An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

BURMAN, Johannes

2 entries
  • 13263

Thesaurus Zeylanicus exhibens plantas in Insula Zeylana nascentes; Inter quas plurimae novae species, & genera inveniuntur. Omnia Iconibus illustrata, ac descripta.

Amsterdam: Janssonio-Waesbergios & Salomonem Schouten, 1737.

The first illustrated flora of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon). Burman, a Dutch physician, was a friend and correspondent of Linnaeus and professor of botany. "Indeed, Linnaeus, as a guest at the Burman house, had a hand in the perfecting of the 'Thesaurus Zeylanicus' itself" (Hunt 501). The final part is subtitled Catalogi duo plantarum Africanorum and is basically a list of plants collected by Paul Hermann, who had visited South Africa on his way to Ceylon. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans, p.165). Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Catalogues of Plants, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Sri Lanka
  • 6837

Het Amboinsche Kruidboek . . . Herbarium Amboinense . . . nunc primum in lucem edidit & in Latinum semonem vertit Joannes Burmannus. 6 vols.

Amsterdam & The Hague: François Changuion, 17411750.

Het Amboinsche kruidboek or Herbarium Amboinensea catalogue of the plants of Ambon in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, by Georg Eberhard Rumphius, a German-born soldier and botanist employed by the Dutch East India Company, was edited by Dutch botanist and physician Johannes Burman, and posthumously published in Amsterdam in a 6-volume bilingual Dutch and Latin from 1741 to 1750. The work, which provided the basis for all future study of the flora of the Moluccas, described 2000 species. It presented descriptions of the plants and their habitats, and their economic and medicinal uses, and also recorded native plant names in Malay, Latin, Dutch, and Ambonese—and often in Macassarese and Chinese as well.

That this large work was ever published was truly remarkable, considering the hardships that its author faced during its composition, and the complications that occurred after its completion. Even after going blind in 1670 due to glaucoma, Rumphius persisted in the composition of his manuscript with the help of his wife, Suzanna. However, on February 17, 1674 his wife and a daughter were killed by a wall collapse during a major earthquake and tsunami. His son Paul August made many of the plant illustrations and also the only known portrait of Rumphius. Other assistants included Philips van Eyck, a draughtsman, Daniel Crul, Pieter de Ruyter, a soldier trained by Van Eyck, Johan Philip Sipman, Christiaen Gieraerts, and J. Hoogeboom. See The Ambonese Herbal. Georgius Everhardus Rumphius; Translated, Annotated, and with an Introduction by E. M. Beekman. 6 vols., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. Includes reproduction of all 811 original illustrations. Digital facsimile of the complete set of six volumes published from 1741 to 1750 from Botanicus.org at this link.

For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Botanical Illustration, BOTANY › Catalogues of Plants, BOTANY › Ethnobotany, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Indonesia, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines