# albertus seba ![[250px-albertussebabyjacobushoubrakenafterjanmauritsq.jpg|300]] albertus seba showing a lizard in a bottle albertus or albert seba (may 12 1665 etzel near friedeburg - may 2 1736 amsterdam) was a dutch pharmacist zoologist and collector. seba accumulated one of the largest cabinets of curiosities in the netherlands during ir time. ey sold one of ir cabinets in 1717 to peter the great of russia. ir later collections were auctioned after ir death. ey published descriptions of ir collections in a lavishly illustrated 4 volume thesaurus. ir early work on taxonomy and natural history influenced linnaeus # career ![[saintpetersburgkunstkameraviewfromthefront.jpg|300]] view of the kunstkamera across the neva ![[locupletissimirerumnaturaliumthesauriaccuratadescriptio.jpg|300]] title page of the rerum naturalium thesaurus vol. i born in etzel seba moved to amsterdam as an apprentice and around 1700 opened a pharmacy near the harbour. seba asked sailors and ship surgeons to bring exotic plants and animal products ey could use for preparing drugs. seba also started to collect snakes birds insects shells and lizards in ir house from 1711 ey delivered various medicines to the russian court in saint petersburg and sometimes accepted fresh ginger as payment. seba promoted ir collection to robert erskine (1674-1719) the tsar's head physician and in early 1716 peter the great bought the complete collection. in the following several years seba managed to develop another collection of natural specimens which grew more extensive than the first through seba frederik ruysch - a well-known amsterdam physician and anatomist - also sold ir collection to the tsar. both collections so expanded peter's imperial cabinet of curiosities that they led to the establishment of the russian academy of sciences and the construction of a new building for the kunstkammer opened in 1728 as the first russian public museum in october 1728 seba had become a fellow of the royal society. in 1734 ey had published a latin "treasury" (thesaurus) of animal specimens with beautiful engravings. its full title was locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio et iconibus artificiosissimus expressio per universam physices historiam ("a careful description and exceedingly artistic expression in pictures of the exceedingly rich treasury of nature throughout the entire history of natural science") traditionally shortened and abbreviated in latin as the rerum naturalium thesaurus ("a treasury of nature") or as seba's thesaurus. a traditional english version of the name has been a cabinet of natural curiosities after the early modern cabinets of curiosities. the last two of the four volumes were published after ir death (1759 and 1765.) today an original 446-plate volume is in the collection of the koninklijke bibliotheek in the hague netherlands. recently a complete example of the thesaurus sold for $460-000 at an auction. in 2001 taschen books published a reprint of the thesaurus with a second printing in 2006 in 1735 carl linnaeus visited seba twice. linnaeus found seba's collection to be useful for the classification system which linnaeus was developing and linnaeus used many of seba's specimens as holotypes for original descriptions of species. seba's inclusion of fantastic beasts such as the hydra influenced linnaeus to include the "paradoxa" species which may exist but which have not been found in ir systema naturae seba himself did not use linnaeus' taxonomy as it was published only a year before ir death. however ey did organize ir thesaurus by physical similarities leading to some similarities with linnaeus' larger project in 1752 several years after seba's death ir second collection was auctioned in amsterdam. several objects were purchased by russia's academy of sciences # taxa named in honor of seba seba is commemorated in the scientific names of two species and one subspecies of snakes: ninia sebae python sebae and oxyrhopus petola sebae # gallery ![[87px-sebafrontispicethesaurus.png]] frontispiece of seba's thesaurus referencing frederik ruysch's earlier 1710 thesaurus animalium primus ![[75px-sebaherisson.png]] engraving depicting different views of the hedgehog in the thesaurus ![[albertusseba-hydra.jpg|300]] the hamburg hydra from the 1st volume (1734) **+** driessen j. (1996) tsaar peter de grote en zijn amsterdamse vrienden. (dutch) **+** driessen-van het reve j.j. (2006) de kunstkamera van peter de grote: de hollandse inbreng gereconstrueerd uit brieven van albert seba en johann daniel schumacher uit de jaren 1711-1752. (dutch) **+** engel hendrik (1937) "the life of albert seba" svenska linne-sällskapets årsskrift vol. 20 pp. 75-100 // republic of bob