August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof (March 30, 1705 in Augustenburg near Arnstadt – March 27, 1759 in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

) was a German

miniature A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...

painter, naturalist and entomologist. With his accurate, heavily detailed images of insects he was recognised as an important figure in modern entomology.

Life

Descendant of a "noble family of Austria", Rösel was born August Johannes Rösel. This was modified in 1753, undoubtedly in the honour of his uncle, the animal painter Wilhelm Rösel von Rosenhof. Rösel’s father died when he was very young and it was his uncle who gave him an artistic education after his godmother, the princess Augusta Dorothea von Arnstadt-Schwarzburg, had detected his talent. He continued studies of art at the Academy of Nuremberg (1724–1726) where he became a very gifted painter of portraits and miniatures, which enabled him to join the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

court of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1726. There he remained two years before returning to Germany, once more to Nuremberg. Recovering from a disease, he discovered the work of Anna Maria Sibylla Merian, ''Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium'' (1647–1717) in which she described the insects and other animals which she observed in Surinam. Rösel conceived the idea to write and illustrate a similar book on the German fauna. In 1737, he married Elisabeth Maria, the daughter of the surgeon, physiologist and poet Michael Bertram Rosa. In 1741 they had a daughter Katharina Barbara Rösel von Rosenhof, who would also become an artist. His artistic talent gave him a very good reputation so that he lived comfortably while painting and he could use his spare time to observe

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

, amphibians and reptiles in nature. He collected eggs and larvae in order to raise them at home and to study their development and their

metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

. His detailed observations, more useful by being accompanied by very beautiful illustrations, were published in two large books. The first, ''Insecten-Belustigung'', appeared in 1740 and was devoted to the insects and other invertebrates like the

sea anemones Sea anemones are a group of predatory marine invertebrates of the order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, ...

. His classification of the insects followed a natural system and he is regarded as one of the fathers of German entomology. The fourth part is practically a monograph of the spider

Araneus diadematus The spider species ''Araneus diadematus'' is commonly called the European garden spider, diadem spider, orangie, cross spider, and crowned orb weaver. It is sometimes called the pumpkin spider, although this name is also used for a different spec ...

. The description of the animal is illustrated by six plates which show the differences in variation of the colouring of the species. They show also internal dissections. Rosenhof was interested in the production of silk but he confused the anus with the opening of silk-producing glands. He published, between 1753 and 1758, ''Historia naturalis Ranarum nostratium'' devoted to

frogs A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...

. The quality of the work, in particular of its illustrations, make it one of the most beautiful devoted to these animals. He presented the life cycle of all the species of Germany, and their anatomy and their osteology. The second part of the work, appeared in 1758. It is prefaced by Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777). He then started a similar work on the lizards and the salamanders but a cerebral attack paralysed him and he died a little later on March 27, 1759. Many descriptions of species made by

Carl von Linné Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

are based on the descriptions given by Rösel. Roesel's bush-cricket ''Metrioptera roeseli'' was so named in his honour.

Works

*''Insecten-Belustigung'' (1740
online
*''Historia naturalis Ranarum nostratium''/''Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes''(1758
online
*''De natuurlyke historie der insecten''
online here
continued by his daughter and her husband Christian Friedrich Carl Kleemann 1735-1789 and translated into Dutch by Adam Abrahamzoon Moerbeek

References

Sources

* Translated from French Wikipedia * Kraig Adler (1989) ''Contributions to the History of Herpetology'', S.S.A.R.

External links

Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database - version 1.0 - Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.Zoologica GDZ

''Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium''
at SICD Universities of Strasbourg Digital Old Books.
''Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium''
at University of Heidelberg Library Includes all the plates (Tafeln I - XXIV)
Gallica

Rosenhof Plates

Plates from ''Insecten-Belustigung'' at the University of Copenhagen library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosel van Rosenhof, August 1705 births 1759 deaths German entomologists Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg alumni