Herman Boerhaave: A search for his herbarium collections

Numerous books and papers have been written about the life and work of the famous Leiden physician and botanist professor Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738). However, none of these publications mentions what has happened to his botanical collections. A set of loose herbarium sheets with labels written by Boerhaave is known to be present at Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden. Furthermore, two bound herbaria attributed to Boerhaave are known to exist. The first, a four‐volume herbarium makes part of the Sloane Herbarium (Natural History Museum, London). The second is a voluminous one‐volume herbal at Copenhagen (Natural History Museum Denmark). Another single‐volume herbarium, traditionally referred to as the “Herbarium of Boerhaave”, at Leiden (Naturalis) is discussed here as well. Are these true Boerhaave herbaria made by Boerhaave personally, or have these herbaria at least formed part of his private collection? Where could other herbaria of his be found, and what has happened to the herbaria that were auctioned together with his library after his death? These are the questions this paper will try to answer.