Georg Marcgrave (originally german: Georg Marggraf, also spelled ''"Marcgraf" "

Markgraf Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

"'') (1610 – 1644) was a German naturalist and astronomer, whose posthumously published ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' was a major contribution to early modern science.

Life

Born in

Liebstadt Liebstadt is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 12 km southwest of Pirna, and 23 km southeast of Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, l ...

in the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charles ...

, Marcgrave studied botany, astronomy,

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and medicine in Germany and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

until 1636 when he journeyed to Leiden in the Netherlands. In 1637, he was appointed astronomer of a company being formed to sail to the Dutch Brazil. He was accompanied by Willem Piso, a physician. He afterward entered the service of Dutch Brazil's governor, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, whose patronage provided him with the means of exploring a considerable part of Brazil. He arrived in Brazil in early 1638 and undertook the first zoological, botanical, and astronomical expedition there, exploring various parts of the colony to study its natural history and geography. Traveling later to the coast of

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

, he fell a victim to the climate.

Publications

His large map of Brazil, an important event in cartography was published in 1647. According to

Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in nat ...

, Marcgrave was the most able and most precise of all those who described the natural history of remote countries during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was the co-author (with Willem Piso) of Historia Naturalis Brasiliae,Facsimile of original 1648 manuscript
/ref> a single volume work on the botany and zoology of Brazil, that has had lasting influence in the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

References

External links

Historia naturalis Brasiliae on Biodiversity Heritage Library

Account of Piso and Marcgrave
to promote sale of a digitalized version of ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae''.

Life

Publications

References

External links

Further reading