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De Olinda a Holanda: O gabinete de curiosidades de Nassau

2016; Duke University Press; Volume: 96; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-3424264

1527-1900

Marianne L. Wiesebron,

Historical Education and Society

During his tenure as governor of Dutch Brazil from 1637 to 1644, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (1604–1679) was interested in much more than statesmanship and leading military campaigns. He was interested in science and art, and he brought a whole team of scientists and artists with him to Brazil. The different members of this team left an impressive inheritance of great importance for scientific development: Willem Piso was a pioneer in tropical medicine, while Georg Markgraf was dedicated to natural history, astronomy, and cartography. Johan Maurits established the first observatory as well as the first zoological and botanical gardens on the American continent, and he collected intensively during his stay.Mariana de Campos Françozo researched for her PhD and this book under review how these collections came about, what happened to them when they were taken to Europe, and their political dividends when parts of them were donated. There exist quite a number of publications on the humanist Johan Maurits in Brazil and how he fostered science and art and established varied collections with mostly Brazilian but also some African artifacts, as well as how part of these collections ended up as gifts to kings and aristocrats in return for favors. However, this is the first systematic analysis from an anthropological and historical perspective of Johan Maurits's Brazilian collections, their final destination in Europe, and the reason for transporting them there as collections or as gifts.Françozo starts by explaining the formation of cabinets of curiosities or schatkamers (treasure rooms) in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the people behind it. The majority belonged to the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the universities. During the Age of Discovery, men in power, rich merchants, and scholars had an interest in the exotic, but collections also conferred status. It was quite expensive to get animals, plants, artifacts, or drawings and paintings of these from the other side of the world. From 1580 onward, it was also possible to buy exotic products in different towns of the Dutch Republic. Thanks to the republic's many seafaring routes and its intellectual climate, Dutch collections became famous and attracted many illustrious visitors. There was a lively exchange and correspondence between collectors, especially naturalists and botanists. The exchange of exotic gifts became part of political and diplomatic visits.Françozo goes on to highlight the education of Johan Maurits, who, as an aristocrat, got specifically schooled in culture, patronage, and collecting. Later he got military training. She describes his patronage and collecting activities in Brazil. By following some specific objects, she shows how global the exchange of goods and presents was in the seventeenth century. To give one example: Portuguese traders brought a Peruvian silver dish to Africa via Argentina. Much later, an African ambassador gave this dish to Johan Maurits to foster an alliance between them. Johan Maurits eventually gilded the plate, added some personal inscriptions, and gave it to the Calvinist church of Siegen, where it still can be found. In this chapter, the author also stresses how important gifts had become for forging alliances with different indigenous tribes and African leaders, among others. Moreover, Indians played a foremost role in the development of trade, collections, and the gifting of tropical birds, in particular all sorts of parrots. These were very much in demand because they could imitate the human voice and had beautifully colored feathers.Françozo then analyzes how knowledge was acquired and transmitted in this period between Brazil and Europe. She highlights a couple of crucial publications made about Brazil, particularly the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, published in 1648 by Elsevier. She explains the entire process of editing and distributing this text. The Historia had five authors: Piso, Markgraf, and three unknown ones. Johannes De Laet wrote the introduction and was the editor. Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was the most important scientific publication on Brazilian flora and fauna, and it was partly based on Johan Maurits's collections. Drawings and paintings were highly considered for their scientific value and because they were much easier to keep than fauna and flora, alive or dead. Most collections consisted of artifacts and their images.After eight years in Brazil, Johan Maurits was sent home, where he busied himself with his ostentatious home, the Mauritshuis, which was very close to the political center of the Dutch Republic in The Hague. It included a museum room, and he liked showing off his enormous and noteworthy collection to distinguished guests. One of his artifacts, which circulated among female royalty, was an Indian mantle woven with red feathers. But he also gave part of his collection away, in exchange for prestige, status, and positions; the elector of Brandenburg and the king of Denmark were recipients of especially strategic importance. The elector made him stadhouder of Cleves, Mark, and Ravensberg in 1647, and prince in 1653. The list and quality of presents that the elector got were quite impressive. By giving to key figures, Johan Maurits's name was forever linked to the objects and to his government of Brazil.