Herbaria of dried plants
print this pageThe herbaria of dried plants (called horti sicci to distinguish them from horti vivi, i.e. botanical gardens) are collections of real plants subjected to a drying process and then bonded with various methods (glues, adhesive tape, pins...) on sheets which can then be bound together or left loose and collected in a folder. From the historical point of view, herbaria of dried plants prior to the sixteenth century are unknown although their existence cannot be completely ruled out.
The Library of the Botanical Garden preserves twenty herbaria of dried plants bound in the form of codices (mostly from the eighteenth century) and a herbarium on loose sheets from the second half of the eighteenth century, known as Herbarium Marsili.
Three herbaria are attributable to Giangirolamo Zannichelli, botanist, physician and apothecary in Venice and were donated to the Library in 1902 by G. Dian and then studied by Pierandrea Saccardo. These are two large folio volumes with agglutinated plants called General herbaria and a herbarium dedicated to Istrian plants, probably collected in 1722, which was likely part of a larger collection.
Sheet from one of the General Herbaria by Zannichelli
There are, in fact, seven herbaria by Bartolomeo Martini (or De Martinis), surgeon and botanist from Verona, of which two are identical: it appears to have been Martini’s habit to make multiple copies of his herbaria and then give them as presents. Among these, the one made in 1707 is particularly important. It is dedicated to the alpine plants collected on Monte Baldo and includes 40 sheets with approximately 200 specimens of agglutinated plants, devoid of names, and it represents one of the oldest herbaria dedicated to Monte Baldo.
The Herbarium of the Jesuit Giuseppe Agosti, made in 1769 and donated to the Library by Count Andrea Gritti is divided into two volumes. It includes a total of 361 sheets with agglutinated plants collected around Belluno.
Sheet from the Agosti Herbarium
Of other herbaria worth mentioning, there is the Lambioi Herbarium, very similar to the Agosti Herbarium (of which the author was in possession), particularly due to the presence of a collection of butterflies agglutinated on loose sheets, and the Dal Piaz Herbarium, created by Traveso and then donated to Giorgio Dal Piaz, which includes alpine plants collected during a geological campaign by the same Dal Piaz and D. Fabiani.
Particularly interesting is the so-called Erbario di Fra' Giorgio.
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