/. Soc. Biblphy not. Hist.

(1976) 7 (4): 409-422

The original drawings for the Historia naturalis Brasiliae

of Piso and Marcgrave (1648)
By P. J. P. WHITEHEAD

Department of Zoology,
British Museum (Natural History),
London SW7 5BD

SUMMARY
The Historia naturalis Brasiliae is the most important early account of Brazilian zoology,
botany, medicine and, to some extent, ethnology. Its animals and plants were frequently
cited by Linnaeus and later authors, but identification of the species is often hindered by
the poor descriptions and woodcut illustrations. Much help can be gained, however, from
a collection of contemporary drawings and paintings of these same animals and plants,

many being the basis for the woodcuts. Officially, this collection is lost, after nearly three
hundred years of safekeeping in Berlin, but recent investigations suggest that these
precious pictures are now in Poland and that, with persistence, they can once more be
made available to scientists and scholars.

INTRODUCTION
Pictures greatly aid the understanding of these anatomical
matters, and how much more accurately they put things
before the eyes than even the clearest language, nobody can
have failed to experience
Andreas Vesalius, in....

a letter to Charles V
For taxonomists, and particularly those studying the fauna and flora of South America,
the Historia naturalis Brasiliae (1648) of Piso & Marcgrave, published over three hundred
years ago, cannot be merely of antiquarian interest. If we are to identify certain Linnaean
and later names and our International Codes for Zoological and Botanical Nomenclature
oblige us to do exactly that then we are forced to pay considerable attention to
—

Linnaean antecedents, including Piso and Marcgrave. Thus, some 38 names for Brazilian
—

birds, bestowed by Linnaeus and by Gmelin, were founded partly or wholly on

Marcgrave's descriptions. In the same way, some seventy of Marcgrave's fishes must be
correctly identified if the names subsequently based upon them are to be interpreted with
the accuracy demanded by the International Codes. Not all taxonomists relish this task,
but those who dismiss it as mere pedantry have surely failed to appreciate the subtle
relationship between taxonomy and nomenclature. Worse, they have frequently been
guilty of introducing confusion into what is otherwise a logical system for the retrieval of
biological data from the literature.
However, to most modern taxonomists, with an education rather different from that
of Andreas Vesalius, the Latin of such works as Piso & Marcgrave's Historia is far from
being 'the clearest language'. Even if we can read it, the technical vocabulary is usually
inadequate or misleading, even when hallowed by post-Linnaean definition. All the more
410 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

eagerly, therefore, we seize pictorial help. In fact, it sometimes surprises non-

on
taxonomists to see us thumbthrough the illustrations when we run down a puzzling
species, long before we turn to the keys. The pictures may not be more accurate than the
text, and not every author can command the services of a John Stephen of Calcar, yet
even a simple sketch often conveys information that eludes a page of writing.

The descriptions of animals and plants in the Historia range from clear accounts of
easily recognised species to obscure references for which the genus or even the family
can only be hazarded. Some help can be gained from the 446 woodcuts that illustrate
the book, but these are crudely drawn and in some cases are misplaced in the text. The
Historia, however, provides one of those rare instances of an early book for which the
original drawings in this instance watercolours and oil paintings of a high standard
survived as a complete and unified collection. In its size, scope and value to taxonomy,
— —

this collection of Brazilian pictures rivals that stemming from the three voyages of Captain
Cook, a century and a half later. Here, ultimately, lies the key to the identification of
Piso and Marcgrave's species.
The source of these Brazilian pictures, and indeed the circumstances that led to Piso
and Marcgrave's studies, are intimately bound up with the Dutch occupation of north-
eastern Brazil in the 17th century and, more particularly, with the seven and a half years
during which Count Moritz of Nassau-Siegen was there as Governor-General. The best
account of this brief Dutch flirtation with Brazil is the succinct and very readable study
of Boxer (1973). For the artistic and natural history achievements of the Count Moritz
period there is a large and extremely scattered literature, of which many of the more
important books and papers were cited in my earlier paper on the 'Marcgrave drawings'
(Whitehead, 1973). Since that account appeared, as it were, in locis absconditis, being an
appendix to a work ostensibly dealing with the taxonomy of herrings and anchovies of the
Guianas region, I have reassembled the references (with very many additions) in an
annotated bibliography of the scientific and artistic achievements in Brazil under the
Dutch in 1637-1644 (Whitehead, in prep.).
The history of the Brazilian pictures will be briefly outlined in order to lead up to the
most pressing question where are these precious relicts now? For three hundred years
they remained safe, if somewhat neglected, in Berlin. Then, just when interest in them
—

seemed to have revived, the Second World War broke out and in the turmoil of the post-
war political redivision of Europe, the collection disappeared. For the last thirty years
even the survival of these pictures has been seriously doubted, but my own investigations

suggest that they still exist and, with patience, may one day be restored to the place
where they really belong, the mainstream of science, art and scholarship. (Not so the
original blocks for Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica, formerly in the University of
Munich but destroyed in the last war.)

COUNT MORITZ, HIS ARTISTS AND SCIENTISTS

The conquest and colonization of northeastern Brazil by the Dutch West India Company
occupied a period of only thirty years (1624-1654). Although sugar, Brazil-wood and
other products, not to mention plunder from Iberian ships, brought in a fairly considerable
income, this was more than offset by military and administrative costs in supporting and
protecting the new colony. By 1636 the Company's debts had risen to 18 million florins
DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE 411

and afundamental reorganization was considered vital, chiefly through the appointment of
a governor-general and commander-in-chief with wide powers. The man chosen was Count
Johann Moritz of Nassau-Siegen (1604—1679), who arrived in Recife in January 1637.
Much has been written on this 'Humanist Prince in the New World', from sentimental
novels (e.g. Setubal, 1925) to more scholarly works (e.g. Driesen, 1849), but surprisingly
there is no detailed modern biography; however, for the Brazilian period the account of
Boxer (1973) is excellent.
Count Moritz was not merely concerned with governing the colony and extending its
boundaries. In addition to his military campaigns and his administrative duties as
president of the High and Secret Council in Recife, he found time to patronize both the
arts and the sciences. As part of his entourage he is said to have had some forty-six
artists, scientists, scholars, map-makers, craftsmen, and so on, including the naturalist/
astronomer Georg Marcgrave, the physician Willem Piso, the painters Frans Post and
Albert Eckhout, and the artistic 'Küchenschreiber' Zacharias Wagener. With their aid, and
in the space of only seven years as governor-general (1637—1644), Count Moritz assembled
an extraordinarily rich portfolio concerning 17th-century Brazil, its botany, zoology,
diseases, local medicines, ethnology, astronomy, topography, scenery and native peoples.
One of the major achievements was the Historia naturalis Brasiliae of Piso and Marcgrave,
published at the Count's expense after his return to Europe. The artistic works were no
less remarkable and the enterprise as a whole well deserves comparison with the more
sophisticated exploratory voyages of the following century.
The post of personal physician to Count Moritz was originally taken by Willem de
Milaenen, who died shortly after his arrival in Brazil. He was replaced by Willem Pies
(1611—1678), better known by the latinized form Piso, the son of a German musician
from Cleves who had settled in Leiden, where Piso himself studied medicine. Piso's
contribution to the Historia was four books under the title De medicina Brasiliense.
This work has been published in a Portuguese translation, with biographical notes and
commentaries (Piso, 1948). Piso gives good descriptions of diseases and native remedies,
dealing with fevers, skin infections, dysentery and a host of other ills; for its time, it is an
excellent example of reporting from observation.
Georg Marcgrave (1610—1644) was engaged as astronomer but, because so little of his
astronomical work was published, he is better known as a naturalist, contributing eight
books on botany and zoology to the Historia. This is likewise available in Portuguese
translation, with notes, commentaries and a biography (Marcgrave, 1942). An early account
of Marcgrave and his work was given by Gudger (1912, 1914), and more recently Hauswald
(1961) has drawn together what little is known of Marcgrave's life, to some extent based
on his brother's short biography (Marcgrave, 1685). Unlike Piso, who returned to the
Netherlands in 1644 and continued a successful career, Marcgrave was sent to Angola and
died there shortly after his arrival, in about May 1644.
In oft-quoted letter to the Marquis de Pomponne, Count Moritz claimed to have
an

employed six painters in Brazil (Larsen, 1962:254), of which only two can be named with
certainty. The first, Frans Post (1612—1680), was essentially a landscape painter and more
than a hundred of his Brazilian scenes, most of them worked up after his return to the
Netherlands in 1644, are scattered in galleries and private collections. His work has been
very thoroughly studied by Sousa-Leäo (1973) and Larsen (1962). Post's attention to
detail is impressive and it shows that he must have brought back a very full sketchbook;
412 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

whether the animals, fruits and trees in his foregrounds were actually sketched from life
has never been established.
The second artist, Albert Eckhout (1610—1664), was almost certainly charged with the
task of depicting the people of Brazil, as well as the plants and animals. The classic study
of this artist is the book by Thomsen (1938), supplemented by more recent studies by
Schaeffer (1965, 1968). Of extant works by Eckhout, there are 21 paintings of Brazilian
natives and some still-lives in the National Museet in Copenhagen, as well as 80 Brazilian
birds decorating the ceiling of the Hoflössnitz hunting lodge in Saxony (Schaeffer, 1970).
There is also a cartoon and a fragment, the basis for later tapestries, in the Mobilier
National in Paris and these include Brazilian birds, fishes and other animals (Jarry, 1959).
A third source history drawings is the so-called Thierbuch of Zacharias
for natural
Wagener (1614-1668), who had arrived in Brazil as a common soldier in 1634 but who
was later 'Küchenschreiber' (quartermaster?) to Count Moritz. This book, with more than
a hundred watercolours of animals, plants, natives and Brazilian scenes, has been published

(for the first time) in a German-Portuguese edition, together with Wagener's autobiography
(Wagener, 1964). It is generally agreed nowadays that Wagener's drawings are copies of
those of Eckhout (Leite, 1967, is one of the few to disagree), except perhaps for his rather
'primitive' views of the slave market, Count Moritz's old palace, a sugar mill and some
scenes of native life.

Authors have speculated on the identity of the other four artists, suggesting that perhaps
the map-makers were included, but a case can be made for Marcgrave because of his
statement in the Historia that he drew the major part of the pictures (for the woodcuts
of the book). However, no sketches or finished drawings can yet be unequivocably
attributed to him.

THE DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS

The pictorial matter stemming from the seven years that Count Moritz was in Brazil is
diverse, scattered, partly lost, and exceedingly complex in its interrelationships. Sketches,
watercolours, small oil paintings, portraits, scenes, tapestries, cartoons, panels for a hunting
lodge all these created from the work of a few men during a relatively short stay
were
in Brazil. Thus, sketch might serve for a watercolour, a watercolour for a subsequent
—

a
oil painting, a copy of the latter for a published woodcut, which itself might later be
hand-coloured from a painting, and all these elements might be used to build up a cartoon
for a tapestry. For this reason, the study of one element is inseparable from the others, as
much in the question of attributions as in problems of zoology, botany and ethnology. It
is not an exaggeration to say that, given the loss of the drawings and paintings on which
the woodcuts of the Historia were based, much can still be done to establish the true
identity of certain Linnaean species by reference to their appearance in certain tapestries
—
surely a unique location of iconotypes!
For natural history, the two most important pictorial elements are the so-called
Handbooks and Theatri, both of which formed part of a collection of Braziliana sold by
Count Moritz in 1652 to Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg. The Handbooks
comprised two volumes of watercolours depicting Brazilian animals and plants, for which
Bloch (1787) gives 193 + 154 drawings and Lichtenstein (1818) 326 subjects in total
(presumably 21 repeated if he and Bloch counted correctly). Of these drawings, it would
DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE 413

appear that only nine have ever been few reproduced, e.g. one fish,
photographed (a
narinari, reproduced by Gudger, 1912; of the birds reproduced by Schneider, 1938).
two
Lichtenstein (loc. cit.) believed the watercolours to have been painted in after the two
books had been bound. Many of the drawings were annotated in a large, bold hand, almost
certainly that of Count Moritz.
The second collection, the Theatri, was originally a series of loose sheets of paper with
oil paintings of animals, plants and natives (some pencil sketches and crayon drawings also
included). These were assembled by Christian Mentzel (1622-1701) into four great
volumes with the general title Theatrum rerum naturalium Brasiliae, containing in all some
1460 subjects (Anon., 1717). The contents were arranged in the following way.
Vol. 1 Icones Aquatilium. 303 figures of fishes, reptiles, etc. (230 figures listed in an
index; 380 pages)
Vol. 2 Icones Volatilium. 357 figures of birds (201 figures listed in an index; 376
pages)
Vol. 3 Icones Animalium. 245 figures of mammals, insects, Indians, negros and
mulattos (229 figures listed in an index; 360 pages)
Vol. 4 Icones Vegetabilium. 555 figures of plants, trees, fruits and flowers (437
figures listed in an index; 735 pages).
Each volume had an elaborate title-page (all reproduced by Artelt, 1940 and Sousa-Leäo,
1952). Some 48 of the paintings and drawings have been photographed and most of these
have been published (especially the ethnological studies, e.g. by Thomson, 1938). Photo-
graphs of the title-pages, Latin introductions and indexes were very kindly given to me by
Dr. J. de Sousa-Leäo of Rio de Janeiro; these will be published in full elsewhere (Whitehead,
in prep.).
A further 18 Brazilian pictures were omitted from these volumes but were later combined
with a collection of pictures associated with Andreas Cleyer (plants from the Dutch East
Indies and the Cape, etc.). This volume was bound up in the 18th century and came to
be called the Miscellanea Cleyeri.
The Handbooks and the Theatrum volumes are first recorded in the library of the
Great Elector of Brandenburg in a manuscript catalogue of 1668, made by the Elector's
first librarian, Johann Rawe. This catalogue is now in the Handschriftenabteilung of the
Staatsbibliothek in East Berlin. With the accession of Friedrich I in 1688 it became a
royal library and the early history of this Königlichen Bibliothek was given by Oelrich
(1752), with a mention of the Theatrum but not the Handbooks (p. 92). In 1828 or
perhaps before, it was decided to separate some of the illustrated manuscripts and to
designate them Libri Picturati. In his history of the library, Wilken (1828:235) refers both
to the Handbooks (Nos. 27 and 28) and to the Theatrum volumes (Nos. 31 to 34). Reor-
ganization of the Libri Picturati (by transfer of some items to other sections of the library)
led to a re-numbering and the Handbooks eventually became Libri Picturati A. 36 and 37,
the Theatrum volumes A. 32 to 35, and the Miscellanea Cleyeri A. 38. By 1938, with the
library now the Preussische Staatsbibliothek and well-established on the Unter den Linden,
there were 144 volumes of Libri Picturati, including such treasures as an album of 9
paintings by Lucas Cranach the Younger (Libr. Pict. A. 1), 16 volumes of animal and
plant drawings associated with Clusius (Libr. Pict. A. 16-31), a collection of zoological
drawings associated with Theodor Klein (Libr. Pict. A. 56) and 40 passion-flowers drawn
414 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

by Ferdinand Bauer (Libr. Pict. A. 102). An annotated catalogue of the Libri Picturati
was prepared by Dr. Hans Wegener in 1938 (typescript in Handshriftenabteilung, Staats-
bibliothek
—
never published).
In these last years before the Second World War there was a sudden flurry of interest
in the Libri Picturati, largely as a result of Wegener's curatorial work on them. Thomsen
(1938) studied the ethnographic material in the Brazilian collection and Schneider (1938)
the birds, while Wegener (1936) wrote on the Clusius collection and also gave brief reviews
of the Libri Picturati (Wegener, 1938a, b). A number of the Brazilian pictures were
photographed (not nearly enough as it happens) and it was likely that Schneider's excellent
work in identifying the birds and matching them with the published descriptions and wood-
cuts of the Historia would be repeated for other groups of animals and for the plants.
With the outbreak of war, however, all this activity ceased and for the last thirty-six
years the cream of the Libri Picturati, including the Handbooks and the Theatrum volumes,
has been unavailable for study.

EVACUATION OF THE LIBRI PICTURATI

With Paris and London, Berlin before the war housed one of the very great European
libraries, the Preussische Staatsbibliothek. Although not strictly a national library but the
library of the Prussian State, it was nevertheless the largest in Germany and was particu-
larly renowned for its collections of music manuscripts and also its oriental manuscripts.
The surprise Berlin raid by the British on 9 April 1941, although it put the Staatsoper
across the street out of action for over a year, did rather little damage to the Staatsbiblio-
thek, but it nonetheless precipitated the evacuation of some of the more precious items,
chiefly the manuscripts. The story of this evacuation can be pieced together from the
accounts of Hill (1946), who was chiefly concerned with the fate of the music manuscripts,
and Schmidt (1961), who wrote a short official account.
Some 29 evacuation sites were chosen, five in what would later be the 'West' and
twenty-four in the 'East', a division that was to have a profound bearing on the custody
of the material after the war. As luck would have it, Libri Picturati A. 32—38, that is to
say the Handbooks, Theatrum volumes and Miscellanea Cleyeri, went eastwards with a
batch of 201 boxes sent by rail in late October/early November 1941 to Schloss Fürsten-
stein in Silesia (now Poland). With the Libri Picturati were boxes of oriental manuscripts
and some extremely important music manuscripts, including such treasures as the scores
(in whole or in part) of Beethoven's 7th, 8th and 9th Symphonies, Mozart's Jupiter
Symphony and acts 3 and 4 of the Marriage of Figaro, and sketches for Bruckner's 8th
and 9th Symphonies (list in Hill, 1946). At some time in mid-1943 the German High
Command in Breslau (now Wroclaw) decided to use the Schloss. The boxes were therefore
transferred again, this time to Grüssau (now Krzeszöw), where they were stored partly in
the gallery of the chapel of the Benedictine monastery and partly in the parish church of
St. Joseph (Schmidt, 1961; also Andreas Michalski, pers. comm., who believes only fifty
boxes were transferred).
The Libri Picturati represented only a small part of this cache of manuscript material
and it is perhaps not surprising that Schmidt (1961) overlooked what to us is an extremely
important fact, namely that not all the Libri Picturati were sent to Schloss Fürstenstein.
In conversation, Werner Schmidt has said that he did not inspect the Verlagerungslisten or
DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE 415
evacuation lists that were prepared (with a carbon copy) for each box that was evacuated;
the task in any case would have been immense, considering that several hundred boxes
went to each of the 29 evacuation sites. What Schmidt failed to note was that only half
the Libri Picturati went to Schloss Fürstenstein, the other half being dispatched westwards
to another Benedictine monastery, Kloster Beuron in Donautal. The division of the Libri
Picturati, presumably made by the then head of the Handschriftenabteilung, Dr. Karl
Christ, appears to have been quite arbitrary, so that the dispatch of 'our' Brazilian pictures
to the East and not the West was a matter of pure chance.
On 2 May 1945 Russian troops arrived at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and the
followingmonth a new Director was appointed by the Magistrat of the city. In July
Marshal W. Sokolowski, Supreme Commander of the Soviet Occupation Troops in
Germany, issued an Order calling for the return of all books and manuscripts in the
Russian Zone and a grand opening was scheduled for 1 October (Hill, 1946). The Russians,
however, disclaimed any power over the material that had been evacuated to Poland, being
the Schloss Fürstenstein material and that from ten other evacuation sites.
As stated earlier, the Staatsbibliothek had been the library of the Prussian State, but
that no longer existed, so the question arose: to whom did the property belong? Since
the Staatsbibliothek was in the Russian occupied zone of Berlin, the Russians merely
removed the 'Preussische' from its title and reconstituted it as a state library of the
German Democratic Republic. The four occupying powers appear to have taken the view
that Prussian property should be the heritage of all German people and should remain in
the principal cities of the Lander in which it happened to be (merely by the chance of
evacuation); this was formally expressed in Law 46 of February 1947 passed by the
Allied Control Council (Winters, 1974). Subsequently, in July 1957, the Federal Republic
of Germany was empowered to found the Stiftung Preussische Kulturbesitz, leading to the
foundation of a new Staatsbibliothek in West Berlin, to which the western Lander were
obliged (not without objections) to send all evacuated material that had formerly been
part of the old Preussische Staatsbibliothek. The result, in essence, is two Staatsbiblio-
theks in Berlin, one with material from five western evacuation sites, the other with
material from some (but not all) of the twenty-four eastern evacuation sites.
Of the Libri Picturati evacuated westwards, there were some 55 items, mostly in box
No. 234, but 12 items in box No. 245 and 1 item in box No. 33. From Kloster Beuron in
the French Zone they were transferred to Tübingen University Library in 1947 (Gebhardt,
1965) and were later deposited in the Staatsbibliothek in West Berlin. Among the items
was Libri Picturati A. 56, the large volume of anatomical and other drawings of animals
associated with Theodor Klein, some of the drawings being signed 'R. R.' and done in
Uppsala in the period 1717—1721. The material evacuated to Kloster Beuron was rather
mixed. It also contained some fifty Beethoven scores, eighty-three of Mozart's, twenty of
Schubert's and the most expensive book in the world, a two-volume parchment copy of
the Gutenberg Bible.
For the Schloss Fürstenstein and Grüssau material it was a different story since this
material has never been returned. Schmidt (1961) hinted that it might have been
destroyed by fire in the monastery, but a number of private sources have confirmed that
Father Lutterotti, who remained at Grüssau until the early 1950's, stated that he witnessed
the removal of the boxes by army lorries in May 1947, their destination being undisclosed.
Further hope that the material still exists was raised by the musicologist, Mr. Carleton
416 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

Smith, who wasreported to have discovered no less than 28 boxes of the Griissau material
at some unspecified place near Crakow (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 24 April 1974; BBC Arts
Worldwide Programme, 23 April 1974; Tagesspiegel, 26 August 1974). Since then, there
have been no further reports and Mr. Smith has volunteered no more information; the
heads of the manuscript and music departments in both East and West Berlin also have no
additional news (February 1975).
Although there is now considerable hope that the Griissau material exists and may once
more be available, one must accept that the fate of the manuscripts has, since 1941, been
determined as much by political as by scholarly needs. Whether the needs of scholarship
will eventually be recognised as paramount remains to be seen, but this will depend to a
large extent on those needs being made known. However, the association of the Libri
Picturati with the music manuscripts is fortunate, since among the latter are some of the
best known works in Western music, thus exciting an interest far above that for mere
natural history drawings. One must hope that the musical world will also continue to
press for the Griissau material to be made available.

EXTANT MATERIAL
Some indication has already been given of other pictorial matter that is of value in trying
to identify the species of Piso and Marcgrave. Of the tapestries, eight were made at the
Gobelins factory in Paris, the set being known as Les Anciennes Indes. They were based
on cartoons by Eckhout and paintings by Post presented in 1679 by Count Moritz to
Louis XIV; among the motifs were plants and animals that in some (perhaps all) cases
were taken from those in the Handbooks and the Theatrum volumes. A complete set of
these tapestries can be seen in the Palace of the Knights of St. John at Valetta in Malta.
Twenty of the Eckhout bird paintings in the Hoflössnitz hunting lodge have been published
in colour by Schaeffer (1970) and it is presumed that these must also have been based on
original drawings. Wagener's Thierbuch provides further clues, as also do some of the
animals and plants in the foregrounds of Post's paintings.
There is, however, yet another collection of drawings associated with the Handbooks
and Theatri. This collection is in the Archives of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad
and it comprises 145 folios of animal drawings in two series. The first series, of 21 sheets
showing 121 mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles and invertebrates, matches the watercolours
in the Handbooks. The second series, of 124 sheets showing 123 mammals, birds, fishes,
reptiles and invertebrates, matches the oil paintings in the Theatrum volumes. The
matching of the pictures was done by Johann Horkel in 1832 and the collection thus
provides an extremely valuable clue to the lost material. The history of this collection
has been outlined (Whitehead, 1973: 189—190), but permission has now been given for
the drawings to be reproduced in a book by Professor Enrico Schaeffer, with full zoological
commentaries by members of the staff of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in
Leiden.
Another pictorial aid is the set of ten small pencil drawings that are pasted into an
early manuscript version of Marcgrave's botanical portion of the Historia, apparently
written out by Johan de Laet, the editor of Piso and Marcgrave's work. These plant
drawings exactly match the woodcuts in the Historia but in some cases show much more
detail. A more detailed account of this manuscript, which is in the Sloane Collection in
the British Museum (Add.Ms. 1554), has already been given (Whitehead, 1973: 198-199).
DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE 417

Finally, there are certain coloured copies of the Historia, one recently bought by the
Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden, one in the Library of Congress in
Washington, one belonging to Dr. J. de Sousa-Leäo in Rio de Janeiro and a fourth, and
the most important of all, formerly in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin but now
missing. According to Lichtenstein (1818), this Berlin copy, then in the possession of
Professor Karl Rudolphi, also contained annotations that matched those written by Count
Moritz below many of the watercolours in the Handbooks; the annotations are also found
onthe Leningrad drawings that match the Handbooks.
Thus, some help can be gained from what remains of the pictorial record, but this is
little enough compared with the major source, the Handbooks and Theatrum volumes,
which depicted nearly two thousand Brazilian plants and animals. Linnaeus never saw
them, Bloch (1787) saw and used only the Handbooks, and Lichtenstein (1818—1829), in
a series of most useful commentaries, considered both the Handbooks and the Theatrum
volumes but dealt only with the animals. Martius (1853) claimed to have had exact copies
made of the plants but these cannot be found (Whitehead, 1973: 188). The only studies
made in the modern period are those of Ehrenreich (1894) on the ethnology and Schneider
(1938) on the birds. In all, only about 80 of the Brazilian drawings and paintings were
ever photographed (see Table, p. 418), of which only a handful were in colour. It is tragic
that such an important collection, after surviving three centuries of European turmoil,
should quietly disappear.
Never before have science and art been more international in their outlook, use and
appreciation. In the role that they fulfil, the concept of 'ownership' stands second to that
of 'availability'. The rightful 'owners' of the Brazilian pictures, and indeed of the Griissau
material as a whole, are the worlds of science, art, scholarship and music. One can only
hope that their needs will one day be recognised.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must record with pleasure my considerable debt to Dr. Rüdiger Joppien of Köln, most
especially for his enthusiasm and help during investigations in Berlin. We are currently
preparing a full account of the history, composition and fate of the Libri Picturati in
relation to natural history; we are also seeking permission to publish for the first time
Dr. Hans Wegener's Catalogue. My sincere thanks also to Dr. Christine Karrer, of the
Zoologisches Museum in Berlin, for her help over many problems associated with the lost
drawings. From Dr. Joaquim de Sousa-Leäo I received much enthusiasm and help,
including permission to photograph parts of his coloured Historia. Finally, I am grateful
to the staffs of the manuscript and music departments of the two Staatsbibliotheks for
the use of their material and for information and discussions.

ADDENDUM
I have recently learned that the Polish Ministry of Culture has now agreed to undertake a
full investigation into the disappearance of the Griissau manuscripts; Mme Orchowska,
Acting Director for Foreign Relations of that Ministry has assured me that the search will
be thorough. For helping to initiate this latest move, I am indebted to Mr. Claude
Whistler of the British Council and to the staff of the British Embassy in Warsaw, whose
enthusiasm is much appreciated.
418 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

Meanwhile, Mr. Carleton Smith has now published his claim to have seen the lost
music manuscripts, apparently safely stored in boxes in an unspecified institution in
Poland (Smith, 1975), and he gave further details in a radio interview in London (24
December 1975, BBC Arts Worldwide Programme).

LIST OF PICTURES IN l.lBRl PICTURATI A. 32-38 THAT WERE PHOTOGRAPHED

PRIOR TO THE EVACUATION OF THE VOLUMES IN 1941
At least 79 drawings of Brazilian animals, plants and people can still be consulted, of which
55 were reproduced in the works of Ehrenreich (1894), Gudger (1912), Darmsteadter
(1928 colour), Glaser (1938 some colour), Schneider (1938), Thomsen (1938),
Wegener (1938b some colour), Artelt (1940), Lück (1947) and Sousa-Leäo (1952).
- -

The remaining 24 unpublished pictures (*) exist as negatives in the Deutsche Staatsbiblio-
-

thek in East Berlin and in the Helmcke Collection in the Staatsbibliothek in West Berlin;
or as black and white prints in the possession of Dr. Alfred Lück of Siegen or in the
Thomsen Collection in Copenhagen. The title pages, prefaces and indexes to the four
Theatrum volumes also exist as negatives {see p. 413 above).

A 32 Theatrum Vol. 1 (Icones Aquatilium)

p. 11 Octopus (Piräje'oca)
p. 31 Fish (Narinari Aetobatus narinari; not basis for woodcut in Marcgrave,
p. 176)
—

p. 104v *Tapuya (sketch, full figure from rear)

p. 119 Fish (Piratiapoa Epinephelus morio; basis for woodcut in Marcgrave,
p. 158)
-

p. 125 *Fish (Guaperua Balistes vetula; basis for woodcut in Marcgrave, p. 164)
p. 190 Fish (Doradus Caranx sp.; ? Guara tereba of Marcgrave, p. 172)
-

192 Fish (Meerou Epinephelus itajara; possibly Jurucapeba of Marcgrave,

—

p.
p. 146)
—

p. 323 *Lizard and 2 crayfishes (Teiidae ? and Palaemonidae ?)

A 33 Theatrum Vol. 2 (Icones Volatilium)

p. 15 *Bird (Cairina moschata; see Marcgrave, p. 213)
p. 25 Bird (Iere'baga'ba Rynchops nigra intercedens)
p. 27 Bird (Procellaria aequinoctialis)
—

p. 33 Bird (Mitü Anhima cornuta; matching watercolour in A 36, p. 170 the

basis for woodcut in Marcgrave p. 215)
—

p. 35 Bird (Cariäma Cariama cristata; see Marcgrave, p. 203)

p. 81 *Bird (Guiratinga Casmerodius albus egretta; see Marcgrave, p. 220)
—

p. 109 Bird (Paradisaea apoda)

p. 125 *Bird (Tijepiränga Ramphocelus bresilius; see Marcgrave, p. 192)
p. 163 Bird (Guirärurünheengeta Fluvicola nengeta; see Marcgrave, p. 209)
-

p. 181 Bird (Curucuä Trogon curucui; see Marcgrave, p. 211)

—

p. 201 *Bird (Urutaurana Spitzaetus ornatus)

—

p. 221 *Bird (Ibiiaü Chordeiles acutipennis)

—

p. 265 Bird (Tuiete Forpus passerinus vividus; see Marcgrave, p. 206) and a
-

butterfly
—
DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE 419

p. 301 *Bird (Cuguambacala Angolan cockerel)

p. ? Bird (Owl)
—

p. ? Bird (Four-legged chicken; see Marcgrave, p. 219)

A 34 Theatrum Vol. 3 (Icones Animalium)
p. 1 *African
p. 3 African
p. 5 African (with bow and arrows, walking)
p. 9 *African (with bead necklace)
p. 11 *African (with bead necklace)
p. 13 African (albino with flute, sitting)
p. 1 5 Woman with child
p. 17 Tapuya with tobacco pipe
p. 19 Tapuya with bow and arrows
p. 21 Tapuya woman holding up ? basket
p. 23 Indian holding spear
p. 25 Tapuya (seated crayon sketch)
-

p. 27 Tapuya (portrait crayon sketch)

p. 59 Squirrel (Sciuridae; see Marcgrave, p. 230)
—

p. 95 Anteater (Tamanduaguagu Myrmecophaga tridactyla; pencil sketch, the

basis for woodcut in Marcgrave, p. 225)
—

p. 1 35 Llama (Alpaca Lama glama; basis for woodcut in Marcgrave, p. 244)

p. 147 *Zunu (Angolan goitred sheep: see Marcgrave, p. 234)
—

p. 163 African elephant (Loxodonta africana pencil sketch)

—

A 35 Theatrum Vol. 4 (Icones Vegetabilium)

p. 35 Fruit (Iacapiao Lecythis pisonis; as Jacapucaya in Marcgrave, p. 128)
155 Fruit (Citrus)
-

p.
p. 149 Plant (Inimboi Caeselpinea bonducella; basis for woodcut in Marcgrave,
p. 56)
—

p. 301 Plant (Aguariquiguacü ? Solanum nigrum)

p. 303 Plant (Aguäraquiyä Solanum nigrum; not basis for woodcut in Marcgrave,
-

p. 55)
-

p. ? Plant (Ricinus)

A 36 Handbook Vol. 1
p. 85 Anteater (Tamandua-T Tamandua tetradactyla)
-

p. 164 (right) Bird (Caiigicica Hydropsalis brasilianus; as Guiraquerea in Marcgrave,

p. 202)
—

p. 206 *Chicken
p. 212 Bird (Caräcarä Falco brasiliensis; ? basis for woodcut in Marcgrave, p. 211)
—

p. 216 Bird (Airuete Amazona aestiva; description in Marcgrave, p. 206)

-

p. 304 *Fish (Guambayacuati Diodon hvstrix; basis for woodcut in Marcgrave,

p. 159)
-

p. 332 Fish (Narinari Aetobatus narinari; basis for woodcut in

—
Marcgrave, p. 176)
p. 434 Snake (Boa constrictor)
420 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

A 37 Handbook Vol. 2
p. 477 Beetle ( ? Megasoma)
A 38 Miscellanea Cleyeri
p. 12r Plant (detail of coconut palm pencil drawing)
—

12v *Plant ( ? watermelon)

13r Plant ( ? Butomaceae also a sketch of 3 flowers)
-

13v *Plant (leaves and buds)

14r Plant (also a faint sketch of people dancing)
49r *Plant ( ? Myrtaceae)
55r (upper) *Plant ( ? Myrtaceae)
(lower) Fruit (Citrus)
56r Fruit (and grasshopper)
57r Plant ( ? Passifloraceae)
58r *Plant ( n Cucurbitaceae)
59r Negro girl
60r Tapuya (sleeping girl)
61 r Tapuya (sleeping girl)
62r Tapuya (seated man)
64r *Fruit (Cucurbitaceae)
65v + 66r Plant (with gourds)
66v (left) Plant (with gourds)
(right) Plant (watermelon)
67r *Plant (palm)
67v 68r *Plant (Bromeliaceae)
+

68v *Plant ( ? Malvaceae)

Clearly belonging to this same series of pictures, but fortunately separated and now in
the Kupferstichkabinett in the Staatliche Museum in West Berlin, are the following five
sketches by Eckhout. They were discovered by Klessmann (1965), who reproduced all of
them.
KdZ 24541 Tapuya (man holding a club)
KdZ 24542r Tapuya
KdZ 24542v Tapuya (figure, head not completed)
KdZ 24543 Tapuya (seated man)
KdZ 24544 Tapuya (girl sleeping)
Another surviving sketch by Eckhout is a pencil drawing of a plant (not the basis for a
woodcut in Marcgrave) which is included in the Sloane MS. mentioned earlier (de Laet's
early version of the botanical section of the Historia
—
see p. 416 above)
DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE 421
REFERENCES
ANON. 1717. [no title: news from Dresden.]Neue Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen aus das Jahre
MDCCXVII, Leipzig, 1 (4): 27-30 (letter from C. H. Erndel to J. P. Breyne reporting visit to
Royal Library in Berlin, where he saw the Flora Japanica, Clusius and Brazilian volumes).
ARTELT, A. 1940. Christian Mentzel, Leibarzt des Grossen Kurfürsten, Botaniker und Sinologue.
Illustr. Monogr. Geschichte Med., Inst. Geschichte Med., Senkenb. Univ., 1. J. A. Barth, Leipzig,
pp. 44.
BLOCH, M. E. 1787. Naturgeschichte der ausländischen Fische, Part 3, Berlin, i -x, 1-46.
BOXER, C. R. 1973. The Dutch in Brazil 1624-1654. Archon Books, The Shoe String Press,
Connecticut, pp. 329 (1st edition 1957, Clarendon Press, Oxford).
DARMSTAEDTER, L. 1928. Georg Marcgrave und Wilhelm Piso, die ersten Erforscher brasiliens.
Velhagen Klasings Monatshefte, Berlin (42nd year): 649-654 (ten of the Theatrum pictures
reproduced in colour).
DRIESEN, L. 1849. Leben des fürsten Johann Moritz von Nassau Siegen, General-Gouverneurs von
Niederländisch-Brasilien, dann Kur-Brandenburgischen Statthalters von Cleve, Mark, Revensberg und
Minden, Meisters des St. Johanniter-Ordens zu Sonnenburg und Feldmarschalls der Niederlande.
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EHRENREICH, P. 1894. Über einige ältere Bildnisse südamericanische Indianer. Globus, III. Zeitschr.
Lander Völkerkunde, Brunswick, 66 (6): 81-90. (Portuguese translation, 1905, Revta Inst. Arqueol.
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GEBHARDT, W. 1965. Eine Handschriftensammlung von Weltruf in Tübingen. Attempto, 17/18:
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GUDGER, E. W. 1912. George Marcgrave, the first student of American natural history. Pop. Sei.
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327-350.
JARRY, M. 1959. Les "Indes", serie triomphale de l'exotisme. Connaissance des Arts, Paris, (May):
62-69.
KLESSMANN, R. 1965. Unbekannte Zeichnungen von Albert Eckhout. Oud-Holland, 80: 50-52.
LARSEN, E. 1962. Frans Post, interprete du Bresil. Colibris Editora, Amsterdam, pp. 293.
LEITE, J. R. T. 1967. A pintura no Brasil holandes. Edicöes GRD, Rio de J., pp. 124.
LICHTENSTEIN, M. H. K. 1818. Die werke von Marcgrave und Piso über die Naturgeschichte
Brasiliens, erläutert aus den wieder augefunden Originalzeichnungen. Abh. preuss. Akad. Wiss. :
201-222. (Portuguese translation, 1961, Brasiliensia Documenta, 2, Säo Paulo, pp. 305).
LICHTENSTEIN, M. H. K. 1819. (as above). Original-Abbildungen, II. Vögel. Ibid. : 155-178.
LICHTENSTEIN, M. H. K. 1822. (as above). Original-Abbildungen, IV. (sic.) Fische. Ibid. : 267-288.
LICHTENSTEIN, M. H. K. 1829. (as above). Original-Abbildungen, IV. Fische. Ibid. : 49-65.
LÜCK, A. 1947. Der Statthalter. Roman um Johann Moritz, Fürst von Nassau-Siegen, den Kolonisator
von Holländisch-Brasilien. Jung-Stillung-Verlag, pp. 525.
MARCGRAVE, G. 1942. Jorge Marcgrave. Histöria natural do Brasil. Säo Paulo, pp. i-iv, 1 -193,
I-CIV.
MARCGRAVE, C. 1685. Prodromus medicinae practicae dogmaticae 2nd edition, Cornelius
. .

Brontestyn, Leiden (four unpaged leaves in Berlin copy follow the Preface and give a biography of
.

Georg Marcgrave; English translation in British Museum Add. MS. 333.9, Sloane Collection).
422 DRAWINGS OF PISO & MARCGRAVE

MARTIUS, C. F. P. 1853. Versuch eines Commentars über die Pflanzen in den Werken von Marcgrav
und Piso über Brasilien. Abh. bayer. Akad. Wiss., 7: 181-238.
OELRICH, J. C. C. 1752. Entwurf eine Geschichte der Königlichen Bibliothek in Berlin. Berlin.
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1-207 (text), 208-434 (notes).
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20: 17-85.
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(unpaged, 20 plates). -

SCHMIDT, W. 1961. Die Verlagerung der Bestände in zweiten Weltkrieg und ihre Rückturung, pp.
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