Flora Batava at WUR Library
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 become works of art, fine in colour, sensitive in drawing. The library has managed to obtain the original drawings of all these illustrations.’
The drawings referred to in this article are almost all original drawings of the first seven parts of the Flora Batava. These drawings are bound together with the final printed issues.
WUR library also has a collection of loose drawings that belong to volumes eight through thirteen. In total, this collection comprises approximately 1000 drawings of the 2240 drawings that were produced for the Flora Batava. The drawings were purchased for 1500 Dutch guilders from auction house Theodorus Bom in 1948.
The provenance of the original drawings in the Special Collections of WUR Library is still being researched. Most likely these drawings were originally owned by the publisher Sepp and Son, which closed after the first 13 volumes of the Flora Batava were published, from which point the publication of the Flora Batava was transferred to other publishers. The original drawings belonging to volumes 13 and further of the Flora Batava are now part of the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
WUR Library owns several series of the Flora Batava: https://wur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/72725467
