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The Scientific Voyages of Francisco Noroña (1748-1788) in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Susana Pinar
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Extract

The figure of the Spanish botanist Francisco Noroña has been overlooked by most historians, and the same fate has befallen his travel diary, which contains valuable information on Spanish, Dutch and French possessions in Western and Southeast Asia – the Philippines, Java, Mauritius and Madagascar. The son of a physician, Michel Noroña, and Elizabeth Smith from England, Francisco Noroña was born in Seville (Spain) in about 1748. Following his father's footsteps, Noroña studied medicine at Osuna (Seville) and Seville, completing his formation in botany, physics, chemistry and natural history at London and Paris.

Type
Research Note
Information
Itinerario , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , July 1995 , pp. 161 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1995

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References

Notes

* This report forms part of a larger Spanish research project, PB91-0068. The author has been doing additional research in Dutch archives.

1 The first references are from: Willemet, P.F., Herbarium mnurilianum nurture… (Leipzig 1796) 3Google Scholar; Cossigny, J.P.F., Moyens d'amelioralion el rle restaundion (Paris 1803) i, xxiii, xxv, 167–169;Google ScholarDupetit-Thouars, , Genera nova vuulngasmriensia semndum mellwdum Jitssiaeanum dispositti (Paris 1806)Google Scholar; Dupetit-Thouars, , Voyage dans les isles australes d'Afriifue (Paris 1806) iGoogle Scholar; Koenigand, K.Sims, J., ‘Account of the Rasamala, or Tree Which Yields the True Liquid Storax, Belonging to the Natural Order of Coniferae’, Annals of Rotany 2 (1806) 325–330, 380–381.Google Scholar Norona is mentioned a few times in: Colmeiro, M., IM botdnica y los boltinicos lie la Peninsuci Hupano-Lusilana (Madrid 1858)Google Scholar index; Areas, PérezDiscursos leidos ante In lieal Araudemia de Ciencias Exartas, Fisiais, y Nalurales en la receptión pública del d… (Madrid 1868) 34–35;Google Scholar also: Haan, F. de, Priangan. De preanger-regenlschatsppen under hel Nederlandsch besluur IV (Batavia 1912) 560.Google Scholar Without being exhaustive, the best recent works are: Steenis, Van, Ft. Males. Bull. 26 (1972) 1996Google Scholar; Steenis, Van, ‘Cyclopaedia of Collectors. Supplement. Francisco Norona’, Ibiilem, Ser. I, 8 (1974) Ixxii, 72Google Scholar; Steenis, Van, ‘Cyclopaedia of Collectors. Additions. II. Francisco Norona’, Undent 30 (1977) 2784Google Scholar; Steenis, Van and Steenis-Kruseman, Van, ‘The Plates of Javanese Plants of F. Norona with a Revised Evaluation of his New Generic Names’, regnum Vegetable 71 (1970) 353–380;Google ScholarSteenis-Kruseman, Van ‘Cyclopaedia of Collectors’, FL Males., Ser. I, 1 (1950) 57–58, 387–386;Google ScholarPinar, S., ‘Los manuscritosde Francisco Norona (ca. 1748–1788) conservadosenel Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Pan's’, Collectanea liolanim (in press)Google Scholar; Pinar, S., Puig-Samper, M. A. and Pelayo, F., ‘Francisco Norona, un naturalista espanol en el oceano indico’, Asclepio (in press)Google Scholar.

2 Archives of Mauritius, Insinuations JK 8, fol. 43 bis. Testament du Noronia Espagnol Port Louis, 15 01 1788Google Scholar.

3 On 10 March 1785 Carlos II signed at El Pardo the Royal Order for the creation of the Real Compania de Filipinos.

4 Archivo General de Indias (AGI), Seville (Spain). Philippines, leg. 904, n° 82. Dated Manila, 20 January 1786.

5 AGI, Philippines, 691. N° 70 bis. Dated Manila, 25 September 1785.

6 Juan de Cuellar arrived in the Philippines five months after Norona's departure in March 1786.

7 Smit, P., ‘International Influences on the Development of Natural History in the Netherlands and its East Indian Colonies between 1750 and 1850’ Janus 65 (1978) 45Google ScholarPubMed; Smit, P., ‘The Rijksherbarium and the Scientific and Social Conditions which Influenced its Foundation“, Blumeatb 25 (1979) 5Google Scholar.

8 Probably Pieter Tency, see Haan, F. de, Priangan (Batavia 1910–1912) I, 112–113Google Scholar.

9 This garden was created by Pierre Poivre (1719–1786) in his private room of Mon Plaisir for the acclimatization and introduction of spices and tropical plants.

10 Bibliothéque Générale du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle (BGMHN), mss. 42, Mil and ms. 43, VIII, Diario de mi viaje alaisla dejavn (four volumes), BGMHN, mss. 42, IV–XIII. Descriptiones plantarum ex Java, BGMHN, ms. 43, II. Diccionario espanolyjavano…, BGMHN, ms. 43, III. Dcscripliones AnimaJium Java (plates) and Memorandum, BGMHN, ms. 43, IV. Plantae indicae a Norogna collectae, descriplae el piclae, BGMHN, ms. 43, V. Classificatio plantarum a mi descriplarum in Java, secundum ordinemfamiliarum naturalium, BGMHN, ms. 43, VI. Prodromus plantarum Javanensium a me descriplarum (Nova genera), BGMHN, ms. 43, VII. Nomenclator plantarum Javanensium a domino Norona descriptarum, interfactioneetpermissae insulae Javae, ab illustrisimo domino perfecto generili, ordine alphabetico dispositus, BGMHN, ms. 43, doc. IX. Nova genera Plantarum, BGMHN, ms. 43, XI. Sur Vile dejava (plates).

11 Steenis, Van and Steenis-Kruseman, Van, ‘Plates of Javanese Plants’, 360Google Scholar.

12 Steenis-Kruseman, Van, ‘Cyclopaedia of Collectors. Additions. II’, 2784Google Scholar.

13 Norona, F., ‘Relatio plantarum javanensium iterfactione usque in Bandong recognita rum a Dno. F. Norona’, Verhandelingen van het Balaviansch Genoolschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen 5 (1790) 1–28Google Scholar [(1827) 64–86]; ‘Altingia excelsa malaice et javanice liasamala, Lignum papuanumKumphii herbar.Amboin. vol.2.’, lbidem 5 (1790) 1–20[(1827) 41–56]; ‘Descriptio arboris’, Ibidem 5 (1790) 1–9Google Scholar [(1827) 57–63].

14 See Camarasa, J.M., ‘Notes per una Historia de la Botanica als Paisos Catalans I. La Introduccio del Metode Natural (1789–1843)’, Collectanea Botanica 14 (1983) 119–132Google Scholar.

15 See Stafleu, F.A., ‘Adanson and his “Families des plantes”’ in: Lawrence, ed., The Bicentennial of Michel Adanson's “Families des Plantes” (Pittsburgh 1963) I, 123–264Google Scholar.