The sixteenth century was a golden age for botany, a time when numerous naturalists devoted themselves to the study and documentation of plant diversity. A very prominent figure among them was the German physician, botanist, and traveler Leonhard Rauwolf (1535?–1596), famous for his travel account and luxurious book herbarium containing plants from the Near East. Here, we focus on the less studied, early book herbaria of Rauwolf. These form a three-volume plant collection bound in leather and gold, which contains over 600 plants that Rauwolf collected between 1560 and 1563 in S. France and N. Italy when he was a student of medicine. We show the botanical value of Rauwolf’s early book herbaria, exemplified by two exotic American specimens, namely one of the oldest surviving specimens of tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), collected in Italy, and the oldest known French record of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). These well-preserved specimens indicate that Rauwolf was eager to collect exotic plants already in his early botanical steps. We further discuss Rauwolf’s professional botanical network during his student years and suggest that the famous Swiss botanist Johann Bauhin (1541–1613), friend and companion of Rauwolf during his field excursions and their medical studies in Montpellier, has played a significant role in the compilation of this precious historical plant collection. We also show that Leonhart Fuchs (and not Carolus Clusius) extensively annotated the three book herbaria. Finally, we reconstruct the story of making of the book herbaria, as evidenced through observations of paper watermarks and handwritten texts in the book volumes, and show that all four book herbaria of Rauwolf were probably bound between 1577 and 1582.

16 世纪是植物学的黄金时代，当时众多博物学家致力于研究和记录植物多样性。其中一个非常突出的人物是德国医生、植物学家和旅行家莱昂哈德·劳沃尔夫（Leonhard Rauwolf，1535 年？–1596 年），以他的旅行记录和包含近东植物的豪华书籍植物标本馆而闻名。在这里，我们专注于研究较少的 Rauwolf 早期书籍植物标本馆。这些构成了一个用皮革和黄金装订的三卷本植物收藏，其中包含 Rauwolf 于 1560 年至 1563 年间在法国南部和意大利北部学习医学时收集的 600 多种植物。我们展示了 Rauwolf 早期书籍标本馆的植物学价值，以两个异国情调的美国标本为例，即现存最古老的烟草标本之一（Nicotiana rustica)，收集于意大利，以及法国最古老的仙人掌记录 ( Opuntia ficus-indica）。这些保存完好的标本表明 Rauwolf 在他早期的植物学步骤中就渴望收集外来植物。我们进一步讨论了 Rauwolf 在学生时期的专业植物学网络，并建议著名的瑞士植物学家 Johann Bauhin (1541–1613)，Rauwolf 在蒙彼利埃实地考察和医学研究期间的朋友和伙伴，在汇编中发挥了重要作用这个珍贵的历史植物收藏。我们还展示了 Leonhart Fuchs（而不是 Carolus Clusius）对三本书的植物标本进行了广泛的注释。最后，我们通过对书卷中的纸质水印和手写文本的观察来重建图书标本馆的制作故事，并表明 Rauwolf 的所有四本图书标本馆可能都装订于 1577 年至 1582 年之间。