Hendrik van Rheede
Encyclopedia
Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein (Amsterdam, 13 April 1636 - at sea, 15 December 1691) was a military man and a colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company
and naturalist
. Between 1670 and 1677 he served as a governor of Dutch Malabar
and employed 25 people on his book Hortus Malabaricus
, describing 740 plants in the region. The plant Entada rheedii
is named for him.
. His mother Elisabeth van Utenhove died in 1637, his father, Ernst van Rheede, Council at the Admiralty of Amsterdam
, died when he was four. Hendrik Adriaan, the youngest of seven children, left home at the age of fourteen. In 1656 he joined as a soldier in the Dutch East India Company
and met with Johan Bax van Herentals. Van Rheede served under Admiral Rijcklof van Goens in campaigns against the Portuguese
on the west coast of India. He gained rapid promotion becoming an ensign
. In 1663, during a siege of Cochin
, he was ordered to arrest the queen there and this act saved her life from the massacre of the royal family. The subsequent king of Cochin maintained cordial relations with him and Van Rheede was the Dutch captain who mediated with the Kingdom of Cochin. In 1665 he was appointed as commander in Jaffna
and had Johan Nieuhof
locked up for smuggling pearls.
In 1669 Van Rheede seems to be forced to resign from the Dutch East India Company by Van Goens. The resignation was made as he opposed the repressive measures of Van Goens and instead favoured negotiation, but in 1670 he is appointed as commander of Dutch Malabar. In 1671 he fought with the Zamorin of Calicut. In 1672 he had to deal with the former VOC-employee François Caron
, then serving the French East India Company
.
In 1677 Van Rheede moved to Jakarta, being appointed in the Councel of India. He stayed for about six months but the conflict with Van Goens was growing more and more fierce. He returned to Amsterdam
in June 1678. Since 1680 he could call himself Lord of Mijdrecht
. In 1681 he signed a contract with the botanists Jan Commelin
and Johannes Munnicks and worked on the manuscript.
In 1684 he was empowered by the "directors" (Council of Seventeen) of the Company to inspect the Cape Colony
, Ceylon and Dutch India
to combat corruption within their employees. He appointed Isaac Soolmans to accompany him. They visited Simon van der Stel
in Cape of Good Hope
, and Groot Constantia
; the area Groot Drakenstein
was named after him. Van Rheede recommanded measures for forestry
and viniculture. In 1687 Governor Van der Stel opened this region to farmers.
Van Rheede was a bachelor, but had adopted a girl from Malabar with an unknown Dutch father. He met with Van Goens junior, an ambitious administrator on his way to Batavia. Both men didn't like each other at all. Some time before Van Goens had given orders - afraid for competition anywhere else in the world - to extirpate all the acclimatizating cinnamon trees which were destined for the Amsterdam Municipal Garden. It is possible that the rare trees for the Grand Pensionary
Gaspar Fagel
were then also destroyed.
Van Rheede sailed to Colombo
and after two months to Bengal. He visited many of VOC-trading post, espially around Hooghly. His next destination was the Coromandel
and stayed for one year in Nagapattinam
. In 1690 he founded a seminary in Jaffna
. Then he went to Tuticorin and the Malabar. In the end of November 1691 he sailed to Dutch Suratte, but died at sea, off the coast of Bombay on December 15, 1691. Some authors suggest that he was poisoned by VOC-employees. others that he was sick already for a while. He was buried at Surat
on 3 January 1692 in the presence of his daughter Francine.
His work on the plants of the Malabar region had begun earlier in 1674 and it was around 1675 that the draft of the first volume was produced. Since 1660 the Company encouraged publication of scientific work; the documentation of the useful plants by Van Rheede would help in the fight against local diseases. The first volume of the Hortus Malabaricus
, published in 1678, a compendium of the plants of economic and medical value in the south Indian Malabar region, was undertaken when Jonkheer
van Rheede was the Dutch Governor of Cochin and continued for the next three decades. It was published in twelve volumes and in four languages: Latin, Sanskrit
, Arabic and Mayalam. Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the Malabar region which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats
from Goa
to Kanyakumari
. The ethno-medical information presented in the work was extracted from palm leaf manuscript
s by a famous practitioner of herbal medicine named Itty Achuden
. The compilations were edited by a team of nearly a hundred including physicians, professors of medicine and botany, amateur botanists (such as professor Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen
, Paul Hermann
, Johannes Munnicks, Jan Commelin
, Abraham Poot, the translator of a Dutch version), Indian scholars and vaidyas (physicians) of Malabar and adjacent regions, and technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of company officials, clergymen (Johannes Casearius and Father Mathew of St. Joseph). He was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut.
His work was made use of by Carolus Linnaeus
. Linnaeus noted in the preface of his Genera plantarum (1737) that he did not trust any authors except Dillen in Hortus Elthamensis, Rheede in Hortus Malabaricus and Charles Plumier
on American plants and further noted that Rheede was the most accurate of the three.
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
and naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. Between 1670 and 1677 he served as a governor of Dutch Malabar
Dutch Malabar
Malabar, also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between 1661 and 1795, and is part of what is today collectively referred to as Dutch India...
and employed 25 people on his book Hortus Malabaricus
Hortus Malabaricus
Hortus Malabaricus is a comprehensive treatise that deals with the medicinal properties of the flora in the Indian state of Kerala. Originally written in Latin, it was compiled over a period of nearly 30 years and published from Amsterdam during 1678-1693. The book was conceived by Hendrik van...
, describing 740 plants in the region. The plant Entada rheedii
Entada rheedii
Entada rheedii, commonly known as the African Dream Herb or Snuff Box Sea Bean, is a large woody liana or climber. It is often spelled as Entada rheedei, though the first and legitimate name was published as E. rheedii...
is named for him.
Biography
Van Rheede was born in a family of noblemen that played a leading part in the political, administrative and cultural life of the province UtrechtUtrecht (province)
Utrecht is the smallest province of the Netherlands in terms of area, and is located in the centre of the country. It is bordered by the Eemmeer in the north, Gelderland in the east, the river Rhine in the south, South Holland in the west, and North Holland in the northwest...
. His mother Elisabeth van Utenhove died in 1637, his father, Ernst van Rheede, Council at the Admiralty of Amsterdam
Admiralty of Amsterdam
The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various Admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests...
, died when he was four. Hendrik Adriaan, the youngest of seven children, left home at the age of fourteen. In 1656 he joined as a soldier in the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
and met with Johan Bax van Herentals. Van Rheede served under Admiral Rijcklof van Goens in campaigns against the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
on the west coast of India. He gained rapid promotion becoming an ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
. In 1663, during a siege of Cochin
Kingdom of Cochin
Kingdom of Cochin was a late medieval Hindu kingdom and later Princely State on the Malabar Coast, South India...
, he was ordered to arrest the queen there and this act saved her life from the massacre of the royal family. The subsequent king of Cochin maintained cordial relations with him and Van Rheede was the Dutch captain who mediated with the Kingdom of Cochin. In 1665 he was appointed as commander in Jaffna
Jaffna
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...
and had Johan Nieuhof
Johan Nieuhof
Johan Nieuhoff was a Dutch traveler who wrote about his journeys to Brazil, China and India...
locked up for smuggling pearls.
In 1669 Van Rheede seems to be forced to resign from the Dutch East India Company by Van Goens. The resignation was made as he opposed the repressive measures of Van Goens and instead favoured negotiation, but in 1670 he is appointed as commander of Dutch Malabar. In 1671 he fought with the Zamorin of Calicut. In 1672 he had to deal with the former VOC-employee François Caron
François Caron
François Caron was a French Huguenot refugee to the Netherlands who served the Dutch East India Company for 30 years, rising from cabin boy to Director-General at Batavia , only one grade below Governor-General...
, then serving the French East India Company
French East India Company
The French East India Company was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies in colonial India....
.
In 1677 Van Rheede moved to Jakarta, being appointed in the Councel of India. He stayed for about six months but the conflict with Van Goens was growing more and more fierce. He returned to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in June 1678. Since 1680 he could call himself Lord of Mijdrecht
Mijdrecht
Mijdrecht is a town in the municipality of De Ronde Venen, in the Netherlands.It is located west of the main A2 motorway, between Utrecht and Amsterdam.Its population is around 17,000. The football team Argon has its stadium here....
. In 1681 he signed a contract with the botanists Jan Commelin
Jan Commelin
Jan Commelin , also known as Jan Commelijn or Johannes Commelinus, was the son of Isaac Commelin a historian; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. Jan a botanist became a professor of botany when many plants were imported from the Cape and Ceylon and a new system had to be...
and Johannes Munnicks and worked on the manuscript.
In 1684 he was empowered by the "directors" (Council of Seventeen) of the Company to inspect the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, Ceylon and Dutch India
Dutch India
Dutch India is a term used to refer to the settlements and trading posts of the Dutch East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. It is only used as a geographical definition, as there has never been a political authority ruling all Dutch India...
to combat corruption within their employees. He appointed Isaac Soolmans to accompany him. They visited Simon van der Stel
Simon van der Stel
Simon van der Stel was the last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony, the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.-Background:...
in Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
, and Groot Constantia
Groot Constantia
Groot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa and national monument in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa."Groot" in Dutch and Afrikaans translates as "great" in English.-History:...
; the area Groot Drakenstein
Drakenstein Local Municipality
Drakenstein Municipality is a local municipality located within the Cape Winelands District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2007, it had a population of 217,089...
was named after him. Van Rheede recommanded measures for forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
and viniculture. In 1687 Governor Van der Stel opened this region to farmers.
Van Rheede was a bachelor, but had adopted a girl from Malabar with an unknown Dutch father. He met with Van Goens junior, an ambitious administrator on his way to Batavia. Both men didn't like each other at all. Some time before Van Goens had given orders - afraid for competition anywhere else in the world - to extirpate all the acclimatizating cinnamon trees which were destined for the Amsterdam Municipal Garden. It is possible that the rare trees for the Grand Pensionary
Grand Pensionary
The Grand Pensionary was the most important Dutch official during the time of the United Provinces. In theory he was only a civil servant of the Estates of the dominant province among the Seven United Provinces: the county of Holland...
Gaspar Fagel
Gaspar Fagel
Gaspar Fagel was a Dutch statesman, writer and quasi-diplomat who authored correspondence from and on behalf of William III, Prince of Orange during the English Revolution of 1688.-Biography:...
were then also destroyed.
Van Rheede sailed to Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
and after two months to Bengal. He visited many of VOC-trading post, espially around Hooghly. His next destination was the Coromandel
Dutch Coromandel
Coromandel was a governorate of the Dutch East India Company on the Coromandel Coast between 1610 until the company's liquidation in 1802. It then became a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1825, when it was relinquished to the British according to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. Dutch...
and stayed for one year in Nagapattinam
Nagapattinam
Nagapattinam is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. It is a prominent seaport on the east coast of India and an important centre of trade and commerce.The town of Nagapattinam dates back to the Sangam period...
. In 1690 he founded a seminary in Jaffna
Jaffna
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...
. Then he went to Tuticorin and the Malabar. In the end of November 1691 he sailed to Dutch Suratte, but died at sea, off the coast of Bombay on December 15, 1691. Some authors suggest that he was poisoned by VOC-employees. others that he was sick already for a while. He was buried at Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
on 3 January 1692 in the presence of his daughter Francine.
Work in natural history
Hortus Malabaricus
Hortus Malabaricus is a comprehensive treatise that deals with the medicinal properties of the flora in the Indian state of Kerala. Originally written in Latin, it was compiled over a period of nearly 30 years and published from Amsterdam during 1678-1693. The book was conceived by Hendrik van...
, published in 1678, a compendium of the plants of economic and medical value in the south Indian Malabar region, was undertaken when Jonkheer
Jonkheer
Jonkheer is a Dutch honorific of nobility.-Honorific of nobility:"Jonkheer" or "Jonkvrouw" is literally translated as "young lord" or "young lady". In medieval times such a person was a young and unmarried son or daughter of a high ranking knight or nobleman...
van Rheede was the Dutch Governor of Cochin and continued for the next three decades. It was published in twelve volumes and in four languages: Latin, Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, Arabic and Mayalam. Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the Malabar region which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats
Western Ghats
The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...
from Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
to Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari District
Kanyakumari District ) is a district of Tamil Nadu state, India and is the southernmost land area of mainland India.The district is the second most urbanised district in Tamilnadu, next only to Chennai and ahead of Coimbatore. It also has the highest literacy and education levels in the...
. The ethno-medical information presented in the work was extracted from palm leaf manuscript
Palm leaf manuscript
Palm leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. They served as the paper of the ancient world in parts of Asia as far back as the fifteenth century BCE. and possibly much earlier. They were used to record actual and mythical narratives in South Asia and in South East Asia...
s by a famous practitioner of herbal medicine named Itty Achuden
Itty Achudan
Itty Achudan Vaidyan, , who is known to have lived during the second half of the 17th century, was a distinguished Ayurvedic physician, from the ancient Kollatt family of traditional Ezhava Ayurvedic Vaidyans of Kerala...
. The compilations were edited by a team of nearly a hundred including physicians, professors of medicine and botany, amateur botanists (such as professor Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen
Theodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen
Theodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen was a Dutch physician, and the learned editor of various classical and medical works. He was born at Mijdrecht, near Utrecht, where his father was minister of the reformed church...
, Paul Hermann
Paul Hermann
Paul Hermann was a German born physician and botanist who for 15 years was director of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden....
, Johannes Munnicks, Jan Commelin
Jan Commelin
Jan Commelin , also known as Jan Commelijn or Johannes Commelinus, was the son of Isaac Commelin a historian; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. Jan a botanist became a professor of botany when many plants were imported from the Cape and Ceylon and a new system had to be...
, Abraham Poot, the translator of a Dutch version), Indian scholars and vaidyas (physicians) of Malabar and adjacent regions, and technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of company officials, clergymen (Johannes Casearius and Father Mathew of St. Joseph). He was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut.
His work was made use of by Carolus Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
. Linnaeus noted in the preface of his Genera plantarum (1737) that he did not trust any authors except Dillen in Hortus Elthamensis, Rheede in Hortus Malabaricus and Charles Plumier
Charles Plumier
Charles Plumier was a French botanist, after whom the Frangipani genus Plumeria is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time...
on American plants and further noted that Rheede was the most accurate of the three.