Page 47 - La Naturaleza como inspiración

Dibujo de van Berkhey en el que se representa a sí mismo a la derecha, Album Amicorum, Egbert Philip van Visvliet, 1755-1795. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Amsterdam
Tekening van Van Berkhey, waarin hij zichzelf aan de rechterkant afbeeldt, Album Amicorum, Egbert Philip
van Visvliet, 1755-1795. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Amsterdam
Drawing by Van Berkhey in which he represents himself on the right, Album Amicorum, Egbert Philip van Visvliet, 1755-1795. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Amsterdam
ural History of Holland”). This ode to his country included studies of geology, topography and cul- tural history. It is considered an essential document for gaining an understanding of life in Holland in the 18th century. The first volume was published in 1769; work continued until 1778, but was unfortu- nately not completed and it therefore does not in- clude the studies of the botany and vegetation of Holland. Following the great success of this work, which was translated into German and French, van Berkhey was appointed professor of Natural His- tory in Leiden in 1773.
To mark the city’s bicentenary in 1774, he read the poem Het verheerlijkt Leyden (“Leiden glorified”), which increased his fame in the Dutch Republic. The complete collection of his poems was published in 1782 under the title: De zeetriumph der Bataafsche vrijheid op de Doggersbank. He came to be regarded as one of the best poets of his time. The complete list of his works is very extensive, consisting of nearly 300 articles on a wide variety of subjects.
His life was also, however, marked by the po- litical situation in the Netherlands. A staunch sup- porter of the Prince of Orange, he used his literary abilities to defend him, and this led him to be seen as a dangerous enemy of the anti-Orangists (the “Patriots”). As a result of his political views, van Berkhey was denied the chair of Natural History at
the University of Leiden in 1783, even though he was a lecturer there and a member of several acad- emies. Condemned by the anti-Orangists for his political activity, he was suspended without pay from the university. In order to pay the costs of his defence in the lengthy and costly judicial proceed- ings that followed, he had to sell the major natural history collections he had been compiling through- out his life. Firstly, the catalogues for these collec- tions had to be prepared: the catalogue for the li- brary was completed in 1783, while the catalogues for the other collections were compiled by sections between February 1784 and March 1785.
Although the Orangists regained power in 1787, van Berkhey never regained his former position. After the death of his partner in 1791, he returned to War- mond, where he worked on Natuurlijke historie van het rundvee in Holland (“Natural History of Dutch cattle”), which was published between 1805 and 1811. In 1805 he returned to Leiden, where his house un- fortunately burned down in a fire caused by the gun- powder explosion on a ship that destroyed much of the old city in 1807. He initially moved to the palace of Louis Napoleon in The Hague. In 1808 van Berkhey was able to return to his home, which had been rebuilt, and there he died forgotten in 1812.
45