Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
The journey of a lifetime
Introduction (you're here) | Timeline | Titan arum
4 April 1865 - 2 March 1868
London, April 1865. Just over twenty years old, the young Florentine scholar Odoardo Beccari was about to embark, with his friend Giacomo Doria, on his first major expedition a journey to the remote island of Borneo, which would take him through the dense jungle of Sarawak, recording data, collecting specimens and establishing a deep connection with nature and local communities.
Over the following three years, he lived in places that were then unexplored, among indigenous populations, immersed in environments of rare beauty and richness, sometimes in conditions of complete isolation. Almost forty years later, Beccari recounted this journey in his famous book Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo, an evocative account in which the rigour of the scientist and the harshness of his character merge with a poetic nostalgia for his younger years.
Upon returning to Italy, he wrote about that extraordinary experience:
The purpose of the journey was not geographical, so I have no discoveries to announce, nor any interesting observations to share on the subject, but we hope that Doria and I have achieved the goal we set ourselves, as far as our limited means allowed; the collections we made, almost all of which have now arrived in excellent condition, bear witness to this.
Odoardo Beccari, 1868
Odoardo Beccari at twenty, before departing on his first journey to Asia. Natural History Museum of Florence. Botanical Collections.