Matthias de l'Obel

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Mathias de l'Obel
Engraving by Francis Delaram, 1615
Born1538
Lille
Died3 March 1616 (aged 77–78)
Highgate, England
Resting placeSt Denis, Highgate[1]
NationalityFlemish
Alma mater
Known forHerbal
Children2
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine, botany
InstitutionsAntwerp, Delft, Middelburg, London
Author abbrev. (botany)Lobel

Mathias de l'Obel, Mathias de Lobel or Matthaeus Lobelius (1538 – 3 March 1616)

monocotyledons and dicotyledons. The Lobelia
plant is named after him.

Life

Mathias de l'Obel was born in Lille (Flemish Rijsel) in the County of Flanders, Spanish Netherlands, now French Flanders in 1538, the son of Jean De l'Obel, a lawyer whose practice specialized in aristocrats in the army. Relatively little is known about his life.[2] By the age of sixteen he had already developed an interest in both botany and medicine.[2] He spent some time traveling and studying in Italy in 1551 and 1563–1564 before studying medicine in Leuven and at Montpellier in France. He sought out Montpellier due to the reputation of Guillaume Rondelet,[3] as had his earlier contemporary, Carolus Clusius. It is said that l'Obel was Rondelet's favourite pupil, and on his death in 1566 l'Obel inherited all his manuscripts.[4] His botanical field work was under the supervision of Rondelet's son-in-law, Jacques Salomon d'Assas.[5] He matriculated at the University of Montpellier on 22 May 1565, at the age of twenty-seven. He remained in Montpellier for a further two years, furthering his studies, including botanical expeditions in the Languedoc region.[6]

From 1566–1571, for about four years, he traveled and then he settled in

Elizabethan England for about four years (1566–1571), together with his fellow student Pierre Pena (1535–1605), probably as a Protestant refugee.[7][a] He lived on Lime Street, London in any area containing many Protestant refugees from the continent ("come for religion"),[8] among fellow Flemings, like James Garrett the apothecary. There he also came to know the English botanist, John Gerard.[9] He and Pena brought with them their botanical collection and carried out botanical exploration in England before returning to the Low Countries sometime between 1571 and 1574.[5]

In 1596, age 58, L'Obel married Isabeau Laigniez (1576-1642) in Lille . Of their children, one daughter, Mary l'Obel, married Louis Le Myre (Ludovicus Myreus), who collaborated with him, the other, Anne l'Obel married

pharmacists, with good reputations in London society.[10][11] He eventually moved permanently to England in 1596. Among the English botanists, his closest friend was Thomas Penny, whom he had first met in Montpellier, and to whom he pays tribute in his dedication of the Stirpium adversaria (1571).[12][13] l'Obel died in Highgate in 1616 at the age of 78, and was buried in the churchyard of St Denis.[14][15][16]

L’Obel’s coat of arms displayed on his books alludes to his name, with two poplar (abele) trees (French Aubel).[2]

Work

Following his studies in Montpellier l'Obel set up a medical practice in England (1566–1571), living initially in London, and then in

Saint Luke’s Guild in Middelburg.[17]

In 1596 he moved from Middelburg, returning once more to England, becoming

Lord Zouch in Hackney, a partnership brought about by Clusius.[18] This was a physic garden and at the time, one of the few in existence in England. It became a gathering place for botanists, enabling l'Obel to become an important link between England and the continent.[8] He also accompanied Lord Zouch on his posting as ambassador to Denmark in 1598,[19][14][15][16] where he carried out botanical exploration. The latter was published in 1605 as an appendix to the second edition of Stirpium adversaria.[7] It was through Zouch that he obtained the post of botanicus regius.[20]

In 1597 he became involved in a controversy surrounding his friend John Gerard. In 1596 he had provided a preface to Gerard's Catalogus.

Queen's Printer. James Garrett, on a visit to the Norton's publishing house, saw the proofs and alerted Norton as to both errors and unattributed borrowings from Lobelius. Norton then hired Lobelius as an expert editor, but when Gerard discovered this, he had Lobelius dismissed, and had the work published under his own name as The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (1597).[24] Lobelius provides an account of this in his Stirpium illustrationes (1655)[25] in which he accuses Gerard of plagiarism.[26][27][28]

He spent much of his life looking for a rational way to classify plants that could be tested by empiricism.

Ordo univeralis

Sic enim ordine, quo nihil pulchrius in coelo, aut in Sapientis animo
An order, than which nothing more beautiful exists in the heavens, or in the mind of a wise man

l'Obel (1571), Operis argumentorum p. 2[29][30][c]

In the Stirpium of 1571,

dicotyledons,[32][33] although he never suggested names to group these plants under.[20][34]

Life and times

Lobelius has been described as the least well known of a group variously called the Ecole flamande de Botanique du XVIme siècle (16th century Flemish school of botany) or Flemish "Fathers of Botany",

Carolus de Croy, and his wife Marie de Brimeu, Joannes de Brancion and Joannes van der Dilf.[37][8][38]

At the opening of the sixteenth century the general belief was that the plant world had been completely described by

Kunst- und Wunderkammern (cabinets of curiosities) outside of Italy and the study of naturalia became widespread through many social strata. The great botanists of the sixteenth century were all, like Lobelius, originally trained as physicians, who pursued a knowledge of plants not just for medicinal properties, but in their own right. Chairs in botany, within medical faculties were being established in European universities throughout the sixteenth century in reaction to this trend, and the scientific approach of observation, documentation and experimentation was being applied to the study of plants.[35]

These were also turbulent times. Following the protestant

Eighty Years War (1568–1648). As a result many people fled or emigrated[9] and many herbal and botanical gardens were destroyed. Lobelius stated that it was becoming increasingly difficult to live in his native Flanders.[8]

Publications

Stirpium adversaria nova (1570-1)

Title page of Stirpium adversaria nova
Title page, Stirpium adversaria nova 1571

Lobelius' first publication, Stirpium adversaria nova (1571)

classifications such as that of Linnaeus, and some of his groupings have survived into modern times. Although it was eventually to be the work on which l'Obel's reputation would rest, based on the system of classification that he set out,[40] at the time of its publication, it met with only moderate success and much criticism.[3]

Plantarum seu stirpium historia (1576)

Main article: Plantarum seu stirpium historia

The Stirpium adversaria was followed five years later by Plantarum seu stirpium historia (1576).

plant systematics. Lobelius' hometown of Lille sent him a gift of 50 pounds in recognition of the importance of the work.[3]

Late works

In 1605 he reissued the Stirpium, including in it an essay on the pharmacological studies of his mentor, Guillaume Rondelet, the Pharmacopoeia Rondelletii.[15][16] At the time of his death in 1616, his Stirpium illustrationes[43] was unpublished, and was not published till 1655 (in part) by William How. In the meantime, John Parkinson had used it in his Theatrum botanicum (1640).[44][7]

Attributed works

A further publication, the Stirpium seu Plantarum Icones (1581)

Duke of Prussia.[4][48] Plantin had a large collection of wood-cuts, both produced in his workshop or purchased by him, with which he illustrated many of the major botanical publications of the time,[46] which he assembled according to the classification used by Lobelius in his Kruydtboeck of the same year.[11]
This work was reissued in 1591 as Icones stirpium.

List of selected publications

 see Stafleu & Cowan (1981), Arber (1986, p. 278),[49] Johnston (1992), Mallet & Jovet (2008)
  • l'Obel, Matthias de (1571). Stirpium aduersaria noua, perfacilis vestigatio luculentaqne [sic] accessio ad priscorum praesertim Dioscoridis recentiorum materiam medicam quibus prope diem accedet altera pars qua coniectaneorum de plantis appendix, de succis medicatis et metallicis sectio antiquae et nouatae medicinae lectionum remedioru[m] thesaurus opulentissimus de succedantis libellus continentur authoribus Petro Pena & Mathia de Lobel medicis [A new notebook of plants etc.] (in Latin). with Pierre Pena. London: Thomae Purfoetii.[f][g] - Also available as Stirpium adversaria nova at Google Books
    • Reissued as:
l'Obel, Matthias de (1576a). Nova stirpium adversaria, perfacilis vestigatio etc. Quibus accessit Appendix cum Indice variarum linguarum Locupletisimo. Additis Guillielmi Rondelletii aliquot Remediorum formulis, nunquam antehac in lucem editis (in Latin). with Pierre Pena. Antwerp:
Christophori Plantini
. including Rondelet's Formulae remediorum, to be appended as a companion volume to his Plantarum, seu, Stirpium historia of the same year.
Third version 1605.
Posthumous
Attributed

Legacy

Eponomy

The plant

Lobeliaceae were named after him by Charles Plumier in 1703.[h]

See also
The standard author abbreviation Lobel is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[51]

Notes

  1. ^ Some sources give different dates, such as 1568–1572,[3] and also vary as to his religious affiliation
  2. ^ Lobelius appears to have later retracted this preface, having written and signed haec esse falsissima (this is very false) on the copy now in London's Natural History Museum[22]
  3. ^ Stirpium adversaria nova 1576: Proinde adversariorum voce novas veteribus additas plantas et novum ordinem quadantenus innuimus. Qui ordo utique sibi similis et unus progreditur ducitque a sensui propinquioribus et magis familiaribus ad ignotiora et compositiora modum que sive progressum similitudinis sequitur et familiaritatis quo et universim et particulatim quantum licuit per rerum varietatem et vastitatem sibi responderet. Sic enim ordine quo nihil pulchrius in coelo aut in sapientis animo quae longe lateque disparata sunt unum quasi fiunt magno verborum memoriae et cognitionis compendio ut Aristoteli et Theophrasto placet[29]
  4. Leonhard Fuchs[35]
  5. ^ For English translation, see Swimberghe 1994, p. 208
  6. ^ Stirpium: Title page inscribed 1570; final page of manuscript (colophon) inscribed 1571
  7. ^ Stirpium, from Latin stirps, a plant. Adversaria - a daybook or journal[40]
  8. ^ Plumier was the first person to name plants after people[50]

References

  1. ^ Pavord 2005, p. 370
  2. ^ a b c d e f Mallet & Jovet 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Houtzager 1976.
  4. ^ a b Pavord 1999, p. 49
  5. ^ a b Johnston 1992.
  6. ^ a b Pavord 2005.
  7. ^ a b c d Hoeniger & Hoeniger 1969, p. 55
  8. ^ a b c d Pavord 2005, p. 369
  9. ^ a b Pavord 1999, p. 70
  10. ^ l'Obel et al 1605.
  11. ^ a b c Louis 1957.
  12. ^ l'Obel 1571, Elizabethae serenissimae p. 32
  13. ^ Hoeniger & Hoeniger 1969, p. 61
  14. ^ a b van Berkel 2010.
  15. ^ a b c EB 2017.
  16. ^ a b c Westfall 1995.
  17. ^ Wheelock 2014.
  18. ^ a b Egmond 2010.
  19. ^ Hauck 2017.
  20. ^ a b Pavord 2005, p. 339
  21. ^ Gerard 1876.
  22. ^ Pavord 2005, Chapter XXI Note 4.
  23. ^ Dodonaeus 1583.
  24. ^ Gerard 1597.
  25. ^ l'Obel 1655, p. 2}
  26. ^ Harkness 2007, pp. 15–19.
  27. ^ Ogilvie 2008, p. 37
  28. ^ Pavord 2005, p. 376
  29. ^ a b l'Obel 1571, Operis argumentum p. 2
  30. ^ Arber 1986, p. 265
  31. ^ l'Obel 1571, p. 65
  32. ^ Vines 1913, p. 10.
  33. ^ Hoeniger & Hoeniger 1969.
  34. ^ Hoeniger & Hoeniger 1969, p. 60
  35. ^ a b Visser 2001.
  36. ^ l'Obel 1576b, Universis Galliae Belgicae p. 3
  37. ^ a b l'Obel 1576b.
  38. ^ Swimberghe 1994.
  39. ^ l'Obel 1571.
  40. ^ a b c d e Arber 1912, p. 78
  41. ^ l'Obel 1576a.
  42. ^ l'Obel 1581.
  43. ^ l'Obel 1655.
  44. ^ Parkinson 1640.
  45. ^ Plantini 1581.
  46. ^ a b Christie's 2002.
  47. ^ Hunt 2016.
  48. ^ a b Mortier 1873.
  49. ^ Arber 1986, p. 278
  50. ^ Thomson 1884.
  51. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Lobel.

Bibliography

Books

Historical sources

Bibliography

Chapters

Articles

Websites

External links

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