ABSTRACT
Levenier’s correspondence with Clusius holds a surprise. A er an almost complete absence, exotic plants emerge suddenly in a rather spectacular way in the very last of his eighteen long letters to Clusius written between 1597 and 1606. By June 1606 Levenier was expecting the return of his nephew Jean Bachelier, whom he had sent out some two and a half years earlier to ‘Constantinople and other places in the Levant. He promises to bring me many beautiful and rare things which have not been seen before in Europe and to give me as much contentment as I can wish for upon his return’ (Levenier, 13 June 1606). at emphasis on rare things which had not been seen before in Europe reveals the principal reason why Levenier had sent his relative to the eastern Mediterranean – much as Madame von Heusenstain had sent her own courier from Vienna to Constantinople. Levenier must have wanted direct access to exotic discoveries which were even more spectacular than his indigenous ones. A friend and fellow garden owner even told Clusius that Levenier had high hopes that ‘one of his men’, whom he had sent out to search ‘all over the Orient and even the kingdom of China’, would bring back ‘excellent owers which are completely unknown to us’ (Vertunien, 25 February 1606). China was a bit of an exaggeration – we must suppose – but all the rest was true. e same letter of June 1606 in which Levenier told Clusius about his hopes for rarities from the Levant also reveals that he had direct contact by this time with the New World. Without further introduction or comment Levenier informed Clusius that he had recently received some naturalia directly from Mexico from an unnamed friend there, thus demonstrating that direct connections with Mexico were not a monopoly of Spain at the time. Nearly all items on the accompanying short list in Spanish, which he copied for Clusius, refer to Mexican fruits or trees, but it is unclear exactly which parts of them reached Levenier. For each item – such as ‘Anonas de Guajaca’, ‘Cico çapot’, ‘elo suchil’, ‘cempual suchil’ and ‘elera de Havana’ – the list gives the size, colour and avour of the fruit or provides a short description of the tree or plant, and how it was used as medicine or food (Levenier, 13 June 1606).1
