The many herbaria in the Museum come from different places, periods and collectors, not always exclusive to the world of science. An example is the ‘War Herbarium’, which contains specimens gathered by a young officer, Bruno Ugolini, while on military campaigns during the First World War. Comprising nearly 400 specimens, the collection is generally damaged and items are often not determined, but various provenances are indicated; in addition to a group of plants related to his degree thesis, there are specimens from Valsabbia, the Sorino, Daone and Giulis valleys, Sabotino, and probably other places as well, since around 100 plants are unidentified. In June 1917, when young Bruno’s brigade was at San Giovanni di Duino (Trieste), he was badly wounded and died a few days later. The collection came to Padua thanks to his father, the botanist Ugolino Ugolini, who in 1930 sold it to the University along with his own herbarium.

Also preserved in the Botanical Museum is the herbarium of Ippolito Nievo, nephew of the famous 19th century Paduan writer and patriot of the same name. The collection comprises around sixty higher plants, more than a hundred lichens and over five hundred mosses, coming mainly from the Friuli region; and there are exotic locations represented too, such as the Canary Islands and the Rwenzori mountains, where a moss was collected in 1906 during the Duke of Abruzzi’s expedition to the African massif.