Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List Dutch Zoological Cabinets and Menageries

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Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List
of
Dutch Zoological Cabinets
and Menageries
Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List of
Dutch Zoological Cabinets and Menageries
Nieuwe Nederlandse Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde
en der Natuurwetenschappen
No. 19
Redactie: M.J. van Lieburg, G.A. Lindeboom en H.A.M. Snelders
Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List
of
Dutch Zoological Cabinets
and Menageries
Second, enlarged edition
Prepared by Pieter Smit
with the assistance of
A.P.M. Sanders and J.P.F. van der Veer
(Biohistorical Institute, State University Utrecht)
Published with the generous assistance of the
Prins Bernhard Fonds
CIP-GEGEVENS KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK, DEN HAAG
Engel, Hendrik
Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical list of Dutch zoological
cabinets and menageries/ prep. by Pieter Smit with the
assistance of A.P.M. Sanders and J.P.F. van der Veer.
Amsterdam : Rodopi. - (Nieuwe Nederlandse bijdragen tot de
geschiedenis der geneeskunde en der natuurwetenschappen,
ISSN 0168-9827; no. 19)
Eerder verschenen in "Bijdragen tot de dierkunde".- 1939.
ISBN 90-6203-618-X geb.
SISO 590.3 UDC 591(03.2)
Trefw .: zoi.ilogische verzamelingen ; Nederland
©Editions Rodopi B.V ., Amsterdam 1986
Printed in The Netherlands
Pl. 1. Hendrik Engel (1898-1981) at the age of 70.
i
Preface
The basis of the present publication is H. Engel's well-known "Alphabetical
list of Dutch zoological cabinets and menageries" published almost fifty
years ago in the Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde XXVII, 1939, p. 247-346. Engel
soon started to collect material for a second edition of his list. His death
in 1981, prevented the realization of this plan. Mrs. M. Engel-Ledeboer pre
sented me with her late husband's manuscript and notes. Together with drs.
A.P.M. Sanders and Miss J.P.F. van der Veer we completed Engel's work. The
second edition of his invaluable list is essentially based on data brought
together by Engel. We prepared them for the printer and supplemented them
with easily accessible information from a number of municipal archives (esp.
Amsterdam, Haarlem, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, Delft, Utrecht and Zutphen) and
from the Artis-Library (Amsterdam) and the Biohistorical Institute
(Utrecht).
Although the number of entries has been augmented by more than SO%, the new
list still does not give an exhaustive survey of the Dutch zoological col
lectors. Only for the period before 1800 a certain degree of completeness
can be claimed. Occasionally one can perhaps speak of over-completeness.
Even if there was only slight evidence that a certain cabinet contained zoo
logical material, it got a place in the list. For the 19th and 20th centu
ries we could not be but selective. In this case completeness would have re
sulted in a list of inordinate length. Therefore only the major collectors
have been included,
Engel's list contains a tremendous lot of information both on the cabinets
and their owners. The information is arranged according to the following
scheme: name; dates of birth and death; profession; data on the nature of
the collection, with, if available, supplementary information on drawings,
instruments, books, etc.; survey of the sources, first general books of re
ference, then more specific publications.
Engel's list is nothing more but nothing less than a basic tool for further
historical research. It has already proved its use for two recently finished
master theses (resp. Mr. Jaap van der Veen's study on seventeenth-century
collections in Amsterdam and Miss lhea Nederveen's prosopography of collect
ors residing in The Hague). We hope that others will follow their example
and contribute to the exploration of a very interesting, but neglected part
of Dutch cultural and scientific history.
Pieter Smit
ii
Introduction
By way of introduction I would like to give some characteristics of the
major periods in the history of Dutch zoological collecting.
The period until ca. 1600
The first period witnessed the beginnings of natural history collecting in
the Netherlands, It played an important role in stressing the social status
of the nobility and the emergent class of wealthy burghers.
The oldest data are from the mid fourteenth century when William IV, Count
of Holland, kept living lions, falcons and bears on his estate in the Hague.
At about the same period the Dukes of Guelre had a menagerie on their castle
Rozendaal near Arnhem.
The prosperous Dutch cities illustrated their position by keeping "royal"
animals like lions and birds of prey (esp. eagles, symbol of power). E.g.
the city of Kampen had within its walls a liontower with lions sent over
from Portugal (1477) and Spain (1483).
We also find in this period the first scientific collections. Besides Caro
lus Clusius, Bernardus Paludanus must be mentioned. Paludanus possessed a
precious collection of natural history, ethnographies and art-objects. As
appears from his "Album amicorum" Paludanus's museum was world-famous. In
1651 it came into the possession of Count Frederik III and was incorporated
in his "Gottorpische Kunstkammer",
The period 1600-1800
From the point of view of Dutch cultural history this period certainly is
the most interesting.
Its beginning coincides with the rise of the Dutch colonial empire, A rapid
ly growing number of exotic plants and animals from the East and West In
dies, Malabar, Ceylon, South Africa and North America began to reach the
Netherlands and found its way into numerous private and institutional col
lections. The flourishing of botanical gardens, e.g. of Amsterdam and Ley
den, and of zoos like those of the Stadtholders and of the inn of Blauw Jan
at Amsterdam (see no. 150) is closely linked with Dutch colonial expansion,
The group of zoological collectors, consisting of men and women, was rather
heterogenous. Among them we find of course people with a more or less formal
scientific training like physicians, pharmacists and surgeons but also a
great number of merchants, magistrates, prominent citizens, poets, painters
etc, Among this latter group there were many people who had close relations
with the East India Company.
Particular in the first part of the period the motive to collect animals was
not predominantly a scientific one, In most cases the natural objects were
an integral part of a collection which included paintings, porcelain, coins,
antiquities, silver etc. etc, The seventeenth-century museum reflected pri
marily an encyclopedic interest in the products of nature and culture.
iii
Examples of this type of "Kunstkammer" collectors are Jan en Pieter Bis
schop, Wouter Valckenier and Rembrand van Rijn.
Aesthetic considerations influenced the collectors 1 s activities as appears
from the fact that they concentrated on animals like shells and colourful
insects, esp. butterflies. An aesthetic element can also be discerned in the
arrangement of the objects. The animals were generally exhibited in beauti
ful and precious cases in which they were frequently arranged in an artistic
way. E.g. butterflies along embroidered lines forming geometric patterns
(Vincent) and shells depicting Neptune's head (Seba).
Collecting for the sake of science gradually became of decisive influence in
the establishment of zoological museums. Notable scientific collections from
the seventeenth century were, e.g., those of Swammerdam Sr. & Jr. and Fre
derik Ruysch. The eighteenth century counted numerous important collectors.
Among them Camper, Gronovius Sr. & Jr., Houttuyn, Vosmaer (for the museum of
stadtholder William V). Besides mention must be made of institutional col
lections of universities, scientific societies and surgeon's guilds.
It was certainly no exaggeration when Le Francq van Berkhey wrote that Hol
land had become "a storehouse of rarities, especially of exotic natural pro
ducts" (Le Francq van Berkhey, 1769). This storehouse proved to exert a con
siderable attraction on foreign scientists. E.g. Linnaeus, Pallas and
Pennant visited the Low Countries in order to study in the museums and mena
geries, the plants and animals which could hardly be found in collections
elsewhere.
The knowledge of the history of zoological collecting in the Netherlands is
still very scanty. Particularly the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
seem to be a rewarding period for future research. Aspects which demand at
tention are, e.g., the motives of the collectors, especially of the non
scientific ones; the collector network; means of acquisition (auctions,
dealers etc.); the collections as public institutions (there are several in
teresting visitors's books); the role of the collections in the development
of zoology.
The period 1800-now
This period can best be characterized by the dominant position of the state
and the institutional collections.
It started during the French occupation when King Louis Napoleon developed
the plan to provide the Dutch scientific cormnunity with something comparable
to the "Musee d'Histoire Naturelle". After he and his countrymen had been
expelled from the Netherlands, King William I took the initiative for a
State Museum of Natural History at Leiden. The nucleus of this museum con
sisted of the collection brought together by Louis Napoleon, the remnants of
the Stadtholder's museum, the collection of Leiden university and the pri
vate collections of Brugmans and Temminck.
Besides this central institution a great number of regional museums were
established in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their
rise and activities are clearly associated with the growing interest in
iv
local faunistic research.
Finally, the rapidly growing number of private collectors differed from
these of the previous period by a deliberate specialization.
Pieter Smit
Acknowledgements
The list of people connected, in one way or another, with this publication
is long and covers a period of 45 years. Not all of those who assisted Engel
are known to us. Many of the early collaborators have died.
During the first stages of the preparation of this second edition Engel got
much information from Dr. w.s.s. van der Feen-van Benthem Jutting, one of
his assistants at the Zoological Laboratory of Amsterdam University. In
those days Miss Johanna Scheffer's catalogue of books and drawings in honour
of the centenary of the Amsterdam Zoo in 1938 (cf. Scheffer, 1939) was an
other substantial source of information. Much help came from the Amsterdam
University Library (Mr. H. van der Bijll, Dr. H.J. Wijnman, Mr. P. Ooster
baan, Mr. Chr.J. Nissink and Mr. E.J. van der Linden) and from the Amsterdam
Municipal Archive (Mr. W.F.H. Oldewelt, Dr. W.J. van Hoboken, Dr. s. Hart,
Mr. K.D. Hartmans, Mr. Nouwen en Mr. Voorthuysen). In more recent times add
itional data were obtained from Dr. I.H. van Eeghen en Drs. S,A.C. Dudok van
Heel, the latter has provided us with a lot of references from the Amster
damsche Courant (Dudok van Heel, 1976). Miss E. Dronkers has drawn our at
tention to the rich collection of sale catalogues at the Museum Boerhaave
(Leiden).
Further, we received much help from Drs. P. van der Feen, Miss Drs. F.F.J.M.
Pieters, librarian of the former Artis Library (now part of the Zoological
Museum), Miss Petra Beydals, formerly of the Rotterdam Museum collections,
Drs. H. Hoogenhout ('s-Gravenhage), Prof.Dr. Erwin Stresemann (Berlin),
Prof.Dr. L.B. Holthuis and Dr. M. Boeseman of the Leiden Museum of Natural
History (RMNH), J.B. Corporaal, Dr, G. Krusernan, Dr. W.H. van Seters and Dr.
H.E. Coomans (Amsterdam), Dr. ~.B. van Deinse, Drs. P. Tuyn, Mr. Thijs Mol,
W. H.l11. Knippenberg ( 1 s-Hertog~nbosch). Without the assistance of many other
librarians and archivists (notably those of the municipal archives of Haar
lem, Leiden, 's-Gravenhage, Delft, Dordrecht, and Rotterdam) much biograph
ical information would be wanting.
It is impossible to mention all those who have had the patience to answer
our numerous questions. Finally, a few names must be added to our list:
Prof. Dr. I.Q.D. Mac Gillavry, Prof.Dr. Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Prof.Dr.
Jhr. P,J, van Winter, Prof.Dr. W. Arndt (Berlin), Dr. Mortensen (Copenha
gen), Mr. Winckworth and Mr. Rendoll (London).
Last but not least we would like to acknowledge the assistance of our col
leagues of the Biohistorical Institute, Dr. Robert P.W. Visser for his
critical notes and Drs • .J. Heniger for many biographical details.