The Ambonese Herbal by Georgius Everhardus Rumphius. 6 volumes. 1741 - 1750. Translated from Latin, edited, annotated and with new introduction by E. M. Beekman. illus. 3363 p. Hardcover.

Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia.

Over the course of five decades, the seventeenth-century naturalist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius assiduously gathered information on the native plants of Ambon Island and its archipelago. By presenting descriptions of the plants and their multiple uses, he succeeded in creating a cultural and scientific treasury of incomparable value for today’s botanists, anthropologists, ethnobotanists, science historians, medicinal chemists, and other scholars. This comprehensive reference, complete with over 800 original illustrations, describes in remarkable detail more than 2,000 plants, their habitats, and their economic and medicinal uses. Also recorded are native plant names in Malay, Latin, Dutch, and Ambonese—and often in Macassarese and Chinese as well.

E. M. Beekman's introduction discusses the Herbal’s significance for tropical botanical literature and surveys the Indonesian economic and medicinal uses of the plants Rumphius described. Beekman also provides invaluable annotations throughout the Herbal. The original edition was in Latin and was published from 1741 to 1750.

A heavy set of books (9.6kg).