Prof. Dr. Sietske Fransen
Cambridge University
The Hortus malabaricus and the
Botany of South Asia, c. 1675
Please register to attend here.
When:
22 November, 2023: 16.15 – 17.45
Where:
Room C.2.07a
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Elsene Brussel
Belgium
This talk examines the making of Hendrik Rheede tot Drakesteyn’s Hortus malabaricus, the foundational work of Dutch colonial botany, from the perspective of Matthew of Saint Joseph, a discalced carmelite monk who claimed authorship for this work in the 1680s. Matthew of Saint Joseph’s extensive manuscripts offer a new perspective on the political and scientific networks that enabled the production of the Hortus malabaricus on the Malabar Coast, raising important questions about the nature of the colonial encounter in Cochin and its neighbouring areas. In particular, it will be argued that religion and mysticism may have played an important and unacknowledged undercurrent in negotiating knowledge exchanges in the Dutch colonial world.
