Network analysis of the herbarium collection of the Moravian Church from the 18th century

Abstract

The Herbarium Dresdense (DR), Germany, houses about 500 000 specimens of worldwide origin. One of the oldest collections is the Herbarium Barbiense of the Moravian Church from the mid to the late 18th century. On their mission to spread Christianity, the Moravians settled on many continents and took the advantage of exploring culture and nature of their new home countries. Being excellent observers and documentarists, they left a barely explored corpus of objects and texts of tremendous importance for natural sciences and humanities. Since 1754 the educational centre of the community was located in Barby, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. To support the scientific training and to gather objects send home by the missionaries, a cabinet of natural curiosities was established in 1756. The collections of minerals, fossils, conchylia and plants were unique and soon attracted other European academics.