"William Claspy" wrote in message
...
On 2/20/04 2:49 PM, in article
,
"snakefiddler" wrote:

In what language was it first published?

Dutch, 1675.

We've got an 18th century German version of the Biblia Naturae
(Bibel der
Natur), Wolfgang, but I can't send it to you. :-)

Well, I bet you could if you really wanted to.

You're welcome to stop on
your way to Penns and have a look though.

I may just do that. It's possible that I'll be arriving via Asadi's
land yacht. If it turns out that way the logistics might work out.

Here's a neat quote from the Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(article
author Mary P. Winsor): "Some biographers describe Swammerdam as a
mystic,
for he was a follower of a woman who purportedly had spoken with
God, and he
saw in the short flight of the mayfly an image of man's own brief
existence."

Interesting. I ran across a reference to "A Figure of Man's Miserable
Life" in Martin Kemp's "Visualizations: The Nature Book of Art and
Science" (that's "Nature", as in the British scientific journal) a few
months ago. At the time I didn't recall that I'd ever heard of
Swammerdam before. Suddenly, upon reading your excerpt above, I
realize that I had!

Time to do a bit of research.

Wolfgang