by Mike Dash
The following notes abbreviate authors and titles of works cited; for full information, please refer to the Bibliography.
Chapter 1. A Mania for Tulips
The principal source of information on events in Alkmaar in February 1637 is A. van Damme, Aanteekeningen Betreffende de Geschiedenis der Bloembollen: Haarlem, 1899–1903 (Leiden: Boerhaave, 1976). On the appearance and behavior of Dutch tulip traders, see both Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962), and the more recent and more analytical A. T. van Deursen, Plain Lives in a Golden Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
Value of a tulip Garber, “Tulipmania,” p. 537n, states that in 1637 each guilder contained 0.856g of gold. One gram of gold was thus worth 1.17 guilders. A Viceroy bulb sold at auction in Alkmaar on February 5 fetched 146 guilders per gram, making it worth 125 times its weight in gold.
Richest man Israel, Dutch Republic, p. 348.
Tulip fortunes Garber, “Tulipmania,” p. 550.
Chapter 2. The Valleys of Tien Shan
The early history of the tulip is very largely obscure. Its Asian origins are discussed by Turhan Baytop, “The Tulip in Istanbul During the Ottoman Period,” in Michiel Roding and Hans Theunissen, eds., The Tulip: A Symbol of Two Nations (Utrecht & Istanbul: Turco-Dutch Friendship Association, 1993), and the enthusiasm for wild tulips in Persia rather briefly by Wilfrid Blunt, Tulipomania (London: Penguin, 1950).
Asian origins of the tulip Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” pp. 50–56.
Early appreciation of tulips Certainly the Hittites, who dominated much of Asia Minor two thousand years before the birth of Christ, already appreciated the beauty of wild bulbous flowers. Ancient inscriptions record that the advent of spring was marked each year in the Hittite realm by a celebration called the An.tah.sum-sar, which may be translated as “bulb festival” and which appears to have coincided with the first flowering of the crocus. (Today many Anatolians still celebrate a similar festival, called Hidrellez, each May, during which they go on picnics and eat a couscous of bulgur wheat and mashed crocus bulbs.) The flowering of tulips may have held a similar significance for peoples of the steppe, who experienced winters harsher than anything encountered in the crocus country of Asia Minor, and among whom the arrival of spring must have been at least as eagerly anticipated. See Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” p. 51.
The tulip in Persia Hall, Book of the Tulip, p. 44; Blunt, Tulipomania, pp. 22–23; Schloredt, Treasury of Tulips, p. 62.
History of the Turks The Ottoman portion of the tulip’s story is much better documented than its very early history. An accessible summary of Turkish history in this period is Inalcik, Ottoman Empire.
The tulip in Ottoman history to 1453 Demiriz, “Tulips in Ottoman Turkish Culture and Art,” pp. 57–75.
The story of Hasan Efendi Ibid., p. 57.
Babur and the Turkish gardening tradition Pallis, In the Days of the Janissaries, p. 198.
The tulip as a religious symbol The Turks were not the only people to regard the flower as a religious symbol. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch—German immigrants who traveled to the east coast of America from the seventeenth century—stylized three-petal tulips were used as a motif that symbolized the Holy Trinity. They were often used to adorn important papers such as birth certificates. See Schloredt, Treasury of Tulips, p. 43.
Chapter 3. Within the Abode of Bliss
Horticulture is hardly central to the history of the Ottoman Empire, and it features scarcely at all in conventional histories. The best guides to the story of the tulip’s time in Turkey have been accounts of Istanbul. The best of these is certainly Philip Mansel, Constantinople: City of the World’s Desire, 1453–1924 (London: John Murray, 1995). For the Ottoman palaces, the indispensable source is Barnette Miller, Beyond the Sublime Porte: The Grand Seraglio of Stambul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931). Dr. Miller was probably the first Westerner to gain access to the inner courtyards of the Topkapi, and she did so at a time, early in the twentieth century, when they still looked much as they had in earlier times. She worked hard to reconstruct those institutions—such as the harem and the gardens—that had fallen into disuse or disrepair, and her work has formed the basis for all subsequent descriptions of Ottoman palace life.
Battle of Kosovo Malcolm, Kosovo, pp. 58–80. For the chronicler, see Pavord, Tulip, p. 31.
Bayezid’s shirt There is some dispute about the age of this garment. The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts dates it to about 1400, but Demiriz, “Tulips in Ottoman Turkish Culture and Art,” p. 71, suggests that the style dates the shirt to about 1550. The tradition therefore remains unproven—but even if Demiriz is right, it is certainly not impossible that Bayezid wore a similar shirt.
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.
Chapter 4. Stranger from the East
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 b
ringing 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.
Chapter 5. Clusius
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.
Chapter 6. Leiden
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.
Chapter 7. An Adornment
to the Cleavage
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.
Monstereul’s eulogy Cited by Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 4.
Lobelius The Latinized name of Mathias de l’Obel, whose work on tulips was published in a French herbal of 1581. See Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 3.
Varieties of tulip Ibid., p. 4; Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 21. These totals exclude Turkish species, which by the eighteenth century numbered more than thirteen hundred by themselves. Early tulip lovers Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 23–24; Krelage, Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport, pp. 6, 17.
The tulip in France Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 29; Munting, Naauwkeurige Beschryving der Aardgewassen, pp. 907–11; Garber, “Tulip-mania,” p. 543. Although dealt with by contemporary garden writers, the history of this early French tulip mania is still obscure and would probably repay some original research.
The rose as empress of the garden Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, p. 49.
The tulip connoisseurs Stadsbibliotheek, Haarlem, Passe, Een Cort Verhael van den Tulipanen, p. 4; Krelage, Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport, p. 6.
Paulus van Beresteyn Beresteyn and Hartman, Genealogie van het Geslacht, p. 134.