Born Today – Carolus Clusius

From Today in Science History:

Charles de L’Écluse (a.k.a. Carolus Clusius). Born 19 Feb 1526; died 4 Apr 1609. French botanist who introduced the tulip to Holland. He travelled and collected botanical information throughout Europe, and introduced new plants from outside Europe. Leaving France to escape religious persecution as a Protestant, he spent time in Prague and Vienna. Late in life, in 1593, he succeeded Dodoens as the chair of botany at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He established the botanical garden there and grew a collection of flowering bulbs, including the tulip which initiated the Dutch bulb industry. He is also attributed with cultivating the peony, hyacinth, potato and chestnut.

• A further biography here.
• Clusius in Books and Prints from Leiden University.
• See the Clusius Project at Leiden University.
• An index (pdf) to his digitized letters at Leiden University Library.
• Carolus Clusius : towards a cultural history of a Renaissance naturalist, from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• The website (Dutch) for Hortus Botanicus Leiden, and the Wikipedia entry.
  

(Image from Leiden University Library)

Born Today – Jan Swammerdam

From Today in Science History:

Jan Swammerdam. Born 12 Feb 1637; died 15 Feb 1680.
Dutch naturalist, known for his skilled biological microscopical observations and accurate illustrations, who was the first to describe the red blood cells (1658). He studied and illustrated the life histories and anatomy of many species of insects, which he classified on the basis of development. He demonstrated the presence of butterfly wings in caterpillars about to undergo pupation. To facilitate the study of human anatomy, he developed better methods for injecting wax and dyes into cadavers. He was one of the first to dissect under water and to remove fat by organic solvents. He demonstrated experimentally that whereas muscles alter in shape during contraction, their volume is not thereby increased, which contradicted beliefs of the time.