How to See Through Swammerdam’s Microscope

JENS LOESCHER Museum fur Naturkunde Berlin ­ ¨ Leibniz-Institut fur Evolutions- und Biodiversitatsforschung ¨ ¨ Practice--and I mean in general doing, not looking--creates the ability to distinguish between visible artifacts of the preparation or the instrument, and the real structure that is seen with the microscope. This practical ability breeds conviction --Ian Hacking 1985, 137 Shapin describes how Leeuwenhoek borrows the prestige of notables to endorse his observations; but the more elementary fact is that the uncredentialed, socially difficult Leeuwenhoek achieved authority because of what he saw. --Catherine Wilson 1995, 171 1. Introduction In this article I deal with the material practices of the leading microscopist of the seventeenth century, Jan Swammerdam, by drawing from Ian Hacking's notion of experimental cognition. Corresponding to this theoretical background I make use of a hint Loraine Daston gave as to material traces of cognitive practices due to reading and writing.1 That is why, methodically, I focus on manuscripts in order to track the function of material practices. The manuscript corpus will be the Nachlass of Jan Swammerdam, that is, among others, some papers which constitute the Biblia Naturae as well the correspondence of Swammerdam with his friend Thevenot. The Nachlass was purchased by the Niedersachsische Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Gottin¨ ¨ ¨ Monatshefte, Vol. 108, No. 1, 2016 0026-9271/2016/0001/1 © 2016 by The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Jens Loescher gen on the 27th of September 1784 and is still archived there,2 whereas the manuscript of the Biblia Naturae which was edited by Hermann Boerhaave is kept at the University Library Leiden. In section two of this article, I will give a short overview of the manuscript corpus in Gottingen and outline the biographical background of certain ¨ traits of Swammerdam's oeuvre. In section three, I will...