BOCCIUS’S HERBARIUM

BOCCIUS’S HERBARIUM

One of the most prominent personages linked to the work of the Brothers of Mercy in Valtice was Norbert Boccius (1731–1806), born Johann Adam Boccius in Timisoara. In 1766, he was elected prior of the Valtice monastery by the general chapter in Rome and served in this function for many years (1766–1784).

During his tenure in Valtice, Boccius initiated an ambitious project of creation of herbaria, which were intended to be used not only as educational instruments but also as representative objects of the religious order. Boccius himself is the author of an extraordinary herbarium in three volumes, Herbarium vivum vel collectiones botanicae factae a F. Norberto Boccius S. Ordinis S. Ioannis de Deo et conventus Feldspergensi pro tempore priore anno MDCCLXVI, which was created around 1766. All three volumes jointly contain 1,216 botanical specimens.

In contrast to older herbaria, which often combined drawings of plants with textual descriptions of their medicinal effects, Boccius’s Herbarium vivum is based solely on authentic natural specimens. The range of plants represented in the work is extraordinarily wide: it includes medicinal herbs, crop species, species growing in nature as well as cultivated ones, and even decorative and exotic plants.

The uniqueness of this treatise is underscored by its outstanding artistic rendition. Plant names are set in illusory planters with pronounced Rococo elements. Decorations include both simple watercolours and coloured engravings with motifs of monasteries, chateaux, or hunting scenes. These artistic elements were created by the Bauer brothers: Josef (1756–1831), Franz (1758–1840), and Ferdinand (1760–1826), whose extraordinary talent Norbert Boccius supported and systematically developed. Some pages moreover include pressed specimens of insects, mainly butterflies and dragonflies, which add to the decorative nature of the collection as a whole.