Title:

Jacob Theodor Klein as a collector of the nature drawing and an associate of illustrators and engravers

Subtitle:

Analecta: Studies and Materials for the History of Science

Creator:

Jakubowski, Jakub

Institutional creator:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Publisher:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2022

Date on-line publ.:

2022.06.30

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

Jacob Theodor Klein ; natural history ; nature drawing ; nature collection ; circulation of knowledge ; Gdańsk

Abstract:

Jacob Theodor Klein (1685–1759) was one of the most prominent collectors and naturalists operating in Gdańsk in the 18th century. Apart from natural specimens, he was gathering nature drawings, acquired from sources such as Samuel Niedenthal’s body of work or Hiob Ludolf’s legacy. In the mid-1720s, Klein commissioned David Schultz, a draughtsperson based in Gdańsk, to produce visual documentation of the Museum Kleinianum. Afterwards, the task was taken over by two of Klein’s daughters, Dorothea Juliana Gralath and Theodora Renata Klein, who made in-situ studies of selected museum exhibits with the former designing vignette illustrations for her father’s editions as well. Engravings modelled after the nature drawings from Klein’s collection often illustrated his scientific publications. Earlier ones, from the late 1720s and early 1730s, were made by Gdańsk-based Peter Böse and Johann Friedrich Mylius; later ones, from the mid-1730s to the end of the 1740s, by professional artists from Nuremberg, Leipzig and Halle on the Saale, among whom Georg Wolfgang Knorr, Johann Wilhelm Stör and Johann Michael Seligmann deserve special mention. Klein’s work consolidated the naturalist community of Gdańsk and promoted academic networking within the region.

Relation:

Analecta : studia i materiały z dziejów nauki polskiej

Volume:

31 (2022)

Issue:

1

Start page:

59

End page:

84

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

PDF

Resource Identifier:

1230-1159

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, full text available at:

Original in:

Library of the Institute for the History of Science PAS

Access:

Open