Caspar Commelijn

Who was Caspar Commelijn?

Caspar Commelijn or Caspar Commelin, was a Dutch botanist. He was the son of the bookseller, historian and publisher, Casparus Commelijn and his first wife, Margrieta Heydanus. He enrolled on 12 September 1692 at Leiden as a student of medicine and graduated on 27 February 1694 with a dissertation De lumbricis. After graduation, he settled in his birthplace. When Peter Hotton departed for Leiden in 1696, Caspar was appointed to the post of botanist at the Hortus. He succeeded his uncle Jan Commelin, who together with Joan Huydecoper founded the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam.

Caspar worked on books that were left uncompleted by the death of his uncle, Jan Commelin, and enjoyed the support of Nicolaes Witsen. Ruysch arranged for the city of Amsterdam to finance the publication. In 1703, he published a work on the systematics of rare exotic plants. In 1706, he was appointed as professor at the Athenaeum Illustre. Frederik Ruysch and Commelin divided the work, so that Ruysch dealt with the indigenous plants, and Commelijn the exotics. Jan Commelin, based his work on the taxonomic system devised by John Ray.