Friderich Martens
Friderich Martens (1635–1699)[1][2] was a German physician and naturalist who conducted the first scientific observations of the nature, animal life and climate of Svalbard.[3] He published his notes in the book "Spitzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise-Beschreibung, gethan im Jahre 1671" and this book became a reference work for many decades.[3]
Biography
There is very little documentation on Martens' life. He was born in 1635 and worked as a feldsher and physician in Hamburg.[1]
In 1671 Martens joined a voyage on a
Martens' book was later translated into several languages and was published in Italian (1680), Dutch (1685), English (1694; as a section of a book) and French (1715; as an article).[2][4]
Martens died in 1699 at the age of sixty-four.
Legacy
The book remained a reference work for many years and was quoted among others by Constantine Phipps 1774 in "A Voyage towards the North Pole undertaken … 1773", Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre 1796 in "Études de la nature" and Bernard Germain de Lacépède 1804 in "Histoire naturelle des cétacés".[4]
In 1861 Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld named Martensøya, an island among the Sjuøyane in honor of Friderich Martens [7]
The National Library of Finland at the University of Helsinki keeps an original copy of a Dutch edition printed in 1710, of which a digital copy is available.[8]
In 2002 a reprint was released in Berlin.[9]
In 2007 El Museo del Fin del Mundo (Usuahia, Argentina) based on a 1711 copy manuscript kept in its collection, published a Spanish translation of the book.
References
- ^ a b c [1] Archived 2002-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, Tjärnö Marine Biological Laboratory, Göteborg University
- ^ a b c [2][permanent dead link], International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB)
- ^ a b [3], Government of Norway, document archives
- ^ a b c [4], Cronologia Ornitologica
- ^ "Nederlandse Ornithologische Unie - Ardea". Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2009-02-03., Ardea, Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union
- ^ [5], Fauna och flora (1923) Projekt Runeberg (Swedish)
- ^ "Place Names of Svalbard Details". Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2009-02-03., Norwegian Polar Institute, geographical names
- ^ [6], National Library of Finland, University of Helsinki
- ^ New edition. Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Original book, digitized 2006 at Oxford University
- Original book complete with illustrations, digitized by the Internet Archive.
- English translation published as part of John Narborough's An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries, London 1711, digitized by the Internet Archive.
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