Profile | Pierre Belon (1517-1564)

The earliest source of the botany of Asia Minor and Balkans.

Mavi Boncuk |

Pierre Belon, 1517-1564, born in Le Mans, doctor, surgeon, and zoologist, served as French ambassador to the Orient in 1536. From 1545 to 1550, he traveled to Greece, Crete, Constantinople, Mount Athos, Thrace, and Asia Minor. He then went by boat to Alexandria and explored Lower Egypt, then returned via the Sinai to Judea. Pierre Belon was above all interested in coniferous trees and their natural products.

He noted the tolerance of the Turks who practiced the freedom of religion, albeit in exchange for paying a tax. He also did major research on the ancient history of the countries he had visited. He brought back the Oriental plane tree and the tulip to Europe. In around 1635, the tulip sparked an extravagant enthusiasm known as “tulipomania,” when the price of bulbs reached the equivalent of an average salary for a whole year. 

He published several works including: 

• 1553: Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays étrangèrs.
• 1555: revised edition of the Observations; it was translated into Latin for an international readership de Charles de l'Ecluse, 1589.

Belon was murdered in Rome by a band of brigands, and a statue was erected in the village where he was born, the hamlet of Souletière at Ceran in the Maine-et-Loire.