The early book herbaria of Leonhard Rauwolf (S. France and N. Italy, 1560–1563): new light on a plant collection from the ‘golden age of botany’

Abstract

The sixteenth century was a golden age for botany, a time when numerous naturalists devoted themselves to the study and documentation of plant diversity. A very prominent figure among them was the German physician, botanist, and traveler Leonhard Rauwolf (1535?–1596), famous for his travel account and luxurious book herbarium containing plants from the Near East. Here, we focus on the less studied, early book herbaria of Rauwolf. These form a three-volume plant collection bound in leather and gold, which contains over 600 plants that Rauwolf collected between 1560 and 1563 in S. France and N. Italy when he was a student of medicine. We show the botanical value of Rauwolf’s early book herbaria, exemplified by two exotic American specimens, namely one of the oldest surviving specimens of tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), collected in Italy, and the oldest known French record of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). These well-preserved specimens indicate that Rauwolf was eager to collect exotic plants already in his early botanical steps. We further discuss Rauwolf’s professional botanical network during his student years and suggest that the famous Swiss botanist Johann Bauhin (1541–1613), friend and companion of Rauwolf during his field excursions and their medical studies in Montpellier, has played a significant role in the compilation of this precious historical plant collection. We also show that Leonhart Fuchs (and not Carolus Clusius) extensively annotated the three book herbaria. Finally, we reconstruct the story of making of the book herbaria, as evidenced through observations of paper watermarks and handwritten texts in the book volumes, and show that all four book herbaria of Rauwolf were probably bound between 1577 and 1582.

Sixteenth-century tomatoes in Europe: who saw them, what they looked like, and where they came from

“…The second herbarium produced in France, that of the German botanist Leonhard Rauwolf, contains a tomato ( Fig. 1D ), but this specimen was collected during Rauwolf’s field trip in northern Italy in 1563 ( Stefanaki et al, 2021 ). Tomato specimens are also included in the herbaria Estense (Ferrara, Italy), Bauhin (three specimens; Basel, Switzerland), Ratzenberger (Kassel, Germany) and the Herbarium Vivum of Hieronymus Harder (Ulm, Germany); all these collections have been compiled towards the end of the sixteenth century ( Table S1 , Figs.…”

“…The provenance from the obscure New World was not of interest to most sixteenth-century scholars, who tried hard to trace the tomato in the writings of ancient Greek authors. Regarding herbarium specimens, we only know that the Rauwolf tomato was collected somewhere in N. Italy ( Stefanaki et al, 2021 ), while C. Bauhin’s tomatoes were possibly cultivated in his garden in Basel.…”

Tracing the introduction history of the tulip that went wild (Tulipa sylvestris) in sixteenth-century Europe

“…The epithet “ Turcica ” implies an Ottoman origin, but all images in the first volume of the Codex Kentmanus were drawn after plants that Kentmann observed in Italy 69 . The paper sheet on which this “ Tulipa Turcica” was made carries a watermark depicting a triple mountain and cross, which originates from Padua 69 (see also 70 ), where Kentmann lived and drew several plants of the city’s botanical garden 69 . During his two-year stay, Kentmann also travelled elsewhere in Italy, observing and drawing interesting and unknown plants 68 , 69 .…”

“…1 a), although evidently drawn by a different hand, presumably that of Fuchs’ illustrator Heinrich Füllmaurer 79 . It seems however unlikely that Fuchs, who never travelled to southern Europe, possessed already in the 1540 s a plant still unknown to northern Europeans (see also 70 on Fuchs’ misleading identifications of Mediterranean plants). Moreover, Fuchs wrote that T. sylvestris was frequent in German gardens 79 , which again is inaccurate for this early period.…”

“…The two combined are conventionally known as “Erbario Cibo” 84 , 85 . Two more specimens are dated from 1563, the first collected by the German physician and traveler Leonhard Rauwolf somewhere in northern Italy 70 (Fig. 5 a), and the latter included in the surviving herbarium of Andrea Cesalpino, made in Pisa for the bishop Alfonso Tornabuoni 87 , 88 (Fig.…”