Wrote Letter L-277 of 1695-10-31 to Jacob Calckberner to request that he forward a package of books to Magliabechi
This letter is known only by reference in another letter.
In this letter, L. requests that the Netherlands’ counsel in Livorno, Jacob Calckberner, forward a package with two copies of Arcana Natura Detecta to Antonio Magliabechi, to whom the book is dedicated.
Letter 162 L-282 of 22 December 1695 to Antonio Magliabechi
On the same day I despatched a parcel to Rotterdam, in order that it might be transported thence by sea to Livorno. This parcel I sealed carefully and marked with the letters A.M., and I added a letter, marked in the same way and addressed to the Very Noble Consul of the Netherlands, in which I urgently requested the Very Noble Consul to deliver to you those books along with the enclosed letter.
This letter is the only known correspondence between L. and Jacob Calckberner (1643-1706; also, Giacomo), a Dutch businessman who was consul for the Dutch Republic in Livorno from 1680 until his death. He is not to be confused with Hans Jakob Kalkbrenner, born in 1624 in Aachen, Rheinland, who was the Dutch consul in Aleppo during the same years.
By “the same day”, Leeuwenhoek meant 31 October 1695, when Leeuwenhoek sent a package with the same books to Antonio Magliabechi via Baron Ricasoli. See Letter L-276 of 31 October 1695. Ricasoli took them as far as Vienna, where he sent them to Florence. In a letter two weeks later on 15 November 1695 from Duke Cosimo III’s secretary Apollonio Bassetti to Cosimo’s librarian Magliabechi, Bassetti wrote, “Signor Baron Ricasoli writes to me from the Palatinate while he was passing through in Vienna, the following postscript:
“‘P.S. A certain Leuwenehek from Delft, observer with the microscope, gave me a package of his books for Mr. Magliabechi, with the attached letter, which I ask you to have them delivered, and he tells him that I have delivered the package of books to one who owes it to Mr. Frosini on his return to Dusseldorf, so that he can send it to him at the earliest possible time.’” Source: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Magl. VIII 425, f. 44.
For this package via Livorno, Leeuwenhoek followed the instructions in Letter L-272 of 12 October 1695, in this volume, where Magliabechi wrote, “I will, by the occasion of the ship which comes from Livorno, expect some prints of the book to offer myself to the serene princes. My request is that on top of the pack of the printed copy, please write my name, and seal it yourself, so that it is safe to come, and straightforward, to the recommendation of the consul at Livorno.”
Francesco Frosini (1654-1733) was an Italian Catholic archbishop.
