Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1719 - 1769)

Martin Frobenius Ledermüller

Martin Frobenius Ledermüller was a German lawyer and amateur naturalist, popularizer of natural sciences.

Ledermüller received a law degree and worked in bureaucratic and legal positions, and it was only at an advanced age that he was able to pursue his favorite occupation - science, to which he would devote himself fully in future studies. The results of his work are the first most beautifully illustrated books of the eighteenth century devoted to microscopes and research with them.

Ledermüller's famous work Mikroskopische Gemüths- und Augenergötzungen was published in 1759 in French and Dutch and has been reprinted several times. The 158 beautifully illustrated pages show all sorts of natural objects, including shells, salts, plants and flowers, insects, human blood and urine viewed through a microscope. Several microscopes and their component parts are also illustrated.