Flora Sinensis
Natural history books about China / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Flora Sinensis?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Flora Sinensis is one of the first European natural history books about China, published in Vienna in 1656.[1] Its author, Michael Boym, was a Jesuit missionary from Poland (then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth).[2]
Flora Sinensis is one of the first European natural history books about China, published in Vienna in 1656.[3] Its author, Michael Boym, was a Jesuit missionary from Poland (then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth).[4]
The book was the first description of an ecosystem of the Far East published in Europe. Boym underlined the medicinal properties of the Chinese plants. The book also included pleas for support of the Catholic Chinese emperor, the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, whose mothers Empress Dowager Wang (Southern Ming) and Empress Dowager Ma (Southern Ming) sent a letter to the Pope with a request for help in November 1650, addressing the urgent threat of Qing dynasty. Each page contained a chronogram pointing to the date of 1655, the date of coronation of Emperor Leopold I as the King of Hungary, as Boym wanted to gain support of that monarch for his mission.
- Drawing of, probably, the sugar-apple
- Pepper
- A squirrel (松鼠) chasing a green-haired turtle (绿毛龟)
- Hippopotamus