Roots of modern botany: The Basel professor Caspar Bauhin (1560–1624) and his botanical network

Abstract

In 1589, young Caspar Bauhin (1560–1624) became the first professor of the newly established chair of anatomy and botany at the University of Basel. This article sets out the life of Bauhin, based on numerous manuscript sources and letters, against the backdrop of the central role he and his printed works played in pre-Linnean botany. As a particularly impressive example of how independent scientific disciplines were established at early modern universities, Bauhin systematically trained a whole generation of scholars to become qualified botanists, while the University of Basel became the undisputed center of the science in the German-speaking world around 1600. With regard to empirical research, Bauhin’s herbarium was one of the most extensive of its time, and its layout and design corresponded to his plan of a historia generalis plantarum. To further his career, the young scholar built up a large network of correspondents. These connections also allowed him to collect foreign and exotic botanical samples. Even the Phytopinax (Basel, 1596), Bauhin’s earliest botanical publication, contained a list of people who had sent plants or seeds to Basel, designed to emphasize the scientific importance of the youthful author through his far-reaching scholarly connections.