A broadsheet with the rhinoceros (undated) was advertised on 16 July 1746 when the animal was in Frankfurt an der Oder (source 2701). Carl August von Bergen mentioned seeing the animal in a letter to Linnaeus on 9 August 1746 (source 2704). Linnaeus answered on 29 September 1746 that he had never seen a rhinoceros alive (source 2705, source 2707). Bergen gave a lecture ‘on the rhinoceros’ on 16 October 1746 at the university of Frankfurt (Oder), which contained no illustrations and very little detailed information about the animal (source 2702). He probably saw Clara during the summer fair (Sommermesse, no exact dates found). Bergen sent a copy of his Oratio and also the broadsheet (source 2703) to Linnaeus enclosed with his letter of 16 March 1747 (source 2705). Beckmann (source 2708) and Richter (source 2709) mentioned the rhinoceros in Frankfurt without detailed information on dates. A newspaper listed the exhibition for 1746 (source 2710).
Frankfurt (an der Oder) is 100 km east of Berlin.
Literature
- Rookmaaker 1998:63 – Seen on 16 July 1746 by Johann Jacob Korn – following Gleiss 1967:42 after Schlesische Zeitung
- Van der Ham 2022:183, note 171 (after Rookmaaker 1998) – visit in July-August 1746
Source 2701. Schlesische Zeitung, 16 July 1746
Schlesische Zeitung, 16 July 1746.
* Johann Jacob Korn (1702–1756), publisher in Breslau.
Abstract here:
Gleiss, H.G.W. 1967. Unter Robben, Gnus und Tigerschlangen: Chronik des Zoologischen Gartens Breslau 1865–1965. Wedel, Natura et Patrio Verlag. pp. 1–290.
Original text (German)
(p. 42) Schlesische Zeitung, 16 July 1746. Der Verleger der Zeitung, Johann Jacob Korn, bot schon am 16. Juli 1746, als das Tier noch in Frankfurt a.d. Oder war, an: “Wahre Abbildung von einem lebendigen wunderbaren Thiere, welches nach einiger Meinung der Behemoth seyn soll, wovon Hiob am 40. Capitel gedacht wird. Rhinoceros oder Naßhorn itzo genannt, es kostet der Abdruck 2 Sgr. klein und 3 Sgr. in großem Format.”
English translation
The newspaper’s publisher, Johann Jacob Korn, on 16 July 1746, when the animal was still in Frankfurt a.d. Oder, offered for sale a broadsheet.
Source 2702. Bergen, Oratio de Rhinocerote, 1746.
* Carl August von Bergen (1704–1759), or: Karl August von Bergen. Profesor of anatomy in Frankfurt (Oder).
Bergen, C.A. von 1746. Oratio de rhinocerote, quam habuit XVI Octob. MDCCXLVI quum tertium poneret Rectoratum Academiae. Francofurti ad Viadrum, apud Ioh. Christian. Kleyb Bibliopol. pp. 1–31. Size 4to. [No illustration in original]
Literature
- Faust 2003, no. 716, p. 86, probably rhino seen at summer fair,
- Van der Ham 2022: 158, fig. 60 – Illustrated (title-page)
- RRC has PDF and full text See Faust 2003, no. 716, p. 86, probably rhino seen at summer fair,
- Van der Ham 2022: 158, fig. 60 – Illustrated (title-page)
RRC has PDF and full text Bergen, C.A. von 1746
Original text (Latin)
(p. 9) de Rhinocerote, bellua rara & nobis incognita, sed praeter spem ultimis nundinis hic loci primum visa, paucis perorare sustineam.
English translation
I will briefly conclude with regard to the Rhinoceros, a rare and unknown beast to us, but which was seen for the first time here, contrary to hope, during the last fair of this place.
Note: The 3 plates, inserted at the end of the copy in Göttingen, are not found in the original Oratio. They were taken from the German tranlation of 1747 of the translation of the description of the rhinoceros by James Parsons
resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de
[the figure on wikipedia in the entry for ‘von Bergen’ is not correct]
Review:
Bergen, C.A. von 1747. Review of Bergen, Oratio de Rhinocerote (1746). Berlinische Bibliothek 1747, erstes stuck: 109–111.
In German, gives good abstract of Latin text. As published in first part of this monthly magazine, it is probable that Bergen’s Oratio was available end 1746 or at the time when the talk was delivered.
Source 2703. Broadsheet, Medium size – sent by Bergen to Linnaeus
For details of this broadsheet, see entry under Hanover – source 2452
Broadsheet, undated. Rhino faces right. Text (unusually) above the animal, German, 4 full lines and 5 half lines. This copy without manuscript addition of 4 ½ lines in continuation of the printed text. Frankfurt not mentioned.
C.A. von Bergen included a copy of this broadsheet in a letter to Linnaeus on 16 March 1747 together with his Oratio. Apparently it was still sold at the time when he saw the animal in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1746. The text of the broadsheet has no date.
Literature
- Faust 2003, no. 709
- Rookmaaker & Monson 2000, Nr. 9
- Copy in London, Linnean Society (bound with C.A.v.Bergen, Oratio de Rhinocerote, 1746)
- Information from Will Beharrell, Librarian, 08–12–2022: The copy at BL.553C retains no accompanying plates. The copy at BL.545B retains a folding plate with German text.
Source 2704. Letter C.A. von Bergen to Linnaeus, 9 August 1746
Correspondence Bergen with Linnaeus – here
Letter 9 August 1746, Frankfurt an der Oder to Carl Linnaeus.
Original location: a. (Linnean Society, London, I, 524–525).
Printed: Hulth 1916: 272–273, no. 178
Hulth, J.M.; Linnaeus, C. 1916. Bref och skrifvelser af och till Carl von Linné. Part 2: Utlandska brefvaxlingen. Vol. 1: Adanson – Brünnich. Uppsala, Akademiska Bokhandeln; Berlin, R. Friedländer & Sohn. – www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Abstract:
Carl August von Bergen is surprised that the exchange of information between them, which had just been started, works so badly that Bergen sees letters from Linnaeus more seldom than he sees animals from the remote countries of India. The reason why he mentions such animals is that Bergen has just seen a live female rhinoceros, quite unlike the elephant and more like a boar and so fond of wet places, that some scholars consider it to be an amphibious animal.
Original text (Latin)
Nescio enim cujus culpa factum sit, quod commercium litterarium vix inter nos institutum protinus adeo abruptum fuerit, ut litteras tuas inspicere rarius longe mihi sit quam Indiae remotissimas belluas videre. Scias enim velim me his nundinis vidisse rhinocerotem feminam vivam, belluam scil[icet] quae generici characteris intuitu plane non convenit cum elephanto sed quam potius suem lacustrem et scil[icet] masculum, porcum lacustrem sui generis nominarem, adeo enim uliginosa amat loca, ut sint qui hoc animal amphibiis adnumerent.
Dab[am] Francofurti ad Viadrum d[ie] 9 Aug[usti] 1746.
English translation
For I would like you to know that I saw a live female rhinoceros at these fairs, a beast that, in terms of its generic character, clearly does not agree with the elephant, but rather a lake pig, and, in terms of its male, I would call its genus the lake pig [porcus lacustris], for it loves wet places so much that there are those who consider this animal to be amphibians.
Source 2705. Letter Linnaeus to C.A. von Bergen, 29 September 1746
Linnaeus reply to Bergen, Uppsala 29 September 1746
Printed: Hulth 1916: 273–274, no. 179
Hulth, J.M.; Linnaeus, C. 1916. Bref och skrifvelser af och till Carl von Linné. Part 2: Utlandska brefvaxlingen. Vol. 1: Adanson – Brünnich. Uppsala, Akademiska Bokhandeln; Berlin, R. Friedländer & Sohn.
Original text (Latin)
Gratissima sunt quae de Rhinocerote mones, ego animal numquam vidi; si vidissem non ita errassem; qui ante me viderunt non oculatiores in eo fuere; Duglassi descriptionem novam non vidi, raro enim ad nos libri anglici advehuntur.
English translation
What you say about the Rhinoceros is most gratifying. I have never seen the animal; if I had, I would not have been so mistaken; those who saw it before me were not more observant about it; I have not seen Douglas’s new description, for English books rarely come to us.
Source 2706. Letter C.A. von Bergen to Linnaeus, 16 March 1747
Bergen to Linnaeus, 16 March 1747 – here
Printed: Hulth 1916: 275–276, no. 180
Hulth, J.M.; Linnaeus, C. 1916. Bref och skrifvelser af och till Carl von Linné. Part 2: Utlandska brefvaxlingen. Vol. 1: Adanson – Brünnich. Uppsala, Akademiska Bokhandeln; Berlin, R. Friedländer & Sohn.
* with this letter Bergen probably enclosed a copy of his dissertation (Oratio) as well as a broadsheet of the rhinoceros available with Linnaeus’s copy of this in the Linnean Society.
Abstract:
Carl August von Bergen admits that he has seen the rhinoceros but not so well that he would be prepared to make a formal description of it, and in view of his short experience in natural history, he would be satisfied to present it in a lecture to the Frankfurt academy [Bergen published his speech, Oratio de rhinocerote, etc.]. Bergen does not know the literature published by James Douglas and mentioned by Linnaeus.
Original text (Latin)
Rhinocerotem licet viderim, non eo animo contemplatus sum, ut animalis descriptionem publicarem, probe conscius, quam curta mihi in Scientia naturali supellex sit, nihilo minus nuperrima tua mihi stimulo fuere, ut qualiacunque mea observata occasione Sermonis Academici in lucem ederem. Tui nunc erit judicare, an quicquam pro determinando genere eruere valeas. Figuram animalis Berolini factam archetypum accurate representantem adposui
ratus hoc ipsum Tibi non ingratum fore. Douglasii scriptum autem nunquam vidi.
Dab[am] Francof[urti] ad Viadrum die XVI Martii 1747.
English translation
Although I have seen a rhinoceros, I have not contemplated it with such a mind as to publish a description of the animal, well aware of how limited my resources are in natural science, nevertheless your recent words have been an incentive to me to publish whatever observations I have made on the occasion of the Academic Sermon. It will now be up to you to judge whether you can extract anything for determining the genus. I have attached a figure of the animal made in Berlin, accurately representing the archetype, thinking that this would not be displeasing to you. But I have never seen Douglas’s writing.
Source 2707. Linnaeus 1758 quotes Bergen, Oratio de Rhinocerote
Bergen (1746) was one of the 7 sources quoted by Linnaeus in his first description of Rhinoceros unicornis
Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema naturae per regna tria naturae. Editio decima, reformata [edn 10]. Holmiae, Laurentii Salvii. vol. 1
Literature
- Rookmaaker, L.C. 2024. Taxonomy and nomenclature of Rhinoceros unicornis in South Asia (Chapter 4). In: Rookmaaker, L.C. 2024. The rhinoceros of South Asia. Leiden, Brill (Emergence of Natural History, vol. 6). pp. 30–46 – p. 33. doi.org/10.1163/9789004691544_005
- Rookmaaker, L.C. 1998. The sources of Linnaeus on the rhinoceros. Svenska Linnesallskapets Arsskrift 1996/97: 61–80 – p.67
Source 2708. Beckmann 1751 – no date
Beckmann, J.C. 1751. Historische Beschreibung der Chur und Mark Brandenburg nach ihrem Ursprung: Einwohnern, naturlichen Beschaffenheit, Gewasser, Landschaften, Staten, geistlichen Stiftern &c.. Berlin, C.F. Voss.
Original text (German)
(p. 793) [Berlin] und von hier nach Frankfurt und weiter gebracht.
English translation
And from Berlin taken to Frankfurt
Source 2709. Richter 1754 (for 1740 ?)
Refer Berlin source 2678
* Johann Gottfried Ohnefalsch Richter (1703–1765)
Richter, J.G.O. 1754. Ichthyotheologie, oder: Vernunft- und Schriftmäßiger Versuch die Menschen aus Betrachtung der Fische zur Bewunderung, Ehrfurcht und Liebe ihres grossen, liebreichen und allein weisen Schöpfers zu führen. Leipzig.
Original text (German)
(p. 472) Im Jahre 1740 [sic] brachte man uber Holland aus Bengalen, unter dem großen Mogul in Asien, einen jungen lebendigen Rhinoceros oder Nashorn nach Berlin und hieher nach Frankfurt, und gab vor, es sey der Behemoth, dessen Hiob gedenket.
English translation
In the year 1740 [sic] a young live rhinoceros or rhinoceros was brought from Bengal, under the great Mogul in Asia, via Holland to Berlin and here to Frankfurt, and it was claimed to be the Behemoth of which Job is speaking.
Source 2710. Ausführliche Beschreibung, for 1746
Paul, Marx 1747. Ausführliche Beschreibung des angekommenen grossen Wunder-thiers Rhinoceros. Der curieuse und zur See wohl erfahrne Holländische Boots-Knecht (Hanau) 1747
[text, for 1746]
Original text (German)
Die Städte Franckfurt, Leipzig, Cassel und Hanau etc. haben solches ebenfalls fürs Geld zu sehen bekommen. … Es ist ohngefehr 8. Jahr alt
English translation
The cities of Frankfurt, Leipzig, Kassel, and Hanau, etc., have also seen it for money. … It is approximately 8 years old.
