Flora Batava (1800-1934)

What is the Flora Batava? Why is it such a special work and what can we learn from it today? And what are we doing around the reissue of this illustrated botanical overview?

The Flora Batava is a botanical masterpiece: the book was published in 28 volumes between 1800 and 1934. It contains a whopping 2,240 hand-coloured plates and 5,000 pages of text on which more than 2,630 species of wild plants, mushrooms, mosses and algae are depicted. 

It is the first ever illustrated overview of the wild flora growing in the Netherlands and is the result of collaboration between dozens of botanists, artists, colourists and publishers. Because it covers 134 years, the book also provides special insight into our country’s changing science, biodiversity and landscape.

The first illustrated overview of wild plants in the Netherlands

More than 2 centuries ago, 2 nature-lovers, publisher Jan Christiaan Sepp (1739-1811) and agricultural commissioner Jan Kops (1765-1849), came up with the idea of mapping all the wild plants of the Netherlands. They saw a gap in the market because it had never been done before. 

Many other European countries, such as Denmark, Austria and England, had already published works about ‘their’ national flora. But nothing like that existed for the Netherlands. Botanists had been fixated on exotic garden plants such as tulips for a few centuries. Publisher Jan Christiaan Sepp had already published successful illustrated works on Dutch birds and insects, so he knew what he was doing.

The first volume of the Flora Batava was published in 1800. It was a beautifully illustrated work with hand-coloured engravings and Dutch text covering the most common and unusual plants from all corners of the country. It took another 134 years for the final (28th) volume to be published. 

Dutch flora was richer and much more colourful than expected. In total, the Flora Batava had 2,240 illustrated plates containing 2,630 different species of plants, mushrooms, mosses and algae. After the deaths of Sepp and Kops, various other publishers, editors and artists collaborated on the work.

Artists

Created by various artists, the beautiful illustrations are a feast for the eyes. For example, Leiden artist Helena Christina van de Pavord Smits (1867-1941) did all the (almost 800!) drawings for the last 10 volumes. 

Other artists include flower still-life painter Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os (1782-1861) from The Hague and moss illustrator Arnoldus Jacobus Kouwels (1824-1888).

We now also have a colouring book; Het wilde planten kleurboek (The wild plants colouring book) contains 55 illustrations from the Flora Batava that you can colour yourself. Next to each illustration is an image from the book and a brief caption. Check out the colouring book in our online shop.

Until 22 January 2024, the KB Atelier hosted the exhibition WE LOVE FLORA BATAVA. Students of the Royal Academy of Visual Arts (KABK) were inspired by the Flora Batava. Their works could be seen in the KB Atelier, found on the ground floor of the KB building, next to the stairs down to the National Archive.

To celebrate the reissue of the Flora Batava, the KB wall at the Anna van Buerenplein was adorned with an art piece inspired by the book. Olivia Ettema made the mixed-media art piece Muurbloemen (Wall flowers). On the wall next to Mingle Mush, you could recognise the following wild plants and fungi: the viola tricolor, the common hawthorn, the yellow water-lily, the common nettle, the red poppy, the parasol mushroom, the field horsetail, the ivy-leaved toadflax, the dandelion, the common reed, the red clover and the spear thistle.