In Juni 2023, a facsimile of the Flora Batava was published. In addition to all 2240 original plates, this reissue in one volume also contains 100 new stories from plant connoisseurs and admirers. Several WUR employees have contributed to this publication. The wide variety of themes and insights illustrates the continuing importance of a publication …
In an article in the Arnhemse Courant “Delight of mother nature, a walk through Wageningen’s arboretum” (22 September 1948), mention is made of a special acquisition by the Rijkslandbouwhogeschool’s library, the predecessor of WUR Library: ‘And then this remarkable book ‘Flora Batava’ by J. C. Sepp and Son of 1800, in which the images have …
The first 40 drawings for the Flora Batava were copied from the Flora Londinensis (William Curtis). Thereafter, the plants (specimens) were collected in the Netherlands and depicted by artists from life. This could be a long process because the drawings depict the plant parts from different life stages (e.g. the seeds, the flowers). This meant …
The plants in the Flora Batava are described according to the system of Linnaeus. He described the rules for this system in Species Plantarum (1753). In the Plantarum Linneaus divided the vegetable kingdom into 24 classes, based on their reproductive organs. The system is based on the number and arrangement of male (stamens) and female …
As is usual with these kinds of serial masterpieces in the 18th century, the publication was pre-subscribed and published in periodical issues. Interested parties could subscribe to the voluminous work in installments. The individual issues were bound into volumes by the subscribers themselves, for which Sepp supplied a title page and a foreword. Four or …
The idea for the Flora Batava, an illustrated serial publication describing all plants in the wild in the Netherlands, came from the publisher family Sepp, a publisher also known for publishing serial works about birds (Nederlandsche Vogelen, 1770-1829) and insects (Beschouwing der wonderen Gods…, 1762-1860). The father of Jan Christiaan Sepp (born around 1710 in …
The Dutch term ‘slagenlandschap’ is a collective name for many landscapes with long narrow plots in former swampy transition zone between higher areas (often with sandy soils) to lower marine clay areas. These plots were mined around the so-called road villages (in Dutch: wegdorpen). These residential ribbons can be regarded as closed edges of open …
The moor consolidation landscape / Slagenlandschap Read More »
The landscapes of the Zeeland and Zuid Holland islands and West Brabant consist of a succession of small polders in a lagoon. Here, due to the tidal action, new land was silted up to become salt marshes and mud flats. When those salt marshes had silted up high enough, the sea also deposited a fertile …
In the river area of Brabant six land consolidations were prepared in the Beersche Overlaat. The Beersche Overlaat is where the Maas created an extra discharge route in the event of heavy precipitation. This spillway was closed after the Maas was canalized in the 1930s and the dykes along it were reinforced. For Benthem, the …
River landscape in Brabant / Stroomruggenlandschap in Brabant Read More »
An early Gelderland land consolidation is Hedel-Ammerzoden. The landscape plan was completed in 1947, according to the annual report of Staatsbosbeheer, and was planted in the winter of 1948/49. Several publications comment upon the “deteriorated land” in the river area before the land consolidation. The farms in the villages destroyed by war were replaced by …
River landscape in Gelderland / Gelderse stroomruggen Read More »