74 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



homme qui ne reculait devant aucune expense, pour don- 

 ner aux ouvrages qui sortaient de ses presses toute la 

 perfection et le merite dont ils e^aient susceptibles." Plantin 

 undertook to produce a much modified Latin translation of 

 the herbal, and to have new blocks engraved for it, whilst 

 Dodoens, on his side, engaged to supply the artists with 

 fresh plants, and to superintend their labours. The work 

 proceeded slowly, and was published in parts. It was finally 

 completed in 1583, and was produced in one volume, under 

 the name of ' Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri 

 triginta.' In this work, by far the larger number of the 

 figures are original (see Text-figs. 37,^38, 96 and 97); some, 

 however, were borrowed from de l'Ecluse and de l'Obel. 

 This arose from the fact that Plantin was also the publisher 

 for both these writers, and as he bore the expense of their 

 blocks, he had an agreement with the three authors that 

 their illustrations should be treated as common property. 

 A few of Dodoens' figures were based upon those in the 

 famous manuscript of Dioscorides, now at Vienna (see 

 pp. 8, 85, 154). 



In the ' Pemptades,' the botanist in Dodoens was more 

 to the fore, and the physician less in evidence than in his 

 earlier work. It is particularly difficult to appraise with any 

 exactness the services which Dodoens rendered to botany. 

 Between him and his two younger countrymen, de l'Ecluse 

 and de l'Obel, there was so intimate a friendship that they 

 freely imparted their observations to one another, and per- 

 mitted the use of them, and also of their figures, in one 

 another's books. To attempt to ascertain exactly what 

 degree of merit should be attributed to each of the three, 

 would be a task equally difficult and thankless. 



Charles de l'Ecluse [or Clusius 1 ] (Plate VII) was born 

 at Arras in the French Netherlands in 1526; like Dodoens, 

 he passed the closing years of his life at Leyden. He 

 studied at Louvain, and other universities, including Mont- 

 pelier, where he came under the influence of the botanist, 

 Guillaume Rondelet, who also numbered d'Alechamps, 

 de l'Obel, Pierre Pena and Jean Bauhin among his pupils. 

 De l'licluse was an enthusiastic adherent of the reformed 



1 The fullest and most correct form of his name is probably "Jules-Charles 

 de l'Escluse." 



