Exoticorum libri decem Exoticorum libri decem Exoticorum libri decem ("Ten books of exotic life forms") is an illustrated zoological and botanical compendium in Latin, published at Leiden in 1605 by Charles de l'Écluse. On the title page the author's name appears in its well-known Latin form Carolus Clusius. The full title is: "Exoticorum libri decem, quibus animalium, plantarum, aromatum, aliorumque peregrinorum fructuum historiae describuntur" ("Ten books of exotica: the history and uses of animals, plants, aromatics and other natural products from distant lands"). Clusius was not only an original biologist but also a remarkable linguist. He became well known as a translator and
Bible translations into Latin used Latin translations of fragments of the Hebrew Bible. The earliest known translations into Latin consist of a number of piecework translations during the early Church period. Collectively, these versions are known as the "Vetus Latina" and closely follow the Greek Septuagint. The Septuagint was the usual source for these anonymous translators, and they reproduce its variations from the Hebrew Masoretic Text. They were never rendered independently from the Hebrew or Greek; they vary widely in readability and quality, and contain many solecisms in idiom, some by the translators themselves, others from literally translating Greek language idioms into Latin. Earlier