One of the most important botanists of the 16th century. Arras, 19 February 1526 -- Leiden, 4 April 1609. Studied at the University of Louvain (licentiate in law in 1548). Visited Germany and France in 1548-1551. Followed the lectures of Guillaume Rondelet at the University of Montpellier, 1551-1554. He must have stayed for some time at Antwerp between 1554 and 1557. In 1560-62 he was at Paris and Orléans, instructing the sons of the Silesian patrician Nicolas Rehdiger. After a renewed short stay in the Netherlands, he went for a long trip to Spain and Portugal (1564-1565). Again in the Netherlands, at Antwerp, Bruges and Malines (1565-1573), interrupted by travels through France and England. In 1573 he left for the court of Maximilian II at Vienna. He remained in Austria and Hungary -- with the exception of some trips abroad -- till 1587, when he went to Frankfurt (1587-1592). Professor at the University of Leiden in 1592. Cf. Biographie Nationale [de Belgique] 5, 1876, Columns 383-404; Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, 9, Columns 150-153; F.W.T. Hunger, Charles de l'Escluse (Carolus Clusius), Nederlandsch kruidkundige, The Hague, 2 vols., 1927-1942; H. de Vocht, History of the Foundation and the Rise of the Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense, 1517-1550, IV, pages 368-376; Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, 1, 1964, Columns 414-419; Festschrift anlässlich der 400 jährigen Wiederkehr der wissenschaftlichen Tätigkeit von Carolus Clusius (Charles de l''Escluse) im pannonischen Raam, Eisenstadt, 1973 (Burgenländische Forschungen, herausgegeben vom Burgenländischen Landesarchiv, Sonderheft V), with an elaborate bibliography of the studies and articles on Clusius. The works of Clusius are described in full detail in BB, III, pages 759-784, with a useful biographical note on pages 760-767. Other bibliographical references in L. Voet, The Golden Compasses, I, page 371, and A. Gerlo -- H.D.L. Vervliet, Bibliographie de l''humanisme des anciens Pays-Bas, 1972, pages 325-326. Edited and/or translated also: Antidotarium, 1561 (no. cp010983); Bellonius, De neglecta stirpium cultura atque earum cognitione libellus, 1589 (no. cp012086); Bellonius, Plurimarum singularium et memorabilium rerum……observationes, 1589 (no. cp012053); Clenardus, Epistolarum libri duo, 1566 (no. cp011993); Chr. a Costa, Aromatum et medicamentorum in Orientali India nascentium liber, 1582 (no. cp012305); Monardes, 1574, 1579, 1582 (nos. 1710-1712); G. ab Orto, 1567, 1574, 1578 (nos. 1838-1840).
- cp013446: Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Hispanias observatarum historia, 1576
- cp012986: Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Pannoniam, Austriam et vicinas quasdam provincias observatarum historia, 1583
- cp013027: Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Pannoniam, Austriam et vicinas quasdam provincias observatarum historia, 1583
- cp013433: Stirpium nomenclator Pannonicus, 1584
- cp012165: Aliquot notae in Garciae Aromatum Historiam, 1582