Plant Knowledge in the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648): Retentions of Seventeenth-Century Plant Use in Brazil

Abstract

The Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (HNB, 1648) is the most complete treatise on Brazilian flora and fauna created in the seventeenth century. Scientists Marcgrave and Piso depicted hundreds of plants and described uses, vernacular names, and diseases in Dutch Brazil. We aimed to verify whether these plants are still used similarly, using herbarium vouchers and taxonomic literature to identify the species described in the HNB and reviewing historical and modern ethnobotanical literature to analyze whether the HNB documented specific plants and uses for the northeast region. We highlighted Old World species, as they indicate plant introduction before and during the transAtlantic slave trade and exchange of African ethnobotanical knowledge. Of the 378 species found in the HNB, 256 (68%) were useful, mostly used for healing and food in a similar way (80%) both in the seventeenth century and in modern Brazil. Only one species (Swartzia pickelii) is endemic to northeast Brazil, while the others are more widely distributed. The HNB includes one of the first reports on African crops in Brazil, such as sesame, okra, and spider plant. This study brings insights on indigenous and African plant knowledge retentions since the creation of the HNB and acknowledges its non-European contributors. Conhecimento de plantas na Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648): retenções de uso de plantas úteis do século

Looking into the flora of Dutch Brazil: botanical identifications of seventeenth century plant illustrations in the Libri Picturati

“…The page with Ambaibuna is located between Ambaiba (p. 137), which corresponds to the illustration of Cecropia pachystachya Trécul, and a blank page with only the vernacular name Ambaitinga (p. 141), which corresponds to C. hololeuca Miq. [7: 92], [25] (Fig. 1).…”

“…Next, we included our taxonomical identi cations (to species level whenever possible), and indicated whether these taxa were present in Marcgrave and Piso's books [7] [8] or Marcgrave's herbarium (1638-1643/4) (available at https://samlinger.snm.ku.dk/en/dry-and-wetcollections/botany/general-herbarium/the-marcgrave-herbarium/). We identi ed the illustrated plant taxa by using our previous identi cations of the species present in the HNB, the IURNM and Marcgrave's herbarium [25], and previous research of the Brazilian botanists Pickel [66] on the species described in Marcgrave and Piso's textual sources and Andrade-Lima et al [87] on Marcgrave's herbarium. We compared the illustrations with related seventeenth century Brazilian images (Wagener, c.1641 [77]).…”

Looking into the flora of Dutch Brazil: botanical identifications of seventeenth century plant illustrations in the Libri Picturati

“…Next, we included our taxonomical identifications (to species level whenever possible), and indicated whether these taxa were present in Marcgrave and Piso’s books 7 , 8 or Marcgrave’s herbarium (1638-1643/4) (available at https://samlinger.snm.ku.dk/en/dry-and-wet-collections/botany/general-herbarium/the-marcgrave-herbarium/ ). We identified the illustrated plant taxa by using our previous identifications of the species present in the HNB, the IURNM and Marcgrave’s herbarium 24 , and previous research of the Brazilian botanists Pickel 25 on the species described in Marcgrave and Piso’s textual sources and Andrade-Lima et al 26 on Marcgrave’s herbarium. We compared the illustrations with related seventeenth century Brazilian images (Wagener, c.1641 27 ).…”

Revision of the Megasoma (Megasoma) gyas (Jablonsky in Herbst, 1785) species group (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae)

“…Marcgraf’s drawings and descriptions of course referred to the places that Marcgraf visited himself, i.e., the old Dutch “Captaincy” of the northeast, which included the current states of Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Ceará, Piauí, and Rio Grande do Norte. In fact, during his seven-year stay, Marcgraf undertook various expeditions to visit the interior of northeastern Sertão to develop his detailed work on the natural history of Brazil ( Alcantara-Rodriguez et al 2019 ). At least three expeditions of forty, twenty, and eleven days’ duration between 1638 and 1640 were undertaken, most likely within the Pernambuco, Paraíba and the Rio Grande do Norte regions.…”