv 2428 1693-03-20 in an act documenting a property sale on the Buitenwatersloot notes that Leeuwenhoek owned the property to the west:
In manieren ende op conditien hier naar volgende bekende de hr. Francois van Bleiswijck Veertigh Raad ende oud Schepen der stadt Delft bij desen verkogt te hebben (etc.) gelijck daer en tegen den voorn. Sr. Johan van Elst bekende wederom verkogt te hebben ende den voorn. hr. mr. Francois van Bleiswijck van deselver gekogt te hebben een thuijn ende erve met een thuijnhuijs daerin staende ende gelegen in het Geldeloose Pad buijten de Waterslootse poort onder de Jurisdictie deser stadt, belend ten oosten den voors. hr. coper selffs, ten westen Anthonij Leeuwenhoeck ende ten noorden ende zuijden de gemeene laen (etc.).
