Charles de L’ Écluse: Master of Descriptive Botany / Charles de L’ Écluse – « Le prince des descripteurs »

Abstract

Charles de l’Écluse (Carolus Clusius, 1526 – 1609) was one of the first and foremost descriptive botanists who turned the description of plants into a true art. He was also responsible for introducing several hitherto unknown plants. Like other Renaissance personalities, he had many scientific interests. He studied law, he earned a doctorate in medicine from Montpellier, but his leading passion was botany. He chiefly focused on plants with medicinal properties in order that people benefited from his research. His best-known works are: Rariorum plantarum historia: Fungorum in Pannoniis observatarum brevia historia…, a remarkable pioneering mycological study containing highly accurate descriptions illustrated by over thousand engravings, in which he attempts at re-classifying the species according to affinities, an in-folio edition published in the Christophe Plantin’s printing house in Anvers in 1601, and Exoticorum libri decem : quibus animaliium, plantarum, aromatum, aliorumque peregrinorum fructuum historiae describuntur, another in folio edition published by the same printer in Anvers in 1605. The two editions of Clusius’s complete works of botany and natural history most often consulted by specialists are also preserved in the collections of the library of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca. We are proud to posses them and we believe it is not only our duty, but also our pleasure to treasure and introduce them to the public.