Libri Principis and Illustrations of Fauna and Flora of Dutch Brazil

Abstract

This paper deals with a set of illustrations of flora and fauna known as Libri Principis, carried out between the years of 1637 and 1644 in the 17th century in Dutch Brazil, during the government of Maurice of Nassau, by artists and scientists of his entourage. Although Libri Principis, with its two volumes bound with drawings and paintings, has existed for nearly four centuries, it has received little attention, especially from art historians, as it went missing during World War II and was only rediscovered in 1977 in the Jagiellonian Library of the University of Cracow, in Poland. The main aim of my research was to study this material in order to identify its historical trajectory and to investigate how, why and by whom it was produced. Accordingly, it was carried out a bibliographical review and a research on the pictorial techniques used by the traveling artists of the time. As conclusion, I highlight the interest and close relationship of Maurice of Nassau with the development of European Natural History and the insertion of Libri Principis in the broad context of artistic, scientific and technological development of the 17th century.