The Krelage Library was started in the middle of the nineteenth century by nurseryman Jacob Heinrich Krelage (1824-1901) at Haarlem and continued by his son Dr. Ernst Heinrich Krelage (1869-1956). The Krelage nursery was founded by grandfather E.H. Krelage (1786-1855) in Haarlem in 1811. The nursery was reknowned national and international for their flower bulbs, lilies and dahlia's. They gained more than 800 medals at world exhibitions and horticultural shows and delivered at many royal courts. Among the many new hybrids they've cultivated are the famous Darwin tulips. Part of their library was obtained by the Wageningen University in 1916. This collection of 1200 books and journals on horticulture and botany reflects the speciality of the famous Krelage nursery: bulbs, ornamental plants, plant breeding and botany. There is also a collection of over 400 catalogues of dahlia nurseries in the Netherlands and abroad (1850-1925).
The most rare and
oldest parts of the Krelage Library were sold at an auction in
1948. The botanical herbals and tulipomania pamphlets
that were bought then by the Wageningen University Library
are incorporated in the main
book collection of the Special Collections Department.
One of these rarest and most precious books is the unique manuscript nursery catalogue, the
Tulip Book of P. Cos. Go through the pages of this virtual copy and find the most expensive tulip at the height of the tulipomania!
The part of the Krelage library that was donated to the
Wageningen University Library is now called the Krelage Collection.
You can search the Krelage collection in the catalogue of the Special Collections.
Oldest book in the Krelage collection
The oldest book in the collection is a geographical description and history of Holland, Zeeland en Friesland, published in 1667.
Scriverius, P.; Brugman, P.
Oude en nieuwe beschryvinge van Holland, Zeeland en Vriesland:
midsgaders de
opkomste, geslachte, regeeringe en daden der selver graven, van
Diederick den I. tot
Philips den III : als mede een vervolgh van de voornaemste
geschiedenissen ....
In 's-Gravenhage : gedruckt by Levyn van Dyck, 1667. - [22], 120,
[2], 620, [4] p. pl.
and maps [nl]
Wageningen Digital Library, 14 July, 2006
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