Hortus Botanicus

Following up on info found during my trip to Leiden, I went to the British Library to see a copy of the first catalogue of the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam.

Snippendalius, Joannes. [Catalogus] Horti Amstelodamensis… Amstelodami, 1646.

The botanical garden in Amsterdam was opened in 1638, about 40 years after Leiden and Proosdy and Baljet describe in ‘Kruidenier aan de Amstel’ [Bouman, Baljet, Zevenhuizen, and Snippendaal. Kruidenier Aan De Amstel : De Amsterdamse Hortus Volgens Johannes Snippendaal, 1646. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007] that the founding of it was initiated by the guild of doctors and pharmacists, that is, not by a university as in the case of Leiden. In ‘Kruidenier aan de Amstel’, I also found a translation of the introduction and dedication. Finally, a publisher who bothers to include a full translation. That gave me an insight into how a Hortus was perceived at that time. The dedication by a Medical Doctor de Vicq is a poem that links the Hortus on the one hand with the world and on the other hand with the human body. The garden forms a space or a dimension between the larger world outside (macrocosm) and our own being (microcosm). From my point of view, the garden and its medicinal plants are placed between and mediating between the forces of the universe and us human beings. It reminds me of the Hermetic maxim ‘As Above, So Below’.

It would be a shame to miss this kind of information. Looking at the catalogue of Leiden and Padua, there seems to be no translation available. So for all of us researchers who do not speak Latin, it would be great if there was a translation. I have posted this question on ResearchGate in the hope I might find Latin scholars who are interested. Please have a look here and click on the ‘Questions’ tab https://www.researchgate.net/project/Hortus-Nostri-Mundi

Another question that I had in Leiden concerned the notion of the environment in the 16th-century. If they were in that time exploring new continents, cultures, plants and animals, did the plant collectors, for instance, have a notion of ecologies? A researcher alerted me to this article: Zemanek, Alicja, Andrea Ubrizsy Savoia, and Bogdan Zemanek. “The Beginnings of Ecological Thought in the Renaissance: An Account Based on the Libri Picturati A. 18–30 Collection of Water-Colours.” Archives of natural history 34, no. 1 (2007): 87-108. [article link on ResearchGate]