Chapter 6 - Legacy

Summary

THE SPREAD OF MARGGRAFE’S PAPER LEGACY

When JOHAN MAURITS finally left Dutch Brazil in May 1644, many of his loyal followers went with him in this large fleet home. As the prime commander, JOHAN MAURITS travelled on the flagship, the Amsterdam, which carried in its hold the most valuable cargo, such as various paintings, Brazilian curiosities and the beautifully carved ivory furniture from his personal cabinet in Vrijburg (the remnants of which are currently preserved in Schloss Oranienburg in Berlin, fig. 63). Less eye-catching in the hold of the Amsterdam was ‘a suitcase with astronomical instruments’, along with three trunks of an unidentifiable person (his name was accidentally ripped off the cargo list). So, evidently the astronomical observatory on the island of Antonio Vaz was demolished after the news of MARGGRAFE’s death and his belongings went to the Netherlands together with the count. After arrival, MARGGRAFE’s trunks with his costly papers were delivered in Leiden to the university. From there their contents were distributed to the house of WIC-bewindhebber JOHANNES DE LAET, and to the houses of MARGGRAFE’s former professors JACOB GOLIUS and ADOLPHUS VORSTIUS.

The sequel is known. Count JOHAN MAURITS gave both DE LAET and GOLIUS the explicit instruction to publish the relevant content of the papers at his expense. DE LAET indeed edited the material he received into the impressive illustrated folio book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, published in 1648 in a joint effort of the Leiden publisher Franciscus Hackius and the Amsterdam publisher LODEWIJK III ELZEVIER. De Laet also took care that the cartographical information was handed over to the Amsterdam publisher JOHANNES BLAEU, who in 1647 produced the earlier-mentioned set of four engraved maps for BARLAEUS’s Rerum per octennium in Brasilia and combined these later into the large wall map. But, as reported in the introduction, GOLIUS’s astronomical publication was never realized. At the time, only MARGGRAFE’s observation of the 1640 solar eclipse was published in BARLAEUS’s Rerum.

THE GENESIS OF THE HISTORIA NATURALIS BRASILIAE

What happened during the process of transforming MARGGRAFE’s field notes into the codified text of the ‘Historiae Rerum Naturalium Brasiliae’, the second and largest part of the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae? Which steps were followed to compose this large folio volume?