Markgraf, Georg b. September 20, 1610; Liebstadt, Saxony d.July or August (?), 1644; Sao Paulo de Loanda (Angola)

Explorer and cartographer from Saxony who worked for the Dutch West Indies Company in Brazil. Markgraf was one of the earliest German-speaking explorers in South America. In 1627 Markgraf entered the University of Leipzig, where he studied medicine and mathematics.

He later continued his studies at the universities of Erfurt, Wittenberg, Straβburg, Basel, Greifswald, and Rostock before entering the University of Leiden in 1636. There he became interested in botany and astronomy. When his teacher Willem Piso was appointed personal physician to Count Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, the governor of the Dutch colony in Brazil, in 1638, Markgraf accompanied him to Pernambuco (Recife) where he became his personal assistant. Markgraf enjoyed the support and patronage of the governor, who made him the court mathematician. When the governor ordered the construction of an observatory (the first European-style observatory built in the Southern Hemisphere) to observe a predicted solar eclipse in November 1640, he put Markgraf in charge of the observation of the eclipse. During his travels in the Brazilian interior, Markgraf collected plant and animal specimens, which were integrated into the zoological and botanical garden he had created for the governor’s park. In 1640 this botanical garden included over 800 trees— among them the first coffee plants introduced from Batavia (Indonesia) into South America. Following an order of the governor, Markgraf traveled to the Dutch colony of Sao Paulo de Loanda (Angola) in 1644, where shortly after his arrival he died of malaria.

His benefactor, Johann Moritz, brought the collected knowledge of Mark- graf to Europe, where it was distributed to several museums. Unfortunately Mark- graf’s most important scientific work is lost: the manuscript Progymnastica Mathe- matica Americana (Mathematical Studies on America), in which he described the signs of the zodiac of the Southern Hemisphere, celestial navigation, and the tables of planets.

Markgraf’s plant and animal collections were brought to Leiden and Copenhagen. His notes on the flora and fauna of Brazil and his meteorological, geographical, and ethnographical descriptions of Brazil survived and were integrated into the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (Natural History of Brazil), which was authored by Jan de Laet and published in Amsterdam by Caspar Barlaeus in 1648. This 300-page text contains 429 woodcuts based on Markgraf’s drawings. Of equal importance are Markgraf’s 24 manuscript maps. These maps were the result of his exploration of the coastal region of Brazil between the fifth and eleventh parallel of latitude. They were the basis for copperplates made by Joan Blaeu, which were published from 1647 onward. The first four copper prints were published in Caspar Barlaeus’s Rerum per Octennium in Brasiliae... histo- ria (Events in eight years of Brazilian history) in 1647. In the same year, Blaeu published a large-scale four-part map Brasilia qua parte paret Belgis (On the Dutch Part of Brazil) based on Markgraf’s map. This monumental map (161 by 101 centimeters) on a 1 to 400,000 scale is the first map of Brazil based on exact cartographic measurement. This map shows the coastline of Brazil between the Rio Grande to the north and the Rio Sao Francisco to the south, as well as some of the interior regions of the country. On its margins and in place of the unexplored parts of Brazil, the map displays texts and drawings about ethnographic and economic aspects of the land. This map was frequently reprinted and included in all major map collections of its time.

Heinz Peter Brogiato

Markgraf, Georg b. September 20, 1610; Liebstadt, Saxony d.July or August (?), 1644; Sao Paulo de Loanda (Angola)

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