HERBALS AND HERBARIA OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AGRICULTURE KAČINA

HERBALS AND HERBARIA OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AGRICULTURE – KAČINA

The Kačina chateau, built in 1806–1824 as a representative manor of Jan Rudolf Count Chotek (1748–1824), includes a large library of over 40,000 volumes assembled by this aristocratic family. This collection covers a range of sciences from the sixteenth until mid-twentieth century, whereby a dominant part is dedicated to agriculture, economy, and natural sciences.

One of the oldest printed herbals in the Chotek library is Mattioli’s herbal, in particular its Czech translation by Adam Huber of Riesenpach printed in 1596. The National Museum of Agriculture has in its collections also other editions of this herbal.

In the library, we find also a hand-drawn and coloured herbal by an unknown author, which was inspired by the famous botanical treatise Icones plantarum medicinalium by Joseph Jakob Plenck (1735–1807), Austrian physician, pharmacologist, and one of the pioneers of modern dermatology.

The Chotek library also keeps a school herbarium of Bianca Thun-Hohenstein (1868–1908), daughter of Karolína Chotek (1846–1933). This small work is a valuable testimony to the education of young noble women – it shows what areas were covered in their schooling.

According to surviving records, the Chotek library also included a herbarium created probably by Jan Rudolf Chotek, which his descendants later added to. Nowadays, part of the herbarium is kept in the National Museum, whose collections include also a herbarium created by Josef Peyl, head gardener of Kačina, who worked here at a time when the chateau was managed by Jindřich Chotek (1802–1864).

The Chotek library keeps in its shelves another unique item: a well-known lithograph depicting Ferdinand Maria Chotek (1781–1836), the fourth archbishop of Olomouc and son of Jan Rudolf Chotek, the builder of Kačina. This lithograph is set in a round gilded frame decorated with dried herbs. This arrangement resulted in not just aesthetically pleasing and unusual artifact – it is also an interesting source for current botanical and culture-historical research.