Emergence of Natural History – serie

The Flowering of Ecology presents an English translation of Maria Sibylla Merian’s 1679 ‘caterpillar’ book, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumen–Nahrung. Her processes in making the book and an analysis of its scientific content are presented in a historical context. Merian raised insects for five decades, recording the food plants, behavior and ecology of roughly 300 species. Her most influential invention was an 'ecological' composition in which the metamorphic cycles of insects (usually moths and butterflies) were arrayed around plants that served as food for the caterpillars. Kay Etheridge analyzes the 1679 caterpillar book from the viewpoint of a biologist, arguing that Merian’s study of insect interactions with plants, the first of its kind, was a formative contribution to natural history.Read Kay Etheridge’s blogpost on “Art Herstory”.See inside the book.

Francis Willughby together with John Ray revolutionized the study of natural history. They were motivated by the new philosophy of the mid 1600s and transformed natural history in to a rigorous area of study. Because Ray lived longer and more of his writings have survived, his reputation subsequently eclipsed that of Willughby. Now, with access to previously unexplored archives and new discoveries we are able to provide a comprehensive evaluation of Francis Willughby’s life and works. What emerges is a polymath, a true virtuoso, who made original and imaginative contributions to mathematics, chemistry, linguistics as well as natural history. We use Willughby’s short life as a lens through which to view the entire process of seventeenth-century scientific endeavor. Contributors are Tim Birkhead, Isabelle Charmantier, David Cram, Meghan Doherty, Mark Greengrass, Daisy Hildyard, Dorothy Johnston, Sachiko Kusukawa, Brian Ogilvie, William Poole, Chris Preston, Anna Marie Roos, Richard Serjeantson, Paul J. Smith and Benjamin Wardhaugh.

The book analyses from a comparative perspective the exploration of territories, the histories of their inhabitants, and local natural environments during the long eighteenth century. The eleven chapters look at European science at home and abroad as well as at global scientific practices and the involvement of a great variety of local actors in the processes of mapping and recording. Dealing with landlocked territories with no colonies (like Switzerland) and places embedded in colonial networks, the book reveals multifarious entanglements connecting these territories.Contributors are: Sarah Baumgartner, Simona Boscani Leoni, Stefanie Gänger, Meike Knittel, Francesco Luzzini, Jon Mathieu, Barbara Orland, Irina Podgorny, Chetan Singh, and Martin Stuber.

Coenraad Jacob Temminck and the Emergence of Systematics (1800–1850) is the first study to examine in detail the life and work of Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858), the Dutch naturalist who was the first director of ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) in Leiden, The Netherlands. This study situates Temminck’s activities in the context of European natural history during the early to the mid-nineteenth century. Three issues which defined the era are discussed in more detail: the growing European colonial territories, the rise of scientific meritocracy, and the emergence of systematics as a discipline. Temminck’s biography elucidates how and why systematics developed, and why its status within the natural sciences has been a matter of discussion for more than a century.

In the eighteenth century, the underwater world became a site of increased investigation. Naturalists produced sumptuously illustrated books and manuscripts that captured its dazzling diversity on paper. By drawing on unique and previously unexplored visual and textual materials from libraries, archives and museums, Fish on Paper offers – for the first time – a history of how the study of fish developed into a distinct field of knowledge, ichthyology. This book shows how ichthyologists established themselves as authoritative knowers of fish through the rise of the classificatory method, defining the very category of ‘fish’ along the way. At the core of such avid attempts to chart living nature were epistemological discussions about how to best preserve fish as specimens, as well as in texts and images. The epilogue reflects on how such historical sources of past species occurrence can inform ecological research in the present.

The Natuurkundige Commissie in the Netherlands Indies was one ofthe largest state-sponsored colonial collecting endeavours of theearly nineteenth-century world. As a result, the newly founded ’s RijksMuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (present-day Naturalis BiodiversityCenter in Leiden) was filled with countless specimens. The Commissieconsisted of thirty naturalists and was active for thirty years(1820–1850). This book shows how its stakeholders had differentobjectives that evolved over time: what started as a collection vehicleto showcase the ‘glory’ of the Dutch colonial empire became a usefulsurveying tool for the Indies government.This volume is the first detailed study of the Commissie inEnglish. It tells the story of naturalists from the Netherlands, France,and German-speaking lands and of countless indigenous people workingalongside the Commissie as knowledge brokers, hunters, preparators, andporters. This long overlooked indigenous contribution to Europeanknowledge was both substantial and fundamental.