500 years of Carolus Clusius (1526 – 1609)

Clusius is best known as the one who brought the tulip to the Netherlands and spread the potato throughout Europe. He was born in 1526 in Northern Flanders as Charles de l'Écluse. In his adult years, he traveled throughout Europe to collect, describe, cultivate, and study plants, thus becoming one of the first true botanists. He had a passion for plants, but also excellent contacts with everyone interested in plants in his time. He was personally asked by Leiden University (1575) to take charge of the newly planned hortus medicus (medical garden). Clusius arrived in Leiden on October 19, 1593, where he lived for the rest of his life.

500 years of Clusius – festive winter day February 19, 2026

On February 19, 2026, it will be exactly 500 years since Carolus Clusius, the first prefect of the Leiden Botanical Garden, was born. The Hortus is celebrating this with a festive winter day for young and old. Visitors can browse stalls, attend lectures and guided tours, or participate in creative activities. The activities take place from 10:00 AM to 16:30 PM; participation in the event is free (except for the lectures), visitors only pay Hortus admission (Museum Card free entry). For all activities and tickets, please visit: https://hortusleiden.nl/zien-en-doen/agenda/activiteiten/500-jaar-clusius?

 

History of Hortus Leiden

After the founding of Leiden University in 1575, it proved desirable to establish a 'hortus medicus', a garden where medical students could study medicinal plants. On March 15, 1587, several administrators of the university requested the municipal council to make the undeveloped land behind the Academy Building on the Rapenburg available for the construction of the garden for medical education. Three years later, on February 9, 1590, the plot of approximately 1250 m² was transferred to the university. This is generally regarded as the founding date of the botanical garden.

In 1593, Carolus Clusius became a professor at the university and the first director (praefectus horti) of the garden. As early as 1592, the Austrian diplomat Ogier Gisleen van Busbeke sent him tulip seeds. Also in that year, Clusius had already had seeds of 251 plant species sent from Crete to Leiden. In 1594, the garden was planted. Because Carolus Clusius was already 67 years old and disabled at the time of his appointment, the Delft pharmacist Dirck Outgaertsz. Cluyt was appointed to take on the daily management as hortulanus. Clusius wanted the garden to be laid out with all species of the plant kingdom known up to that time. Plants that were still unknown at the time, such as tulips, and in later times tomatoes, tobacco plants, and maize, were planted and gained their fame in Northern Europe through the botanical garden. Plants brought to Europe by the Dutch East India Company were also planted.  

Carolus Clusius and Josephus Justus Scaliger

To give Leiden University a flying start after its founding in 1575, star scientists were attracted, such as Justus Lipsius, a humanist from the Southern Netherlands who held the chair of history, and botanist and physician Carolus Clusius, who had the botanical garden laid out. And it worked: students and fellow scholars came to Leiden to be inspired by the famous scholars. In 1593, Joseph Scaliger Lipsius's successor; he returned to Leuven.

Initially, Scaliger lived in the Schoolsteeg behind the Pieterskerkgracht. Carolus Clusius, founder of the Hortus Botanicus, became his there. neighborScaliger was not satisfied with the dwelling: he complained constantly and wanted a more distinguished house. The university then offered him a house on the Breestraat (the current No. 111-113, on which a plaque has been placed). It was spacious, with a cellar and two floors. Behind the house lay a large garden with oak trees. 'J'ay trois ou quatre chesnes, qui font une forest', Scaliger wrote boastfully about his garden. Scaliger was buried in the Vrouwekerk on the Vrouwenkerkkoorsteeg, of which only a small ruin remains today (opposite the current café 't Praethuys). More than two hundred years later, in 1819, his remains and the memorial plaques, together with those of Carolus Clusius, who also died in 1609, were transferred to the Pieterschurch .  

How Carolus Clusius brought the tulip to the Netherlands

The Netherlands was not a country of flowers at all, until the Flemish physician and botanist Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) introduced the tulip around 1600. The Flemish physician and botanist Charles de l'Écluse, or Carolus Clusius, studied law and medicine. But because he loved flowers and plants so much, he eventually became a botanist.

Clusius's passion for plants was so great that he roamed the Spanish and Portuguese countryside for years in search of unknown plant and flower species. He also lived in England for a time, where he received exotic plants from other parts of the world from sailors to study. In 1594, he arrived in Leiden as a professor. There, Clusius established the first Dutch botanical garden with the most diverse plant and flower species: the Hortus Botanicus.

After a few years, he received an unknown flower species from Turkey through a diplomat friend. It was a tulipClusius planted the flower in the Leiden Hortus and cultivated tulips in all kinds of colors, which he subsequently studied. The story goes that one night an unknown man climbed over the garden fences of the Hortus and stole a number of tulip bulbs. This unknown man sold the tulip bulbs to farmers in the region north of Leiden, still known today as the Bulb Region. Unintentionally, Clusius made the tulip trade big in the Netherlands, without ever having earned a cent from it himself. He could have become an immensely wealthy merchant, for besides the tulip, he also brought the Potatoplate, tomatoes, beans and corn to the Netherlands. Products that all became successful in the centuries that followed. But Professor Clusius was a scientist, not a merchant. He merely grew plants, drew them, described their properties, and was happy. Source: Historiek.  

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500 years of Clusius on Vroege Vogels, listen to the interview: https://www.bnnvara.nl/vroegevogels/artikelen/hortus-botanicus-leiden-viert-500-jaar-carolus-clusius 500 years of Clusius – festive winter day February 19, 2026: https://hortusleiden.nl/zien-en-doen/agenda/activiteiten/500-jaar-clusius? Hortus Magazine 2026. The ninth edition of Hortus Leiden is themed around 'Time Travel with ClusiusIn the articles, you will read not only more about Clusius and the time in which he lived, but also how seeds, bulbs, and tubers can sometimes survive for decades until they find the right conditions to germinate. This makes them a kind of time travelers as well. Other topics, such as the renovation of the Fern Garden, are also covered. Digital version: https://issuu.com/lagrouwsc/docs/magazine_hortus_leiden Previous blogs 450 years of Leiden University: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/450-jaar-universiteit-leiden/