CHARLES CLUSIUS OF ARRAS

TO THE BENEVOLENT READER.

A large historiated woodcut initial 'M' showing a young boy or putto entangled in or playing among dense acanthus-like foliage and vines.GREAT pleasure has the observation of plants always brought to me in the various regions through which I have traveled. For since there is no province which does not nourish certain plants that are peculiar and, in a way, proper to itself, a remarkable variety presented itself everywhere to my eyes. This could not fail to be delightful to a man inclined toward the observation of plants almost from his earliest years—especially when some occurred that were neglected by the ancient authors, or indeed described by them but not yet sufficiently recognized by any of the moderns Clusius refers to "Neoterici," the "modern" Renaissance botanists who were re-evaluating classical texts; and then also others, which seemed able to be referred to the class of plants handed down by the ancients. Indeed, I was affected by no less joy than if I had discovered a vast treasure.

MOREOVER, since I judged it unseemly and least worthy of a liberal mind to wish to keep only for myself the pleasure I had perceived from that observation, and as it were to suppress it within me—but rather thought it should be shared with others delighting themselves in a similar pursuit—I could not do otherwise than to make public, with what faithfulness and diligence I could, first the History of those plants which I had observed in my Spanish travels; and then, of those which afterwards presented themselves partly in Austria, Styria, and Pannonia Pannonia: a Roman province covering parts of modern-day Hungary, Austria, and the Balkans, and partly in neighboring provinces.

FURTHERMORE, when I noticed that those observations, both the Spanish and the Pannonian, had been pleasing to most people—indeed, that copies of them were so eagerly sought after that the printer complained none remained for him—I considered that it would be well-advised if I were to revise them and add the history of other plants which I have observed since those were published, drawing them all together as if into one body, yet distributing each into its own genera and species in a convenient sequence (as far as was indeed possible). For I persuade myself that this labor will be no less pleasing than the former ones.

I HAVE divided the History of Plants into six Books, so that they might be more conveniently distributed into their classes. When, however, I say "History of Plants," I would not want anyone to think that I mean a universal history of all plants: but only of those which were first observed by me, or had not yet been [described] by others...