Snippendaal catalogue
The first catalogue of the Hortus
The catalogue written by Johannes Snippendaal in 1646 is the first catalogue of plants in the Hortus. Snippendaal’s successor, Herman Corneliszoon, wrote the second catalogue in 1661. There is no catalogue known for the period 1665-1689. A new catalogue was written by Jan Commelin in 1689. By that time, the Hortus had already been at its current location in the Plantage for seven years. There are two original copies of the Snippendaal catalogue still in existence. One of them, from the estate of Sir Hans Sloane, can be seen in the British Library in London, UK. The other copy is found in the Herzog August Bibliothek (Library) in Wolfenbüttel, Germany.
Plant collection
When Snippendaal started his employment in 1646, the plant collection comprised 330 species. At the end of that year, the collection had grown to 796 species. We assume that the original 330 species were mostly medicinal plants and that the additional plants were mostly ornamentals. The catalogue also lists a number of trees and native plant species. Since some of these species are not hardy, they were presumably cultivated in pots and vases and over-wintered inside.
Translation
It has only been since the publication of Linneaus’ Species Plantarum in 1753 that binomial (double) scientific names have been used for plants. Until that time, men used long, descriptive names. This was also the case in the Snippendaal catalogue. In order to discover which plants were growing in the Hortus in 1646, it was necessary to translate the pre-Linnaean names into modern (binomial) names. One of the important reference books used for this translation was the Species Plantarum. In that book, Linneaus cited numerous older names, many of which corresponded mostly or completely with the names Snippendaal used. The Prodromus Theatri Botanici (1620) and the Pinax Theatri Botanici (1623) by Bauhin were also used as references. Snippendaal had copies of these standard works. Finally, the herbaria of Anthoni Gaaymans (1668) and Petrus Cadé (1566) were extremely valuable for the translation because the dried plants in those collections had the long, descriptive names of the pre-Linnaean era. By identifying those plants using present-day keys, the pre-Linnaean names could, with certainty, be translated into modern scientific names.
Kurt Wein
The German teacher, florist, and biohistorian Kurt Wein (1883-1968) made a translation of the Snippendaal catalogue and sent it to Amsterdam in 1932. Wein had a comprehensive and valuable private botanical library and visited many libraries. He used the Snippendaal copy from London for his translation. Wein's translation is very complete; in fact, he was able to give almost all of the plants a Linnaean name. The unfortunate shortcoming in his work is the absence of documentation regarding his conclusion about certain translated names. The Wein translation, therefore, has been actualized according to the latest nomenclature and compared with other references.
Online catalogue
The complete catalogue, including the translation and the references used, can be consulted online. Scientists who are studying pre-Linnaean plant names are invited to report any additions/comments/corrections with regard to the catalogue.