Setup of the Botanical Museum

2023 saw the completion of redevelopment work on the building that was formerly the Prefect's residence (including the extension on the east side) and housed the Institute of Botany up to the second half of the 20th century. It provides new spaces for exhibitions and for the Botanical Museum, room to show the Dispensary — donated by pharmacist Giuseppe Maggioni — in a museum setting, and a home for the reorganized Historical Library of Medicine and Botany dedicated to Vincenzo Pinali and Giovanni Marsili.

One of the main investments made by the University of Padua to mark its 8th centenary celebrations, this is a project designed to bring together botanical and medical knowledge in one place, creating a veritable hub for antique books, and re-creating an interplay that recalls how the oldest university-run botanical garden in the world came into being.

An important aspect of the undertaking is the renewal of the building and its systems across the entire complex: green building principles and techniques were applied in the structural renovation of floors and walls and the containment of energy consumption, with the use of radiant floors and ceilings and the adoption of certified filters for all the glazing installed. Finally, to ensure that the specimens of the herbarium and a wealth of historic books and documents would be properly preserved, a new air conditioning and temperature control system was put in place.

The Museum presents the history of plants, and of the people who have collected, studied and lectured on them down the centuries. Drawing on past and present alike, the itinerary interweaves botany, medicine, pharmacy, history and art, through a selection of the most important exhibits from the rich heritage of collections held by the Botanical Institute.

The tour of the museum now features collections that could not be viewed formerly by visitors to the Botanical Garden: the riches of the historical herbaria — some 600,000 specimens including dried plants, algae, fungi, lichens and galls, collected from the end of the 18th century onwards — the dispensary from the late 1700s, donated to the University of Padua by the pharmacist Giuseppe Maggioni, also the 19th and 20th century educational collections of seeds, fruits, log cuts and ultra-thin sections of timber, models of fungi, beeswax panels, diatom slides, photographic plates and the magnificent wall charts of plants from all around the world. Visitors to the Museum are able to get a general view of how the Garden developed historically, from its beginnings to the present day, reconstructing the history of its protagonists: an itinerary that links the Renaissance geometries of the Hortus cinctus, the greenhouses of the Biodiversity Garden and the rich heritage of archive material and books preserved in the Historical Library.

The value of the collections

The Herbarium Patavinum comprises around 600,000 specimens (from Italy and Europe, Africa, Japan, the United States or Australia), which afford an important source of information on plant biodiversity from the end of the 18th century onwards, providing insights into geographical explorations and local uses of certain species.

The long list of materials preserved in the Botanical Museum includes seeds, fruits, log cuts and ultra-thin sections of timber, educational wall charts, beeswax panels, models of fungi, galls, diatom slides and photographic plates, reflecting the interests of scholars who have frequented the Botanical Garden of Padua over time.

It was in 1532 that Francesco Bonafede, founder of the Botanical Garden and holder of the teaching chair ad lectura simplicium, had called for the establishment of a dispensary, to meet the needs of medical students who wanted a broader approach to the study of medications than was adopted typically by the school in those days.

Almost five centuries have gone by, but the wishes of the founder have now been fulfilled with the installation in the museum of a period pharmacy, complete with furnishings, books, drugs and instruments, donated to the University by pharmacist Giuseppe Maggioni.

The origins of the Central Library of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Padua are linked to the name of Vincenzo Pinali, professor of medicine from 1857 to 1875. Known for his introduction of the stethoscope as an instrument of diagnosis during his time at the University, and as the author of various notable publications, his substantial collection of books forms the core of today’s medical library, enriched over time by the addition of numerous acquisitions and donations.

Also preserved there today, among other items, are 117 manuscripts, 8 printed editions of medical subjects from the 15th century and 481 from the 16th century — more than 6,500 old books in all, many with illustrations of medical and scientific instruments, as well as plates on anatomy, botany, zoology and anthropology.