Homo botanicus: Zalužanský ze Zalužan, Adam

Adam Zalužanský ze Zalužan (Adamus Zaluzanius a Zaluzaniis, Adamus Zaluzanius de Zaluzan, Adam Zaluziansky von Zaluzian, Adamus Matthiades Hradistenus), Czech physician and botanist, was born around 1555 in Mnichovo Hradiště. Already in 1562 – at a time when the Herbal of Mattioli was first published in Czech language – Adam attended an utraquist school in Mnichovo Hradiště. He studied in Wittenberg until 1578 and then continued at the Prague Academy, where he received a bachelor’s degree. He was interested in natural sciences and medicine and in 1584 became a master of arts in Helmstedt, where he earned also the title Doctor of Medicine. It is possible that he also visited Holland, where he became acquainted with the work of Rembert Dodoens. Then he returned to Prague and gained the post of professor at the Prague Academy. He couldn’t lecture medicine, because there was no medical faculty at this time. So he – as a connoisseur of classical languages and acclaimed poet – gave lectures of Greek. During his stay at the university Zalužanský gained considerable fame and won a number of prominent friends. One of them was Petr Vok z Rožmberka, an enthusiastic lover of natural sciences, who had build several greenhouses at his summer residence at Netolice, where Adam Zalužanský could carry out his botanical observations.

In 1593 Zalužanský was elected rector of Charles University. The following year he got married. Professors were not allowed to marry at this time. But Zalužanský was promised to be an exception, because they wanted his Greek lessons at the university (for which the university received a high financial support). After his election, however, they quickly forgot this promise and his marriage was an eyesore to many. In the end Zalužanský had to leave the university. He opened his own pharmacy, issued pharmaceutical codex (Řád Apathekařský, 1592) and even became a supervisor of all the Prague pharmacies. Most recently this work was published under the title Řád lékárnický z roku 1591 od Adama Zalužanského ze Zalužan by Pharmaceutical Society (Prague 1883). He became famous among the people especially because of his selfless help at the time of plague, which broke out between 1598 and the 1599th.

In 1609 Rudolph II gave the administration of the university into the hands of states and the reformation begun. Adam Zalužanský was in the reformatory commission too. Reform, however, proceeded very slowly. One of the biggest obstacles was the Passau army invasion into Bohemia in 1611. Zalužanský wanted to become a professor of medicine at the renewed faculty, but he didn’t live to see it. On 8 December 1613 he fell victim to the plague. Zalužanský’s major work Methodi herbariae libri tres was published in 1592. It is essential also in the context of European botany. More recently this work was published in 1940 by Karel Pejml – Adami Zaluziansky a Zaluzian, Medicinae doctoris Methodi herbariae libri tres. Zalužanský was certainly influenced by ancient authors in this treatise. But he was also inspired by his contemporaries (Matthioli, Dodoneus, Lobel), who shaped the future of plant studies at this time. His book was a first treatise in our country, where botany is already completely separated from medicine. Zalužanský criticized, that botany (herbaria) is usually considered to be a kind of mixture of plants and medicine. According to Zalužanský medicine and botany were totally separate disciplines, one independent of another. He emphasized that the subject of botany couldn’t be human interest (res humanae), but the very substance of things (ipsa rerum natura). Zalužanský divided botany in Aethiologia plantarum (causes of plants), which is botany in general including, in current terms, morphology, plant physiology, phytopathology, etc. The second part, Historia plantarum is his own system of the plant kingdom. These two parts are described in the first two books of Methodus. The treatise contains also a third book De Exercitia eius, which is a brief guide for exploring plants.
The genus Zaluzianskya was named in his honour by the botanist F. W. Schmidt.