Coenraad Jacob Temminck and the Emergence of Systematics (1800–1850)

343 Pages·2021·11.693 MB·English

by  Maria Eulàlia Gassó Miracle, Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Coenraad Jacob Temminck and the Emergence of Systematics (1800–1850)
Emergence of Natural History
Series Editors
Aaron M. Bauer (Villanova University, PA, USA)
Kay Etheridge (Gettysburg College, PA, USA)
Dominik Hünniger (University of Hamburg, Germany)
Andreas Weber (University of Twente, Netherlands)
Editorial Board
Tom Baione (amnh, USA)
Isabelle Charmantier (Linnean Society, UK)
Esther van Gelder (Huygens ing, Netherlands)
Eric Jorink (Huygens ing and Leiden University, Netherlands)
Sachiko Kusukawa (Cambridge University, UK)
Santiago Madriñan (Universidad de Los Andes, Columbia)
Dániel Margócsy (University of Cambridge, UK)
Henrietta McBurney Ryan (independent scholar and art curator, UK)
Staffan Müller-Wille (University of Cambridge, UK)
Florence Pieters (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bert van de Roemer (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Kees Rookmaaker (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Paul Smith (Leiden University, Netherlands)
Claudia Swan (Northwestern University, USA)
Mary Terrall (ucla, USA)
Volume 4
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/enh
Coenraad Jacob Temminck
and the Emergence of
Systematics (1800–1850)
By
Maria Eulàlia Gassó Miracle
LEIDEN | BOSTON
This publication has been funded in part by Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Chapters 5 and 6 have been adapted by permission from Springer Nature:
Gassó Miracle, “Significance of Temminck’s Work on Biogeography: Early Nineteenth Century Natural
History in Leiden, the Netherlands.” Journal of the History of Biology 41, no. 4 (2008): 677–716. doi:10.1007/
s10739-008-9158-8.
Gassó Miracle, “On Whose Authority? Temminck’s Debates on Zoological Classification and Nomenclature:
1820–1850.” Journal of the History of Biology 44, no. 3 (2011): 445–481. doi:10.1007/s10739-010-9265-1.
Cover illustration: Bec de Calao. Hand-colored engraving after a drawing by Nicholas Huet. In Coenraad
Jacob Temminck and Guillaume Michel Jerôme Meiffren Laugier de Chartrouse, Nouveau recueil de
planches coloriées d’oiseaux, vol. 2, livraison 64 (1831): plate 521. Image from the Biodiversity Heritage
Library. Digitized by the Smithsonian Libraries.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046572
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2452-3283
isbn 978-90-04-41917-9 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-44149-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2022 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands, except where stated otherwise.
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Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau Verlag and V&R Unipress.
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Illustrations ix
Abbreviations xii
Note on Quotations and Translations xiii
Introduction 1
1 Portraits of Coenraad Jacob Temminck 2
2 On Dutch Natural History 7
3 Summary of the Chapters 10
4 A Word of Caution: On Definitions 12
Part 1
Birds, Cabinets, and Museums
1 From Catalogs to Monographs 19
1 Exotic Birds on Cupboards and Plates 20
2 François Levaillant and Bernhard Meyer 27
3 From Listing to Classifying 34
4 Temminck’s Earliest Monographs 41
2 From Collector to Director 46
1 Appointments and Politics 46
2 The Direction of ’s Lands Kabinet 51
3 Collections for the Universities 57
4 Building Up a Network 63
5 The Concept of a National Museum 75
3 National Museum, National Expeditions 85
1 The Birth of ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie 85
2 Temminck’s Directorate 89
3 Colonial Nature 103
4 A Worldwide Web of Collectors 114
vi Contents
4 A Place for Systematics 120
1 The Museum’s Scientific Output 120
2 Temminck’s Podium 127
3 The Geography of Systematics 138
Part 2
Zoological Classification: 1800–1850
5 Patterns, Laws, and Types 157
1 Geographical Patterns and the ‘Type’ Concept 157
2 Temminck’s Law versus Buffon’s Law 168
3 On the Origin and Immutability of Species 172
4 After Temminck’s Law 177
6 Systematics Wars 183
1 Temminck’s Debates 184
2 Nomenclatural Chaos 185
3 Establishing Genera 196
4 The Search for a Natural Classification System 209
5 The ‘Parliamentary Practice’ 216
7 Systematics and Natural History: 1800–1850 226
1 Defining ‘Natural History’ 226
2 The Issue of Philosophical Arguments 231
3 The Status of Anatomy and Physiology 238
4 Systematics within Natural History 243
Conclusion: The Emergence of Systematics 255
Appendix 265
Bibliography 291
Index of Subjects 321
Acknowledgments
The idea for an in-depth study of Temminck and the Rijksmuseum arose, like
many other great ideas, from good conversation over a cup of coffee. For this
I am forever indebted to Professor Rob P. W. Visser at Utrecht University. The
conversation took place many years ago. Subsequently Professor Visser became
my PhD supervisor. After his retirement his successors, Frans van Lunteren at
the University of Leiden and Bert Theunissen at Utrecht University, guided and
supported me with patience, enthusiasm, and expertise as I completed the dis-
sertation that preceded this book. Their help has been invaluable in every way.
My debt is also to my colleagues at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
Specifically, I would like to thank René Dekker, Jeroen Snijders, Maaike van
de Kamp-Romijn, Luc Willemse, Rob de Vos, and Tiny Monquil-Broersen,
who made it possible for me to spend numerous hours on researching and
writing. I am also indebted to the Naturalis Library and Archives team for
granting me swift access to books and manuscripts, and for digitizing part of
Temminck’s correspondence, especially Caroline Pepermans, Karien Lahaise,
Menno Hooft, Sylvia Schwencke, and Marianne van der Wal. Collection man-
agers Esther Dondorp, Pepijn Kamminga, Lisa Lankhaar, and Ronald de Ruiter
kindly provided information about the collections under their care, and pho-
tographed some of the specimens. I would also like to express my gratitude to
the late Chris Smeenk, to John de Vos, Marinus Hoogmoed, Hein van Grouw,
and Martien van Oijen; each of them proved to be an inexhaustible source
of knowledge.
Many kind and knowledgeable people helped me with my questions, broad-
ened my views, commented on the manuscript, and inspired me, each in his or
her own stimulating way. In particular, I would like to thank Justin Jansen, Ad
Maas, Robbert Striekwold, Robert-Jan Wille, Bernhard Schär, Esther van Gelder,
Hieke Huistra, Martin Weiss, Eric Jorink, Paul Farber, Lissa Roberts, and Paul
Smith. I met many of them at events organized by Gewina, the Belgian-Dutch
Society for History of Science and Universities.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Baroness Alberta Maria
van Lynden-de Bruïne (1922–2016), the great-great-grandchild of Coenraad J.
Temminck, who was so kind as to invite me to her home in Middelburg, where
we had the most delightful and interesting conversations about Temminck
and his wife, Caatje. The baroness generously granted me access to the fam-
ily archives.
I am indebted to the archivists and librarians of the Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin, the National Archives of the Netherlands, and the Leiden University
viii Acknowledgments
Libraries for providing (digital) access to their holdings. The Biodiversity
Heritage Library has also been essential for this research: without this open-
access digital library and archive specializing in biodiversity I would not have
been able to consult many of the works needed for this book.
I am truly thankful to the editorial team of the Brill book series Emergence
of Natural History for their support, especially to Andreas Weber, an assistant
professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies (STePS)
at the University of Twente. I also would like to thank Rosanna Woensdregt,
the associate editor Biology and History of Science at Brill, for her guidance
through the editorial process.
This book could not have been published without the meticulous and
insightful copyediting by Anke Timmerman of Type & Forme. She has pro-
vided invaluable advice on referencing, style, and content, polishing the manu-
script and making it ready for publication. I am very thankful to Dan Connolly
of Word for Word Book Services for writing the perfect index for this book.
Finally, I could never have completed this research without the support of
my beloved family. My husband, Vincent van der Meij, and my son, Víctor, both
looked after and encouraged me with patience and humor throughout the long
and convoluted process leading to the finished book.
This publication has been funded in part by Naturalis Biodiversity Center in
Leiden, the Netherlands.
Illustrations
1 Ceriornis Temmincki (Temminck’s Tragopan, now Tragopan temminckii),
Hand-colored lithograph by Joseph Smit. In Elliot, Daniel Giraud. A Monograph
of the “Phasianidae,” or Family of the Pheasants, vol. 1 (1872): plate 24 3
2 Coenraad Jacob Temminck. Portrait by Jan Adam Kruseman, 1836.
Oil on canvas 18
3 Scarlet Macaw specimen from Temminck’s private collection, ca. 1800–1820
(rmnh.aves.208372) 25
4 Mandrill specimen from Temminck’s private collection, ca. 1800–1820 (rmnh.
mam.59782) 26
5 Plotus LeVaillantii. Hand-colored engraved plate after a drawing by Nicholas
Huet. In Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Guillaume Michel Jerôme Meiffren
Laugier de Chartrouse, Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d’oiseaux, vol. 5,
livraison 64 (1825): plate 380 32
6 Coucous, in “Catalogue du cabinet de C. J. Temminck,” Coenraad Jacob
Temminck’s manuscript catalog of his collection, ca. 1800–1804 37
7 Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Pauline de Courcelles, Histoire naturelle
générale des Pigeons (1808) 40
8 Martinus van Marum, director of the Teylers Museum. Portrait by Charles
Howard Hodges, ca. 1826. Oil on canvas 53
9 Gevelaanzicht van het Trippenhuis, Amsterdam (Façade of the Trippenhuis).
Drawing by Reinier Vinkeles, 1803 55
10 Psittacus Swinderianus Kuhl. Hand-colored engraving after A. Prevost. In
Heinrich Kuhl, Conspectus Psittacorum (1820): plate 2 62
11 F. Andrea Bonelli. Portrait by Giovanni Battista Biscarra, 1830. Oil on canvas 71
12 Aigle Bonelli. Hand-colored engraving after a drawing by Jean-Charles
Werner based on Bonelli’s specimen depicted on his portrait. In Coenraad
Jacob Temminck and Jean-Charles Werner. Les oiseaux d’Europe décrits par
C. J. Temminck (1848): plate [24] 72
13 Sebald Justinus Brugmans, hoogleraar Botanie, Natuurlijke Historie,
Medicijnen en Chemie te Leiden. Portrait by Charles Howard Hodges, 1815.
Oil on canvas 79
14 Rapenburg 28. Photograph by Jan Goedeljee [before 1882] 91
15 A Japanese Soldierfish prepared by Temminck’s method, cut along one side
from head to tail (rmnh.pisc.D.243) 96
16 The uncut side of the Japanese Soldierfish, varnished and furnished with a glass
eye for display (rmnh.pisc.D.243) 96