Carolus Clusius

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The Clusius garden in the Hortus botanicus, Leiden

Carolus Clusius (Charles de l'Ecluse, 1526 - 1609), humanist and physician, was the most important botanist of his time. He introduced and distributed a great many exotic plants throughout Europe, among others, the horse chestnut, the tulip and other West Asian bulbous plants, but also the potato and the tomato. He traversed many parts of Europe, collected plants, bulbs and seeds and wrote the very first flora in the world. As the first prefect of the botanical garden of the University of Leiden he was responsible for the planting of every possible kind of plant, and not exclusively medicinal plants as was then the custom in university gardens. He stood at the beginning of a new development in the relationship between man and nature. Before Clusius’ time it was customary in the West to consider nature mainly from the point of view of its benefit to man. Clusius was one of the first with a true scientific interest in botany. In the reconstruction of Clusius’ garden in the Hortus one may clearly see that Clusius not only was a botanist, but also a dedicated gardener. He had his collection planted in such a way as to show the various plants to their full advantage. We also know that the Hortus of Leiden was not the only garden in which he was actively involved in the planting: he was director of the botanical garden in Vienna of Emperor Maximilian II of Austria and also designed gardens for a number of his friends.

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