These mid-19th century lithographic plates come (variously) from the original Dutch and later German editions of a 4-volume work by the eccentric but brilliant Dutch naturalist, Franz Junghuhn. The title roughly translates to 'The Geography and Flora of Java'.
Although the scenes in Indonesia depicted are the same in each edition, new lithographic stones with more detail were prepared for the later version, which also features better printing quality. I've chosen those later ones where possible, except when the age-related damage was more extensive or too difficult to remedy.
Rather than repeat or paraphrase myself, I recommend seeing the Merapi Volcano post from a couple of months ago for more detail about Junghuhn and some biographical links. His life story really is fascinating.
- 'Java: Deszelfs Dedaante, Bekleeding en Inwendige Structuur' (1851-1854) is available from the Botanicus website.
- 'Java: Seine Gestalt, Pflanzendecke und Innere Bauart' (1857) is also online at Botanicus.
- I see the Internet Archive has both of these works and another book by Junghuhn.
- And in general: links / posts / feeds / bookmarks / twitter.
2 comments:
From someone who never leaves a comment but appreciates what you do, thank you so much for another year of excellent posts.
as Indonsian and also Javanese, Thank you so much for this precious post. It's mean a lot to me and also Indonesian who want to learn about their own country. Thank you :)
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