Etzel-born artist Albertus Seba (1665 – 1736) was a Dutch collector, pharmacist and zoologist. He moved to Amsterdam as a pharmacy apprentice and, opened a pharmacy near the harbor around 1700. He could ask ship surgeons and sailors to bring animal products and exotic plants that he could use for preparing drugs. During that same period, he also started collecting lizards, shells, insects, birds and snakes in his house. He became very successful as an apothecary and this afforded him the opportunity to pursue collecting which was his real passion. From 1711, Seba started delivering drugs to the Russian court and sometimes he would accept fresh ginger as a form of payment. Robert Erskine, the head-physician to Peter the Great helped Seba to promote his collection; and his complete collection was bought by Peter the Great in early 1716. However, in the years that followed, Seba managed to successfully develop another collection of natural specimens.
Frederik Ruysch, a well-known anatomist and physician in Amsterdam also worked with Seba and managed to sell collection to the tsar. Seba's taste was very specific, and his collection was characterized as material related to biodiversity: spirit-preserved snakes, bugs, mollusks and other sea life from the shallows. This second collection formed the basis for “Thesaurus”, which was his next big project. To produce quality work, he engaged many engravers and artists and also employed an assistant writer in this expensive and massive effort. He managed to produce 446 sizeable plates, spread out over four separate books. Several years after Seba's death, in 1752, his second collection was auctioned in Amsterdam.
