- First name
- Jan
- Last name
- Swammerdam
- Date of Birth
- 1637
- Date of Death
- 1680
- Born in
- Amsterdam
- Died in
- Amsterdam
Jan Swammerdam studied medicine in Leiden (1661–3); spent time in Paris where he frequented the salon of the patron Melchisedec Thévenot. He took out his doctoral degree (1667) in Medicine in Leiden, and got praised for his research into the internal anatomy of insects (Historia insectorum generalis, ofte, algemeene verhandeling van de bloedeloose dierkens, 1669) with Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. He was considered a first rank pioneer in Dutch microscopy (Bybel der natuure …, Leiden, 1727–8). See: DSB, vol. 13, pp. 168–75; Schierbeek, 1976; DDP, vol. 2, pp. 960–3; Jorink, 2003; Jorink, 2016.
Contacts between Spinoza and Swammerdam are not documented. Presumably, they knew of each other’s existence and reputation. Swammerdam studied in Leiden when Spinoza came to Leiden to attend anatomical vivisections performed by Niels Stensen, who established a long-life friendship with Swammerdam (The Letters of Jan Swammerdam, 1975, pp. 5–6).