Tulipomania - Mike Dash [109]
Information on tulip books comes from Segal, Tulips Portrayed, and Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland. The Hortus Floridus of Chrispijn van de Passe has been the subject of some research; see Spencer Savage, “The ‘Hortus Floridus’ of Crispijn vande Pas,” Transactions of the Bibliographic Society, ser. 2, vol. 4 (1923), pp. 181–206, and Eleanour Rohde, Crispian Passeus’s “Hortus Floridus” (London, 1928–29). Savage’s English translation appeared in the 1970s: Hortus Floridus: The Four Books of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Flowers, Engraved by Crispin van de Pas (London: Minerva, c. 1974).
Adriaen Pauw Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 159, 319, 458–59, 518–19, 522–33; and Boer et al., Adriaan Pauw, pp. 20–27. Today only a small portion of the Heemstede estate can still be seen; the rest has been swallowed up by Haarlem and now forms one of the southernmost suburbs of the city.
Pauw’s mirrored garden Wassenaer, Historisch Verhael, vol. 5, p. 40 and verso. It is possible that the Violetten variety Pauw, mentioned in Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 138, was created by him or at least named for him.
Semper Augustus Wassenaer, Historisch Verhael, vol. 5, p. 40 verso and 41; vol. 7, p. 111 and verso; vol. 9, p. 10. See also Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 32–33, 68; Garber, “Tulipmania,” p. 537; Segal, Tulips Portrayed, pp. 8–9.
The ownership of Semper Augustus In recent years several authorities have confidently stated that the owner of Semper Augustus was none other than Adriaen Pauw, but they have not read van Wassenaer’s work carefully. In fact, although the chronicler did see specimens of the flower and did visit the garden at Heemstede, nowhere does he link the two, and the description he gives of Pauw’s single tulip bed makes it unlikely that Semper Augustus—a flower that any connoisseur would have planted in solitary splendor—would have been grown there.
Several unreferenced anecdotes suggest that other Semper Augustus bulbs were sold, but until they can be confirmed in contemporary records I would be reluctant to accept them at face value. Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 65n, says that an Amsterdammer sold a Haarlemmer the flower on condition that neither would sell any further Semper Augustus bulbs without notifying the other first. The Amsterdam connoisseur later succumbed to the temptation of 3,000 guilders and a cabinet worth 10,000 guilders for a single bulb. When the Haarlemmer discovered this deception, he in turn sold three bulbs for 30,000 guilders. Similarly Munting, writing some thirty-five years after the mania, quoted an unreferenced bookkeeper’s entry that reads: “Sold to N.N., a Semper Augustus weighing 123 azen, for the sum of 4,600 florins. Above this sum a new and well-made carriage and two dapple gray horses with all accessories to be delivered within two weeks, the money to be paid immediately.” He also alleges a bulb was sold for 5,500 florins at public auction. See Munting, Naauwkeurige Beschryving, pp. 907–11.
Balthasar and Daniël de Neufville Gelder de Neufville, “De Oudste Generatics,” pp. 6–8; Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 129, 140. These varieties bore the corrupted name “de Novil.”
Tulip growers Hunger, Charles d’Ecluse, vol. 1, p. 241; vol. 2, p. 251.
Henrik Pottebacker Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 8; Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 127, 138.
Rhizotomi and apothecaries Hunger, Charles d’Ecluse, vol. 1, pp. 303–06; Krelage, Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport, p. 17. On the unreliability of apothecaries, see Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, pp. 73, 157.
The tulip as aphrodisiac Segal and Roding, De Tulp en de Kunst, p. 22. The contemporary English garden writer John Parkinson mentions the supposed aphrodisiac qualities of the flower in Paradisus Terrestris (1629), confessing however: “For force of Venereous quality, I cannot say … not having eaten many.” Quoted in Blunt, Tulipomania, pp. 10–11.
Actors in the early tulip trade: