The Botanical Garden donated works to the Institute of Pharmacology which were strictly medical, while it kept medical books with more affinity to botany: the works of "materia medica", as the study of the therapeutic properties of plants and natural substances was then called but which later became relevant to the discipline today called "pharmacognosy". The collection is principally made up of antique books published up to the eighteenth century and nineteenth-century pamphlets.
In addition, there are two handwritten volumes with veritable eighteenth-century handouts, that is, the lecture notes from Jacopo Bartolomeo Beccari (1682-1766), professor of medicine in Bologna. (see catalogue).
Finally, there are two incunables which almost certainly belong to the Botanical Garden’s collection even if they have not been identified with certainty in the transfer list; these are two books published in the early days of printing, when printed books were similar to manuscripts in the layout (see catalogue).

The books are generally in excellent condition. They bear traces of their "emigration" history, like the binding as in Marsili’s books also frequently found in the Botanical Garden, or the dedications to the Prefects Bonato, De Visiani, or Saccardo, bibliophiles who increased the Garden’s collection, or the original locations in the Botanic Garden annotated in the books (Azz. for the blue room) or, if they haven’t worn off, even the label at the spine tail with the original inventory number found in the transfer list.
From an assessment of the value of the antique book collection of the Library of the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova, it was decided to promote this little jewel with an exhibition.