Dramatis Personae

Florike Egmond and Lu(sLurs Ram6nRamon Laca

In this chapter some key figures in the realization of the Libri Picturati• German period he was deeply influenced by Protestantism. project are presented, with their backgrounds and relevant connections, Clusius was, partly by necessity, a truly European figure. After his as well as their respective roles in the process. German experience he studied medicine in France with the fish expert in Montpellier (1551-1554) and later in Charles de Saint Omer Paris, until religious persecutions forced him to leave and return Lord of Dranoutre (or Renouteren) and Moerkerke (1533-1569), also to the Southern in 1563. In the role of tutor of a young known as Karel van Sint Omaars or Carolus a divo Odomaro. Saint member of the rich Fugger family Clusius toured and Portugal, Omer was a wealthy nobleman from the Southern Netherlands who doing field work and collecting material for what would turn out to owned an estate and castle at Moerkercke near Bruges as well as be the first national in European history. In the course of this farms, mills, various feudal landholdings and rights, and a house in formative period he acquired no less than eight languages and an Bruges itself. extensive knowledge of a wide variety of subjects. During this early His parents josse de Saint Omer and Anne van Praet married in 1525. phase of his life Clusius translated both Dodonaeus's Cruydtboeck The Praet family belonged to the highest circles of the Flemish aris• and Garcia da Orta's work on East Indian plants into Latin. tocracy. Saint Omer's mother inherited the seigneurie of Moerkerke By the mid 1560s Clusius was back in the southern Netherlands, from her elder sister josine van Praet. enjoying the protection of influential patrons, such as Guy and Saint Omer was married twice - first to Fran~oise de Blois de Marcus Laurin (Lauweryn) in Bruges, Charles de Saint Omer, and Treslong, second (probably in 1562) to Anne d'Ongnies - but died jean de Brancion. During this period he also was involved in the

childless on February 12th, 1569 at the early age of 36. Charles de Saint Omer's health was not strong. He gave up his military career, probably before he was thirty years of age, and retired to Moerkerke, where he devoted himself to the arts and sciences, in par• ticular to the study of nature. His castle was surrounded by extensive gardens where many exotic plants were grown. It also comprised a maze and a menagerie with some rare animals. Saint Omer owned an unusual collection of curiosities, as well as the usual jewellery, tapestries, silverware, weapons, books, and works of art owned by a nobleman of that time. He only came into his full inheritance upon the death of his mother in 1559 and it seems likely that he started collecting (at least on a grand scale) afterwards. Saint Omer was the patron of the botanist Carolus Clusius and the painter jacques vanden Corenhuyse, both of whom were involved in the creation of the Libri Picturati watercolours. Clusius stayed for lengthy periods at Saint Omer's estate and the two men also cor• responded about plants. Clusius stimulated Saint Omer's interest in plants, advised him in these matters, and may have inspired him to start a large collection of watercolours of plants, birds and fish. Saint Omer collected the botanical illustrations in several volumes which were to be published under the title Centuriae plantarum rariorum. Separate volumes contained bird and fish illustrations. The water• colours in these volumes are the core of the Libri Picturati collection.

Carolus Clusius Carolus Clusius or Charles de l'Eciuse (1526-1609), physiCian, humanist and one of the foremost botanists of the sixteenth century. CAWLVSCAROLVS CLVSIVS .• He was born in Atrecht () as the eldest child in a noble family, studied law at the university of Leuven, and changed to medicine r:Tu qui PANNONIIS nakrntiana(rrntia Gila mIn hortis,hurtis. while studying in Germany, at Marburg and Wittenberg. During this ~qut~que fiortisfiortis nudimtradlimt llGa/lI1a inin. HESPERUS, A.cAc Jlii!esjliifts allefiu!all'!fi.u£ 6trbtUhn-bll5 1'!:odUcisl'Toaucis inin. uras, CCuJi, Itct m hOChoc fiortohorlD JfoJculUsJfcfculW U1IUSu-rms cris.ais.

Plate 1 (A24.046) Pellitory (Anocyclus(Anacyc/us pyrethrum),pyrethrum). with thethe Figure 1 Portrait of Carolus Clusius at the age of 49. from Hunger 45 annotation 'ex horto Laurinorum Brugis' (1927. p. 387)