Abstract
The University of Leiden featured one of the first botanical gardens north of the Alps, which was fully equipped in 1594. The first three persons responsible for the garden—Carolus Clusius, Dirk Outgaertsz. Cluyt and Pieter Pauw—had to distribute the plants and herbs into the different garden beds. The logic behind the spatial order they chose gives insight into various approaches on plant classification in the early modern period. It is possible to reconstruct and analyze the order of plants using catalogues from different years. These catalogues show the changes in the distribution of plants under the prefecture of several natural historians. The catalogues themselves are an interesting historical source, showing a way to transfer a garden and its plants into a printed counterpart. In the early modern period, the classification of plants was not yet strictly defined. Also, in the botanical garden of the University of Leiden, we do not find a single, stern systematic approach to ordering the plants, but rather a number of different ones. Plants were classified according to their virtues and to empirically comprehensible criteria, but also according to their beauty or even to the chapters of an herbal. The reconstruction of the distribution of the plants shows those different approaches to ordering the flora and casts light on the development of botany.
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Notes
- 1.
The images were engraved by Willem Isaacsz. van Swanenburg after a drawing by Jan Cornelisz. van ’t Woudt and published by Andries Clouck ; see Boon (1984: 27–28).
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
For the “book of nature”, see Jorink (2010).
- 5.
“die grundtliche ond ware abconterfeytung des gemeinen Kreutergartens”.
- 6.
“mit sonderlicher embsigkeyt un grossen kosten / zu nutz und onterweisung deren / so in der Artzney studieren / auch Apothekern / Wundartzten / ond allen andern Studenten und liebhabern der Kreuter”.
- 7.
“in schoner/zierlicher und bequemer ordnung/auffgerichtet worden”.
- 8.
“Aldah viel setzame frembde Artzneykreuter/pflantzen und blumen / von mancherley art unfarben/gefunden werden; welche ons Gott d’allmechtige zu erhaltung unser leibes gesundtheit gnediglich mitgetheilt hat.”
- 9.
“teglich mehr und mehr an frembden gewechsen/pflantzen und kreutern”.
- 10.
“das er nicht allein der Universitet ein grosz ornament und zierd ist”.
- 11.
On the gallery in Leiden, see de Jong (1991).
- 12.
Leiden, University Library, shelfmark Ms. AC.1, Nr. 101, fol. 117A–T; images of the catalogue can be found online in the Digital Special Collections of Leiden University Library; a typographically simplified transcription provides (Molhuysen 1913–1924: Deel 1, Bijlage 291, 317*–334*).
- 13.
For a biography of Clusius see Hunger (1927–1943).
- 14.
Letter and list transcribed in Molhuysen (1913–1924: Deel 1, Bijlage 213, 238* and Bijlage 214, 238*–242*).
- 15.
- 16.
“cette maniere de planter les simples par l’ordre de leur alphabet, comme si toutes demandoient vne pareille culture, il y a plus d’ostentation en cette façon, que de raison & de bienseance” (de la Brosse 1636: 18).
- 17.
“sed ut vix sciam serio agat an ludat” (Hunger 1927–1943: vol. 1, 204).
- 18.
Pauw (1601) Catalogues in different editions filled out for the years 1600, 1602, 1603, 1608, 1614 and 1628 are now stored in the National Herbarium in Leiden, shelfmark HERBAR Folio room.
- 19.
- 20.
The garden was reconstructed twice according to the catalogue of 1594. For the newest reconstruction and the problems in identifying the plants, see Tjon Sie Fat (1991).
- 21.
For this and other early modern herbals used and printed in the Low Countries, see Arber (1970: 79–92).
- 22.
Dodonaeus (1608: 545–550, 1202–1203, 1027–1028, 85–87, 527–528, 122–123, 40–41 and 516–517).
- 23.
Inventory of the theatre, Leiden, University Library, shelfmark Ms. AC1, Nr. 228, no pagination.
- 24.
“Item seven steenen, een ieder van de groote en figure van een Walsche platte noote, asgrau van coleur wegende altemae levens vaer […]. Dese sijn uyt de Blase ghesneden van den voortreffeliken en wijtberoembden D. Joannes Heurnius eerste Professor Medicinae in de Universiteit alhier […].” (Barge 1934: 41).
- 25.
“Van de eetbaere oft Moes-cruyden” (Dodonaeus 1608: 1045).
- 26.
“Van de Wortelen die van de Medicijns gebruyct worden” (Dodonaeus 1608: 563).
- 27.
At least, such orders have not yet been found.
- 28.
The plants put into this fenced compartment are listed in Pauw’s catalogue for the year 1608 on an inbound leaflet, stored at Nationaal Herbarium Nederland in Leiden, shelfmark: HERBAR Folio room.
Bibliography
Unpublished Sources
Cluyt, Dirk Outgaertsz. 1594. Index stirpium. Archief van Curatoren 1, shelfmark Ms. AC.1, Nr. 101, fol. 117A–T. Leiden: University Library.
Pauw, Pieter. 1601. Hortus Publicus Academiæ Lugduno-Batavæ, eius Ichnographia, descriptio, usus: addito quas habet stirpium numero et nominibus. Leiden: Officina Plantiniana. For the handwritten inscriptions, see Leiden, National Herbarium, shelfmark HERBAR Folio room, copies for 1600, 1602, 1603, 1608, 1614 and 1628.
Printed Sources
Brosse, Guy de la. 1636. Description dv iardin royal des plantes medecinales, estably par le roy Louis le Ivste, à Paris. Contenant le catalogue des plantes qui y sont de present cultiuées, ensemble le plan du jardin. Paris: s.n.
Dodonaeus, Rembertus. 1608. Cruydt-Boeck: met biivoegsels achter elck Capittel, wtverscheyden Cruydtbeschrijvers: item in’t laetste een Beschrijvinge vande Indiaensche Gewassen meest getrocken wt de Schriften van Carolus Clusius. Leiden: Officina Plantiniana.
Porro, Girolamo. 1591. L’Horto dei Semplici di Padoua. Venice: Girolamo Porro.
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Grämiger, G. (2016). Reconstructing Order: The Spatial Arrangements of Plants in the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden University in Its First Years. In: Fischer, H., Remmert, V., Wolschke-Bulmahn, J. (eds) Gardens, Knowledge and the Sciences in the Early Modern Period. Trends in the History of Science. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26342-7_11
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