Varenius (1622–1650)

Bernhard Varen (latinized to Varenius) was born near Lünenburg, Germany, in 1622. Through studies at the gymnasium of Hamburg and the University of Königsberg, he excelled in mathematics, natural science, and philosophy, leading to the completion of a degree in medicine at the University of Leiden in 1649. There is no evidence of his having practiced medicine. Rather, he settled in Amsterdam, working as a tutor and taking interest in the discoveries of contemporary Dutch navigators, the work of geographers, and the achievements of Willem Blaeu and other cartographers. Varenius contributed to regional understanding with Descriptio Regni Japoniae in 1649 and to studies of religion. However, he is best known for Geographia Generalis, published in the 28th and final year of his life by Elsevier Press in 1650.

Geographia Generalis is a milestone in the history of science, staking a position for a formal discipline of geography, aligning it with the rationalist perspective of the early Enlightenment (represented in the philosophies of René Descartes and Francis Bacon) and with the commitment to empirical documentation. Residing in Amsterdam, Varenius had access to the wealth of new information made available through seafaring voyages of discovery and trade. Documenting and systematizing that knowledge was one of his central objectives. He recorded quantitative information about the shape, size, and motions of Earth, documented findings about the distributions of land and water, and systematized notes on the characteristics of mountains, woods, deserts, and the atmosphere in different locations, seeking where possible to identify trends and general spatial patterns.

Geographia Generalis identifies two branches of geography—special and general. Whereas [Page 3009]special geography is focused on the description of countries and regions (referred to today as regional geography), general geography was seen by Varenius as a systematic science, focused on understanding the features at the surface of Earth and on relationships between Earth and other celestial bodies. He saw value in basing regional description on a foundation of general understanding and proceeded to outline three different aspects of general geography. These included absolute geography, to measure the size, shape, and motions of Earth; relative geography, to draw associations to climatic patterns and the measurement of time; and comparative geography, to describe geographical variations in the characteristics of different parts of Earth and to identify appropriate principles of mapping and navigation.

Historians of geography characterize the successive translations and revisions of Geographia Generalis (by Isaac Newton in 1672 and 1681 and by others well into the mid 1700s) as helping establish a foothold for teaching systematic geography in many of the leading academic institutions of Britain, America, and Europe. It provided a foundation for thinking about the practices of geography and its role in science. The work of Varenius was invoked in 17th- and 18th-century debates over the merits of Cartesian and the Newtonian scientific systems, lauded by Alexander von Humboldt in his Cosmos, and although it no longer garners such central attention, it is seen as a foundation for good scientific practice by 21st-century scholars who seek to advance the science of geographic information.

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