SpixandMartius: Two natural THE BAY

Abstract

"Spix e Martius: dois naturalistas na baía" focuses in the work Reise in Brasilien 1817-1820, written by the Bavarian naturalists Johann Spix and Karl Von Martius, and published in 1823. The essay tries to analyse the perceptions of the natural world, and of Brazilian nature in particular, elaborated by the "viajantes ilustrados" who visit the country and catalogue its resources during the first half of the nineteenth century, in a period in which local nature, forbidden until 1808 under the restrictions imposed by the Portuguese Crown, becomes accessible again to the scrutiny of the foreign specialist.