ABSTRACT
Georg Heinrich Freiherr von Langsdorff, a renowned physician and naturalist, was also the General Consul of Russia in Rio de Janeiro. A visit to his residence at Fazenda da Mandioca was indispensable to every scientist coming from overseas. Langsdorff was very fortunate when he hired Florence to the expedition for the position of second draftsman: but not only because he was a talented artist; the young man was also an experienced cartographer. The expedition was sponsored by the Imperial Russian government; in the beginning, by Tsar Alexander I and later by Tsar Nicholas I. The group left Rio de Janeiro on September 3rd, 1825 and stopped for four months in Porto Feliz, Sao Paulo Province. There, the crew worked on the last details for the long trip ahead. Renowned scientists such as Koch Grünberg, Noema Xprintsin and Karl von den Steinen, had already noticed Florence’s attention to documental accuracy in his iconographic representations of indigenous peoples in Brazil.
