18th century AD

Natural History, April, 2002 by Irmgard Musch, Rainer Willmann, Jes Rust

Albertus Seba, an apothecary in early-eighteenth-century Amsterdam, was proud indeed of his collection of natural history specimens, or cabinet of curiosities. In a letter to a potential buyer, he wrote that it included "all sorts of exquisite pieces from the East and West Indies," among these no less than "700 jars containing the rarest exotic animals and many particularly rare snakes. Also brought together thus are every exceptional sort of beautiful and rare conch, the finest and most complete butterflies from the 4 corners of the Earth [and samples] of all the plants, some familiar pieces, but unfamiliar ones too." Seba commissioned several artists to meticulously record these diverse objects, and their drawings, supplemented by commentary, were collected in a magnificent four-volume set entitled Loccupletissimi Rerum Thesauri Accurata Descriptio (Thesaurus for short). The work incorporated an impressive total of 446 copperplates and was published between 1734 and 1765.

Cabinets of curiosities first began to appear in the courts of Italian princes in about 1500. They consisted of multifarious and disparate objects and attempted to bring together all knowable things. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the cabinets became more specialized; through the description, comparison, and ordering of their pieces, the collectors strove to reach a scientific understanding of nature.

Seba, born in 1665, had chosen a profession with close ties to natural history. Doctors and apothecaries were pioneers of the empirical sciences, and their passion for collecting and research often extended beyond immediate pharmaceutical applications. Many apothecaries started significant natural history collections and contributed personally to the growing knowledge of nature.

Amsterdam, the flourishing center of international maritime trade, was an ideal location for a collector of natural curios. One of Seba's favored tactics was to buy items from sailors who were just returning from distant seas; sometimes he commissioned a seafarer to bring back specific samples. The apothecary was part of an international network of scholars and researchers who exchanged information and debated questions without regard for social class or national boundaries. Seba's achievements were rewarded with membership in the Bologna Academy of Science and the Royal Society of London, among other honors.

We know the extent of Seba's first collection because of a fortunate transaction he made in 1717. Having learned of an impending visit by the Russian czar Peter the Great--who wanted to see the Dutch Republic and at the same time shop for his own cabinet of wonders--the adroit apothecary sent the czar a written inventory of his collection, including such items as 72 drawers full of shells, 32 drawers displaying 1,000 European insects, and 400 jars of animal specimens preserved in alcohol. The sale took place, and Seba immediately set about establishing a second, even larger collection.

Exhibited in a specially designated room of his house, Seba's second cabinet became famous far afield. In 1731, he and two publishers agreed to produce a major work depicting the collection. Seba was obliged to put up one-third of the money himself, and discounted subscriptions helped fund the initial production costs of the enterprise. The first two volumes of the Thesaurus appeared in 1734 and 1735 (the year before his death); the last two were published more than twenty years later.

Volume I depicts plants and animals from South America and Asia, although a few fantastical creatures are also included. Volume II is devoted primarily to snakes, volume III to an imposing variety of sea creatures, and volume IV to insects, minerals, and fossils. Seba himself wrote most of the text for the first two volumes, but other naturalists assisted him in identifying the snakes and the fish. At his death, he had completed notes for the fourth volume; in order to ensure publication of the still incomplete Thesaurus, his heirs eventually found it necessary to sell the collection, parts of which fetched considerable sums. Some items have survived in zoological institutes and natural history museums in Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, and Amsterdam, as well as in the British Museum in London.

This lavish work was illustrated by no less than thirteen artists and was initially published in black-and-white, though many buyers presumably paid extra to have the volumes painted by skilled colorists. Because he signed his work, an artist named J. Fortuyn can be identified with several of these colored copies, including the source of the images reproduced here.

Seba's compendium appeared during a transitional period in the history of science. Superficial observation of nature was being increasingly replaced by close examination of the diversity of biological forms. Comparative anatomy and morphology became the new tools of study, and empiricism began to gain the upper hand. In his Methodus Plantarum of 1703, for example, English botanist John Ray had recommended: "The best arrangement of plants is that in which all genera, from the highest to the subordinate and lowest, have several common attributes or agree in several parts or accidents." Ray's concern with addressing the diversity of living organisms left its mark on the Thesaurus in Seba's presentation of a number of varieties of a single species. Ray was a friend of Hans Sloane, a wealthy London doctor, and Sloane's collection--from the same period as Seba's and considered to have been the largest ever amassed by a private individual--became the cornerstone of collections in the British Museum.