Tulipomania (31 page)

Bayezid
Inalcik,
Ottoman Empire
, pp. 14–18; Norwich,
Byzantium
, pp. 343–45, 364–69.

Constantinople and Sultan Mehmed
Mansel,
Constantinople
, chapter 1.
Sultan Mehmed’s gardens
Wheatcroft,
Ottomans
, pp. 26–29; Mansel,
Constantinople
, pp. 57–58.

Sultan Süleyman and the Istanbul tulips
Baker, “Cult of the Tulip in Turkey,” p. 240; Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” pp. 52–53; Demiriz, “Tulips in Ottoman Turkish Culture and Art,” pp. 57–58, 74–75. Some authorities argue that Istanbul tulips were not in fact bred until the second half of the seventeenth century (see Pavord,
Tulip
, pp. 39, 45); the matter is unclear.

Florists in Istanbul
Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” p. 51.

Sultan Selim and bulbs from Persia and Syria
Ibid., p. 53; Baker, “Cult of the Tulip in Turkey,” pp. 238–40.

The sultan’s palace and gardens
Demiriz, “Tulips in Ottoman Turkish Culture and Art,” pp. 59, 67; Mansel,
Constantinople
, pp. 60–61, 71, 73–75, 221–22; Miller,
Beyond the Sublime Porte
, pp. 4–21, 151–56; Penzer,
Harem
, pp. 40, 252–60; Cassels,
Struggle for the Ottoman Empire
, pp. 53–54, 57–58.

The bostancis
Mansel,
Constantinople
, pp. 74–75, 221–22; Cassels,
Struggle for the Ottoman Empire
, p. 53; Penzer,
Harem
, pp. 62, 185.

The head gardener’s race
It does not seem to be known when exactly this weird custom originated. See Miller,
Beyond the Sublime Porte
, pp. 145, 250 n31.

The early history of the tulip in Europe—insofar as it is known or can be guessed—was first thoroughly documented by Hermann, Grafen zu Solms-Laubach, in
Weizen und Tulpe und deren Geschichte
(Leipzig: Arthur Felix, 1899), and summarized in English by Sir Daniel Hall,
The Book of the Tulip
(London: Martin Hopkinson, 1929). More recent research is very briefly summarized by Sam Segal,
Tulips Portrayed: The Tulip Trade in Holland in the Seventeenth Century
(Lisse: Museum voor de Bloembollenstreek, 1992).

Lopo Vaz de Sampayo
Vaz’s connection with the tulip is also mentioned in Blunt,
Tulipomania
, p. 8n. Details of his career have been drawn from Whiteway,
Rise of Portuguese Power in India
, pp. 208–13, 221–23. Nunho da Cunha, incidentally, was the son of Tristão da Cunha, who gave his name to a flyspeck island in the Atlantic that still forms one of the remoter outposts of the British Commonwealth.

Monstereul
Charles de la Chesnée Monstereul’s book was the earliest to be entirely devoted to the tulip and therefore carries some weight among historians of the flower.

Duration of voyages to Portugal
Whiteway,
Rise of Portuguese Power in India
, p. 46.

Tulip hailed as something new
Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, p. 36.

Evidence for tulips in Europe before sixteenth century
Ibid., pp. 17, 36–37.

Busbecq
Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” p. 52; Martels,
Augerius Gislenius

Busbequius
, pp. 152, 440–52. On the proper dating of Busbecq’s first encounter with the tulip, see Martels, pp. 449–50.
George Sandys
Cited in Pavord,
Tulip
, pp. 35–36.

Busbecq’s letters
The book was
Legationis Turcicae Epistolae Quatuor
(Antwerp, 1581), and it was a best-seller in its time.

Busbecq and the introduction of the tulip
Another good reason for doubting that the ambassador was personally responsible for bringing the tulip to Europe is that Busbecq frequently boasted that he had been the first to introduce the sweet fig to the West. Given the fame that the tulip had already attained by the time of his death in 1591, it seems inconceivable he would not also have claimed credit for that discovery, if he knew he had been the first to make it. See Martels,
Augerius Gislenius Busbequius
, pp. 450–52.

The word tulip in English
According to Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, p. 17, it first appeared in Lyte’s translation of
Florum et Coronarium Odoratumque Nonnularum
, by Clusius’s friend Rembert Dodoens, originally published in Antwerp in 1568.

Conrad Gesner
Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, p. 39; Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, p. 3; Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 15–16; Fischer,
Conrad Gesner
. For the frog story, see Jan Bondeson, “Prodigious Vomiting,” in
A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997).
Catalogus Plantarum
, incidentally, was not published until two centuries after Gesner’s death; his description of the tulip first appeared in an appendix he added to a book written by his friend Valerius Gordus, which was published in 1561.

“In the month of April …”
Quoted in Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, p. 39.

Tulipa turcarum
Although a species of tulip named in Gesner’s honor was long thought to be that discovered at Augsberg, it would appear, according to Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 19, that the species in Herwart’s garden was probably
T. suavenolens
and not
T. gesneriana
at all.

Tulip seen in Italy by Johann Kentmann
Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, pp. 3, 21 n6. Kentmann labeled this flower
T. turcica
, but it appears to have been an example of the species
T. sylvestris
.

The Fugger gardens
Ehrenberg,
Grosse Vermögen
, p. 38. See also Polnitz,
Die Fugger
. Anton Fugger, the son of the founder of the Fugger empire, offered employment to both Gesner and Clusius; neither, owing perhaps to religious scruples (since the Fuggers bankrolled much of the Counter-Reformation), accepted.

Early tulips in England and Europe
Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, p. 40; Jacob,
Tulips
, p. 3; Blunt,
Tulipomania
, pp. 10–11.

Garret and Gerrard
Blunt,
Tulipomania
, pp. 10–11; Pavord,
Tulip
, pp. 104–05.

Easily the most comprehensive biography of Clusius is that published by F. W. T. Hunger in the two volumes of
Charles d’Ecluse (Carolus Clusius), Nederlandsch Kruidkundige, 1526–1609
(The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1927, 1943), from which much of the material in this chapter is drawn. A popular biography by Johan Theunisz,
Carolus Clusius: Het Merkwaardige Leven van een
Pionier der Wetenschap
(Amsterdam: P. N. Van Kampen & Zoon, 1939) adds a few details, mainly to elaborate on the botanist’s early life. Clusius’s scattered work on the tulip—which, it has to be stressed, was never remotely central to his botanical work as a whole—has fortunately been summarized, in English, by W. van Dijk,
A Treatise on Tulips by Carolus Clusius of Arras
(Haarlem: Enschedé, 1951).

Anecdote of the Flemish merchant
This story was originally recorded by Clusius himself and is mentioned in Dijk,
Treatise on Tulips
, p. 8.

Thus it was in the spring of 1563
This part of the account is speculation on my part, but it does strike me as unlikely, if the merchant thought the tulip bulbs were onions, that anyone would have realized what they really were until they had flowered.

Execution of an uncle
This was Mathieu d’Ecluse, who was actually burned in April 1567 during the duke of Alba’s attempts to put down Protestantism in the Habsburg Netherlands. See Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, p. 97.

Extent of Clusius’s correspondence
The estimate of four thousand letters is based on a calculation by Hunger in ibid., vol. 1, p. 98.

Clusius on the tulip
Clusius first mentioned the flower in an appendix to his book on the flora of Spain,
Historia Stirpium per Hispanias Observatorum
, published in 1576 (pp. 510–15), even though the flower was not native to that country. This does perhaps suggest that it was while he was traveling in Spain that he first heard about it from Rye. He elaborated considerably on its botany in a work on the flora of Austria,
Historia Stirpium Pannoniae
, published in 1583 (pp. 145–69), and again in his masterpiece,
Rariorum Plantarum Historia
, of 1601 (pp. 137–52).

Experiments at Frankfurt
This was in 1593. See Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 19.

Clusius’s character and disposition
Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, p. 323.
Marie de Brimeu’s compliment
Ibid., vol. 2, p. 217.

Clusius’s poverty
Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 111, 122.

Plant trade between the Ottomans and Vienna
Theunisz,
Carolus Clusius
, p. 68.

Clusius and Busbecq
Clusius had already, in 1569, written to von Krafftheim asking him to obtain samples of plants from Busbecq. Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, pp. 108, 139.

Busbecq’s seed
Dijk,
Treatise on Tulips
, p. 32.

Flower thieves
Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, p. 158; vol. 2, pp. 115, 135; Theunisz,
Carolus Clusius
, pp. 50, 78.

Lost all his teeth
Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, pp. 180, 240.

The biographies by Hunger and Theunisz are again the principal sources for Clusius’s career at Leiden. On the university at Leiden, the course of the Dutch Revolt, and the historical background to the mania period, see Jonathan Israel’s magisterial
The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). The university, and particularly its famous anatomy school, was frequently mentioned by foreign visitors, and the accounts of Sir William Brereton,
Travels in Holland, the United Provinces etc … 1634–1635
(London: Chetham Society, 1844), and John Evelyn,
The Diary of John Evelyn
, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), make interesting reading. In discussing the tulip’s botany, I have drawn on Daniel Hall,
The Book of the Tulip
(London: Martin Hopkinson, 1929), and E. van Slogteren, “Broken Tulips,” in
The Daffodil and Tulip Yearbook
(London: Royal Horticultural Society, 1960).

Clusius in Frankfurt
Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 2, pp. 153–54, 164–65, 167, 172–75.

Arrival in Leiden
Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 210–13.

Leiden
Israel,
Dutch Republic
, pp. 308, 328; Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, pp. 8, 12, 23, 239.

Dutch Revolt
Israel,
Dutch Republic
, pp. 169–75, 181–82.

University of Leiden
Ibid., pp. 569–72; Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 57, 175; Brereton,
Travels in Holland
, pp. 41–42; Evelyn,
Diary
, pp. 51–54; Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 154.

The Leiden hortus
Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, pp. 189–94, 214–18; vol. 2, p. 4; Israel,
Dutch Republic
, pp. 571–72, 1043; Brereton,
Travels in Holland
, p. 42.

“True monarch of the flowers”
From a letter dated February 28, 1602, quoted in Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, p. 269.

Walich Ziwertsz
. Wassenaer,
Historisch Verhael
9, section April–October 1625, p. 10; Hensen, “De Vereering van St. Nicolaas,” p. 187.

Clusius on tulips
Dijk,
Treatise on Tulips
, pp. 7–32.

Botany of the tulip
Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, pp. 5–12; Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, pp. 99–110; Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” pp. 21–23.

Offsets
Mather,
Economic Production
, p. 44.

Rosen, Violetten, and Bizarden tulips
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, p. 33, makes the point that these category names were introduced only in the nineteenth century, but they are so convenient that we will use them here. The Violetten varieties, incidentally, are also sometimes known as bybloemen tulips.

“Superbly fine” and “rude”
Ibid., p. 21.

Attempts to replicate breaking
Pavord,
Tulip
, p. 11.

Solution to the problem of breaking
Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, pp. 104–06.

Clusius and the demand for tulip bulbs
Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, pp. 214, 237.

Theft of bulbs
Theunisz,
Carolus Clusius
, p. 120; Hunger,
Charles d’Ecluse
, vol. 1, pp. 237–38, 241; vol. 2, p. 197.

“The seventeen provinces were amply stocked”
Cited in Blunt,
Tulipomania
, p. 9.

The early history of the tulip in the United Provinces and France is not especially well documented. The basic details given here are summarized from Krelage’s books and from the works of contemporary gardeners such as Abraham Munting,
Waare Oeffening der Planten
(Amsterdam: Hendrik Rintjes, 1671), from W. S. Murray, “The Introduction of the Tulip, and the Tulipomania,”
Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society
(March 1909), and Sam Segal,
Tulips Portrayed: The Tulip Trade in Holland in the Seventeenth Century
(Lisse: Museum voor de Bloembollenstreek, 1992); the latter also includes a useful discussion of what is known about seventeenth-century tulip books.