The Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 learned society

Learned society

A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...

 in Batavia (now Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

).

The society was founded in 1778 by naturalist Jacob Cornelis Matthieu Radermacher

Jacob Cornelis Matthieu Radermacher

Jacob Cornelis Matthieu Radermacher was a Dutch botanist and author.Radermacher was born in The Hague, Holland. He was an officer of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia as well as a talented naturalist...

 as the Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wetenschappen (Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences), and assumed its current name in 1910. After Indonesian independence in 1949, it was renamed the Lembaga Kebudajaan Indonesia in 1950, and in 1962 ceased operation. Its collection is now in the Museum Nasional.