| Abstract Detail
Historical Section Madriñán, Santiago [1]. Nicolaus Joseph Jacquin: the making of a Linnaean botanist. The Austrian botanist Nikolaus Joseph Jacquin was born in Leiden in 1727 and died in Vienna 1817. From 1769 he was Professor at the University of Vienna and director of the Botanic Garden. Between 1755 and 1759 he traveled to the Caribbean on the Emperor’s behalf, making botanical collections in the region.
The numerous beautifully illustrated works written by Jacquin have left a mark in the history botany, and at the time were highly praised by his fellow botanists, among which was the famous Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. Three of his works, the result of his botanical investigations in the Caribbean, are of special importance for the history and development of tropical American botany. These are: 1) the Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum, a preliminary catalogue of the collections made by him in America, published in Leiden in 1760 ; 2) the Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia, a folio sized book with detailed descriptions of the plants cited in the Enumeratio, and illustrated in 184 monochrome plates, published in Vienna in 1763; and 3) the color edition of the Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia, a folio sized volume in which the descriptions of the previous edition are further expanded, and accompanied with 264 hand colored illustrations. Of this last work only 18 copies were produced in Vienna in 1780.
The works previously mentioned are amongst the first comprehensive botanical works of the Caribbean, and constitute essential references for the study of the botany of this region. Despite this, these works are rarely cited due to their limited availability to the botanical and historical community, and the public in general. Broader Impacts:
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Laboratorio de Botánica y Sistemática
1 - Universidad de los Andes, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio de Botánica y Sistemática, Apartado Aéreo 4976, Bogotá, DC, Colombia
Keywords:
Nicolaus Joseph Jacquin
Early Linnaean Botany
Caribbean Botany.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 18
Location: 556A/Convention Center
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Time: 2:45 PM
Number: 18004
Abstract ID:442 |
