From Wageningen to Rotterdam: the Tulip Book on display

The Tulip Book was published in 1637. It is a nursery catalogue with tulips and a small number of other flowers. It was published at the peak of the tulipomania, a period in the Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. 

The manuscript contains 54 gouaches of tulips, followed by 12 added drawings of tulips, some by [Pieter] Holsteijn the Younger and Pieter Schagen, 7 watercolours of carnations and 2 drawings of other flowers. You can see the images in the digitised Tulip Book. 

For most tulips, names are written at the bottom of the illustration with the same paint. For some tulips, names are indicated by a riddle, a drawing or a rebus. Later on, the weight and the prices for which the bulbs were sold were added with a more modern pen. The most expensive one, the Viseroij, was sold for Dfl 3,000 and Dfl 4,200. Fifteen or twenty times the yearly salary of a schooled craftsman then. 

Together with other botanical works from the Special Collections, the Tulip Book is currently on loan to the Kunsthal Rotterdam for the exhibition  Flowers Forever, which celebrates the enduring fascination with flowers in art and culture.

Recently, curator Anneke Groen spoke about the Tulip Book on the radio show Vroege Vogels. She speaks vividly about the origin and use of the book, the tulip mania, and what makes the Tulip Book so special. The broadcast aired on 29 March and the clip can be listened to here.

Special Collections at WUR Library holds many more stories waiting to be discovered. From botanical art to aerial photography, and from rare books to garden plans, the collection spans a wide range of subjects. You're welcome to come and have a look yourself! For more information, see: Special Collections.