Historia naturalis Brasiliae — Teylers Museum

Historia naturalis Brasiliae

1648

The book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (HNB), originally published in 1648 by Willem Piso and George Marcgraf, is the first product of the encounter between early modern European scholarship and South American indigenous knowledge. A n in-folio volume of about 400 pages organized in an encyclopedic format, it brings together information about the natural world, linguistics, astronomy, and geography of South America. Piso and Marcgraf collected this information while working for the then governor of the Dutch colony in Brazil, Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen.