Carolus Clusius was one of the central figures of the so-called botanical renaissance of the sixteenth century. His vast correspondence has already gained considerable attention from biologists and historians, but a complete edition was never realized. Huygens ING and the Scaliger Institute (Leiden University Libraries) are working towards an online edition using the collaborative editing tool eLaborate.
However, this is not a complete and finished scholarly edition yet. Due to its collaborative nature and the diversity of the transcriptions, the status and quality of the edition is not uniform. Still, we hope that by making this sometimes unprepared material available online, we stimulate new research and motivate new editors to become involved in this ongoing project. In this introduction, we explain the background, current status, use and future plans of the edition.