Georg Eberhard Rumphius (originally:Rumpf; baptized c. 1 November 1627 – 15 June 1702) was a German-born botanist employed by theDutch East India Company in what is now easternIndonesia, and is best known for his work,Herbarium Amboinense, produced in the face of severe personal tragedies, including the death of his wife and a daughter in an earthquake, going blind from glaucoma, loss of his library and manuscripts in major fire, and losing early copies of his book when the ship carrying it was sunk.
Rumphius was the oldest son of August Rumpf, a builder and engineer inHanau, and Anna Elisabeth Keller, sister of Johann Eberhard Keller, governor of the Dutch-speakingKleve (Cleves), at that time a district of the Electorate (Kurfürstentum) ofBrandenburg. Around 1 November 1627, he was baptizedGeorg Eberhard Rumpf inWölfersheim, likely indicating he was born in October 1627. He grew up in Wölfersheim and attended thegymnasium in Hanau.
Although born and raised in Germany, he spoke and wrote in Dutch from an early age, probably as learned from his mother. He was recruited by the West India Company, ostensibly to serve theRepublic of Venice, but was put on a ship "De Swarte Raef" (The Black Raven) in 1646 bound for Brazil where the Dutch and Portuguese were fighting over territory. Either through shipwreck or capture he landed in Portugal, where he remained for nearly three years. Around 1649 he returned to Hanau where he helped his father's business.[1]
A week after his mother's funeral (20 December 1651) he left Hanau for the last time. Perhaps through contacts of his mother's family, he enlisted with the Dutch East Indies Company (asJeuriaen Everhard Rumpf) and left as amidshipman on 26 December 1652 aboard the shipMuyden for theDutch East Indies. He arrived inBatavia in July 1653, and proceeded toAmbon Island in 1654. By 1657 his official title was "engineer and ensign", at which point he requested a transfer to the civilian branch of the company and became second merchant ("onderkoopman") on Hitu island, north of Ambon. He became a merchant ("koopman") in 1662. He then started to undertake a study of the flora and fauna of theseSpice Islands. In 1666 he was appointed as "secunde" at Ambon directly underJoan Maetsuycker, thegovernor-general in Batavia, who would later give him dispensation from his ordinary duties to complete this study. Maetsuycker was a barrister-at-law and a patron of science. Rumphius would become known asPlinius Indicus (thePliny of the Indies).[1] This was the name under which he was made a member by the Academia Naturae Curiosorum in Vienna in 1681.[2]
Rumphius is best known for his authorship ofHet Amboinsche kruidboek orHerbarium Amboinense, acatalogue of the plants of the island ofAmboina (in modern-day Indonesia), published posthumously in 1741. The work covers 1,200 species, 930 with definite species names, and another 140 identified to genus level.[3] The publication of this book was possible because of the governorJohannes Camphuys. Camphuys, an amateur astronomer, personally reviewed the manuscript and ensured a copy was made before the ill-fated manuscript was sent off to Europe for printing. Rumphius provided illustrations and descriptions for nomenclature types for 350 plants, and his material contributed to the later development of thebinomial scientific classification byLinnaeus.[4] His book provided the basis for all future study of the flora of theMoluccas and his work is still referred to today.[4] Despite the distance, he was in communication with scientists in Europe, was a member of a scientific society inVienna, and even sent a collection of Moluccan sea shells to theMedicis inTuscany.
After going blind in 1670 due toglaucoma, Rumphius continued work on his six-volume manuscript with the help of others. His wife and a daughter were killed by a wall collapse during amajor earthquake and tsunami on 17 February 1674. On 11 January 1687, with the project nearing completion, a great fire in the town destroyed his library, numerous manuscripts, original illustrations for hisHerbarium Amboinense, volumes of theHortus Malabaricus, and works by Jacobus Bontius.[1] Persevering, Rumphius and his helpers first completed the book in 1690, but the ship carrying the manuscript to the Netherlands was attacked and sunk by the French, forcing them to start over from a copy that had fortunately been retained thanks to Camphuys.[2] TheHerbarium Amboinense finally arrived in the Netherlands in 1696. However, the East India Company decided that it contained so much sensitive information that it would be better not to publish it.[5] Rumphius died in 1702, so he never saw his work in print; the embargo was lifted in 1704, but then no publisher could be found for it. It finally appeared in 1741, thirty-nine years after Rumphius's death, within a Latin translation by Johannes Burman (1707–79).[6][7] Much of the natural history in Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën ("Old and New East-India") byFrançois Valentijn was by Rumphius and they were close friends.
The original manuscript ofHet Amboinsch Kruidboek (MS BPL 314) is held atLeiden University Libraries and a digital version is available in its Digital Collections.[8]
TheHerbarium Amboinense as published in 1741 consisted of six large folio volumes. Being blind, Rumphius required the assistance of others to produce it. His wife, Suzanna, was one of the early assistants and she was commemorated inFlos Susannae a white orchid (nowPecteilis susannae) described by Rumphius. His son Paul August made many of the plant illustrations as well as the only known portrait of Rumphius. Other assistants included Philips van Eyck, a draughtsman, Daniel Crul, Pieter de Ruyter (a soldier trained by Van Eyck), Johan Philip Sipman, Christiaen Gieraerts J. Hoogeboom[1] An English translation by E. M. Beekman, which took seven years to make, was posthumously published in 2011.[9]
At the beginning of the 20th centuryElmer Drew Merrill andCharles Budd Robinson published an interpretation of theHerbarium Ambroinense.[10] Robinson recollected plants described by Rumphius and distributed theherbarium specimens in hisexsiccata-like series calledC. B. Rogerson: Plantae Rumphianae Amboinenses.[11]
Among the many species described in theHerbarium was the upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria); the toxicity of the tree was exaggerated and caught the fancy of Europeans.[12] Other plants included a description of the clove, the starfruit and durian. Rumphius used multinomial names and his descriptions were largely missed by Linnaeus as he received it after he had worked onSpecies Plantarum.[9] Rumphius was the first to interpret the function of the pitchers inpitcher plants. He also discovered that some mosquitoes bred in their pools. He analysed edible nest swiftlets and came to the conclusion that the substance was produced by the swiftlets and not by marine algae as had been earlier believed.[2]
The other major work,D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer ("Amboinese Cabinet of Curiosities"), a manuscript he had sent to Dr Hendrik D'Acquet ofDelft in 1701, consisted mainly of plates of seashells and crabs.[6]
After Rumphius' death, his son Paul August was appointed "merchant of Amboina", the position his father had held. A monument was erected to the memory of Rumphius at Amboina, but this was destroyed by the English, who mistakenly believed they would find gold under it. In 1824 a second monument was built by Governor-General van der Capellen, but this was destroyed by a bomb in World War II.[1]
Media related toGeorg Eberhard Rumpf at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
