Peter Kolbe

Who was Peter Kolbe?

Peter Kolbe was sent to the Cape of Good Hope with letters of introduction from Nicolaas Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam, with a mandate to compile a comprehensive description of South Africa and for astronomical and surveying research. Kolbe is best remembered for his publication in 1719 in Nuremberg of Caput Bonae Spei Hodiernum. Kolbe's checklist of the Cape fauna was the first to be published. In the Dutch edition his account devotes 45 pages to mammals, 22 to birds, 24 to fishes, and 20 pages to snakes, insects and other animals. As did a lot of writers of natural history at the time, he was prone to including exaggerated tales. His discovery and description of a giraffe elicited much interest in Europe, and even though Julius Caesar had brought one to Rome in about 46 BC, no reliable source had produced compelling proof of the existence of this rather improbable creature.

Kolbe was appointed in 1705 as the first official astronomer in South Africa and worked at the Cape between 1705 and 1713, providing a detailed account of day-to-day life at the Cape, also describing the geography, climate, flora and fauna, followed by an accurate study of the Hottentots, covering their language, religion, lifestyle and customs. Kolbe's account was first published in German in Nuremberg in 1719.