The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet

Georgius Everhardus Rumphius

ISBN 10: 0300075340 / ISBN 13: 9780300075342

Published by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1999

About this Item

This hardcover edition of The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet is in good condition. The dust jacket shows slight wear at the top and bottom edges but remains intact. The binding is solid, and there are no inscriptions or library markings. Overall, a well-preserved copy suitable for collectors and researchers. slight wear at the top and bottom edges.

Seller Inventory # A10-B3-CIZ-0247

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet
• Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven and London
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300075340
• ISBN 13: 9780300075342
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

G. E. Rumphius, also known as the “Indian Pliny,” was one of the great tropical naturalists of the seventeenth century. Born in Germany, he spent most of his life in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, stationed on the island of Ambon in eastern Indonesia. He wrote two major works; this one, the first modern work on tropical fauna, was published posthumously in Dutch in 1705. A classic text of natural history, it is now available in English for the first time.


The descriptions in The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet cover the gamut of organisms found in the seas surrounding Ambon―crabs, shrimp, sea urchins, mussels―as well as minerals and rare concretions taken from animals and plants. A series of exquisite etchings accompanies the descriptions. The book has been masterfully translated and extensively annotated by E. M. Beekman, whose introduction provides the first biography of Rumphius in English that incorporates new material.

About the Author

E. M. Beekman is professor of Germanic languages at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A scholar of Dutch colonial literature, he is the author of two dozen books and a noted translator.