Description
Book SynopsisCoenraad Jacob Temminck and the Emergence of Systematics (1800–1850) is the first study to examine in detail the life and work of Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858), the Dutch naturalist who was the first director of ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) in Leiden, The Netherlands. This study situates Temminck’s activities in the context of European natural history during the early to the mid-nineteenth century. Three issues which defined the era are discussed in more detail: the growing European colonial territories, the rise of scientific meritocracy, and the emergence of systematics as a discipline. Temminck’s biography elucidates how and why systematics developed, and why its status within the natural sciences has been a matter of discussion for more than a century.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Illustrations Abbreviations Note on Quotations and Translations Introduction 1 Portraits of Coenraad Jacob Temminck 2 On Dutch Natural History 3 Summary of the Chapters 4 A Word of Caution: On Definitions part 1: Birds, Cabinets, and Museums 1 From Catalogs to Monographs 1 Exotic Birds on Cupboards and Plates 2 François Levaillant and Bernhard Meyer 3 From Listing to Classifying 4 Temminck’s Earliest Monographs 2 From Collector to Director 1 Appointments and Politics 2 The Direction of ’s Lands Kabinet 3 Collections for the Universities 4 Building Up a Network 5 The Concept of a National Museum 3 National Museum, National Expeditions 1 The Birth of ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie 2 Temminck’s Directorate 3 Colonial Nature 4 A Worldwide Web of Collectors 4 A Place for Systematics 1 The Museum’s Scientific Output 2 Temminck’s Podium 3 The Geography of Systematics Part 2: Zoological Classification: 1800–1850 5 Patterns, Laws, and Types 1 Geographical Patterns and the “Type” Concept 2 Temminck’s Law versus Buffon’s Law 3 On the Origin and Immutability of Species 4 After Temminck’s Law 6 Systematics Wars 1 Temminck’s Debates 2 Nomenclatural Chaos 3 Establishing Genera 4 The Search for a Natural Classification System 5 The ‘Parliamentary Practice’ 7 Systematics and Natural History: 1800–1850 1 Defining ‘Natural History’ 2 The Issue of Philosophical Arguments 3 The Status of Anatomy and Physiology 4 Systematics within Natural History Conclusion: The Emergence of Systematics Appendix Bibliography Index
