This volume, Volume 1, presents Marggrafe’s stunning biography. Volume 2 consists of a text edition of his astronomical legacy, prepared for the printing press in the 1650s, but only now finalized and published.
Georg Marggrafe (1610-1643) is today hailed as the principal author of an influential account of the natural history of Northern Brazil and as compiler of the first accurate map of the area, which is considered as one of the most elegant products of seventeenth-century Dutch cartography. But initial he had the ambition to become known in astronomy. With the support Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, then governor-general of colonial Dutch Brazil, he built in Recife the first European-style astronomical observatory on the South-American continent, where he systematically charted the southern stars. He intended to supplement the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe, who charted the Northern sky half a century before. But Marggrafe’s untimely death (and the negligence of a Leiden professor) prevented the publication of his valuable observations. As a result, Marggrafe did not achieve fame in astronomy, but instead became famous for his equally remarkable other achievements.
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I. Context
- Chapter 1. Introduction
- A forgotten astronomer
- The aim of this book
- A publication postponed by more than three centuries
- The correct spelling of Georg Marggrafe’s surname
- Chapter 2. Circulation of knowledge in Early Modern Dutch Brazil?
- The Dutch trading companies and the emergence of a pre-modern knowledge society
- Dutch Brazil and its first and only governor general
- Johan Maurits’s achievements in Brazil
- The background of a governor general
- A colony built on slavery
- A princely court in Dutch Brazil: Vrijburg and Boa Vista
- Dutch Brazil as a seventeenth century Tower of Babel?
- Part II. Biography
- Chapter 3. Youth in Germany
- Childhood in Liebstadt
- Wandering years in Germany
- Becoming a Medical Candidate at Wittenberg University (1633-1634)
- A horoscope for a Wittenberg professor of astronomy (1634)
- Constructing astronomical tables in Stettin (1634-1635)
- Chapter 4. A crucial year at Leiden University
- Arrival in Leiden
- Leiden University in the seventeenth century
- The university’s brand new observatory
- Marggrafe’s activities at Leiden University
- Horoscopes for Leiden students
- Friends of Marggrafe’s roommate Kechel
- A special friendship with Jørgen From
- Marggrafe as preceptor for Estonian students?
- The Leiden Lutheran Church
- Preparations for Brazil
- Hired as assistant to the court physician Willem Piso
- The job description of the court physician and his assistants
- Leiden Observatory after Marggrafe’s departure
- Chapter 5. Life in Brazil
- Travel to and arriving in Brazil
- The siege of São Salvador in Bahia
- The decor of Marggrafe’s life in Brazil: the fast-changing island of Antonio Vaz
- The count’s first residence on Antonio Vaz
- A change of profession
- A courtier for a ruler with imperial ambitions
- Horoscopes for local officials
- Striving for the fulfilment of an astronomical dream
- Expeditions into the interior of North-Eastern Brazil
- The emergence of an additional goal
- Setback in March 1640: the collapse of part of the count’s residence
- Collector of naturalia for a German prince
- Gathering cartographic information
- Processing geographical information
- A map with astonishing qualities
- Astronomical and meteorological achievements
- Dutch strongholds on the West African coast
- The inevitable end
- Chapter 6. Legacy
- The spread of Marggrafe’s paper legacy
- The genesis of the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae
- After the verdict
- The fate of Georg Marggrafe’s astronomical manuscripts
- Part III. Astronomy
- Chapter 7. Astronomy – background
- Early astronomical observations of the southern heavens
- The emergence of astronomical aspirations
- Astronomical observations in Leiden before Marggrafe’s arrival
- Chapter 8. Astronomy – setting and equipment
- Observatories in Leiden and Recife: the design, organization and instruments compared
- Chapter 9. Astronomy – observations in Leiden and Recife
- 1. Training in Leiden
- 2. Observing in Brazil
- 3. Is Marggrafe’s astronomical legacy ever applied?
- Part IV. Conclusion and epilogue
- Chapter 10. Retrospective
- Marggrafe’s importance as an early modern scholar
- Marggrafe’s importance for natural history
- Marggrafe’s importance for cartography
- Marggrafe’s importance for early modern astronomy
- The preconditions for Marggrafe’s scholarly work in colonial Dutch Brazil
- Intercultural cooperation across several language barriers: the missing Go-betweens
- The transmission of gathered facts into canonized knowledge
- Epilogue
- Appendices
- 1. Chronology
- 2. Marggrafe’s horoscopes
- 3. A false attribution of an ‘astronomical’ manuscript
- Notes
- Consulted archives
- Abbreviations
- Literature
- Index
Text
Audio
Adobe DRM
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