The En Tibi herbarium, a 16th century Italian treasure

Stefanaki, Anastasia; Thijsse, Gerard; Uffelen, Gerda A. van; Eurlings, Marcel; Andel, Tinde van

doi:10.1093/botlinnean/boy024

Cited by 21 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Keeping several specimens of the same species was not uncommon in botanical collections. Linnaeus himself thought it necessary to have multiple specimens of the same plant to de ne the species (Müller-Wille, 2006), but it was already clear to early Renaissance botanists that a plant could have many forms (Stefanaki et al, 2018). We found no visible evidence in the herbarium that indicated who made the herbarium or owned it.…”

Section: Botanical Content Of the Zierikzee Herbariummentioning

confidence: 74%

The Zierikzee Herbarium: An analysis of the contents and origins of an enigmatic herbarium

Offerhaus

Haas

Porck³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Municipal Museum of Zierikzee houses a loose-leafed herbarium containing 360 dried plant specimens, of which the provenance, age and maker were until recently unknown. By studying the plant specimens, paper, decorations and labels, an image was conveyed of an early 18th century herbarium that matched the description of a herbarium from the legacy of Jakob Ligtvoet, who was gardener in the Leiden Hortus botanicus from 1703 till his death in 1752. This herbarium is one of the oldest garden herbaria of its kind and contains 306 unique species, of which 201 are currently native to the Netherlands. Exotic species come from the Mediterranean (82 spp.), Europe (24), South Africa (8), the Americas (9) and in tropical Asia (7). Based on our comparison of names on the oldest labels, this collection of dried plants was probably started after publication of the first garden catalogue by the prefect of the Leiden garden and professor of botany Herman Boerhaave (1710), but before the second edition in 1719. This historic herbarium reflects the state-of-the-art of botanical science and the international network of Dutch botanical gardens in the early 18th century.

show abstract

Section: Botanical Content Of the Zierikzee Herbariummentioning

confidence: 74%

The Zierikzee Herbarium: An analysis of the contents and origins of an enigmatic herbarium

Offerhaus

Haas

Porck³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The botanical content of the En Tibi herbarium (473 specimens, 455 taxa) ([16]; https://bioportal.naturalis.nl/result?theme=en_tibi&language=en&back) was compared to the Rome herbarium (951 specimens, four volumes) [13] and other surviving 16 th -century Italian herbaria, namely the herbaria of Aldrovandi (c. 4800 specimens, 16 volumes) ([7–10]; http://137.204.21.141/aldrovandi/Explore), Cesalpino (768 specimens) [11], Merini (201 specimens) [12], and the Estense herbarium (181 specimens) [15]. For the comparison with the Rome herbarium we used Erbario B and then combined Erbario B and C (see Fig 2, and S1 Appendix).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remarkable examples are the herbaria of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) kept in Bologna [7–10], of Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603) [11] and Michele Merini [12] kept in Florence, and the “Erbario Cibo” kept in Rome (hereafter “Rome herbarium”), attributed to either Gherardo Cibo (1512–1600) [13] or Francesco Petrollini [14]. These collections comprise the earliest surviving Italian herbaria along with two anonymous 16 th -century collections, namely the Ducale Erbario Estense (hereafter “Estense herbarium”) kept in Modena [15], and the En Tibi herbarium [16] (Fig 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reflecting the history of political turbulences characteristic of the European Renaissance, the En Tibi travelled from Italy to Prague, and then, together with the four herbaria of Leonhard Rauwolf, to Stockholm and London, changing hands between emperors, kings and scholars. A curiosity item, loot and botanical treasure, the En Tibi ended up in 1690, as part of the collection of Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), in the possession of Leiden University in the Netherlands, where it has been kept ever since [16, 19–21]. The origin of the En Tibi herbarium has remained unknown for almost 500 years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scant information about the book’s botanical content appeared in Lotsy [24] and Toresella [25]; the latter assumed that the En Tibi was made in Ferrara between 1542 and 1544 and it was thus claimed as the oldest existing herbarium [26]. The first inventory of the En Tibi was recently carried out [16, 27] and showed a Central–Northcentral Italian provenance [16]. The En Tibi herbarium has been digitized and is available at http://bioportal.naturalis.nl/result?theme=en_tibi.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Breaking the silence of the 500-year-old smiling garden of everlasting flowers: The En Tibi book herbarium

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We reveal the enigmatic origin of one of the earliest surviving botanical collections. The 16 th -century Italian En Tibi herbarium is a large, luxurious book with c . 500 dried plants, made in the Renaissance scholarly circles that developed botany as a distinct discipline. Its Latin inscription, translated as “Here for you a smiling garden of everlasting flowers”, suggests that this herbarium was a gift for a patron of the emerging botanical science. We follow an integrative approach that includes a botanical similarity estimation of the En Tibi with contemporary herbaria (Aldrovandi, Cesalpino, “Cibo”, Merini, Estense) and analysis of the book’s watermark, paper, binding, handwriting, Latin inscription and the morphology and DNA of hairs mounted under specimens. Rejecting the previous origin hypothesis (Ferrara, 1542–1544), we show that the En Tibi was made in Bologna around 1558. We attribute the En Tibi herbarium to Francesco Petrollini, a neglected 16 th -century botanist, to whom also belongs, as clarified herein, the controversial “Erbario Cibo” kept in Rome. The En Tibi was probably a work on commission for Petrollini, who provided the plant material for the book. Other people were apparently involved in the compilation and offering of this precious gift to a yet unknown person, possibly the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I. The En Tibi herbarium is a Renaissance masterpiece of art and science, representing the quest for truth in herbal medicine and botany. Our multidisciplinary approach can serve as a guideline for deciphering other anonymous herbaria, kept safely “hidden” in treasure rooms of universities, libraries and museums.

show abstract

The early book herbaria of Leonhard Rauwolf (S. France and N. Italy, 1560–1563): new light on a plant collection from the ‘golden age of botany’

Stefanaki

Walter

Porck

et al. 2021

Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The sixteenth century was a golden age for botany, a time when numerous naturalists devoted themselves to the study and documentation of plant diversity. A very prominent figure among them was the German physician, botanist, and traveler Leonhard Rauwolf (1535?–1596), famous for his travel account and luxurious book herbarium containing plants from the Near East. Here, we focus on the less studied, early book herbaria of Rauwolf. These form a three-volume plant collection bound in leather and gold, which contains over 600 plants that Rauwolf collected between 1560 and 1563 in S. France and N. Italy when he was a student of medicine. We show the botanical value of Rauwolf’s early book herbaria, exemplified by two exotic American specimens, namely one of the oldest surviving specimens of tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), collected in Italy, and the oldest known French record of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). These well-preserved specimens indicate that Rauwolf was eager to collect exotic plants already in his early botanical steps. We further discuss Rauwolf’s professional botanical network during his student years and suggest that the famous Swiss botanist Johann Bauhin (1541–1613), friend and companion of Rauwolf during his field excursions and their medical studies in Montpellier, has played a significant role in the compilation of this precious historical plant collection. We also show that Leonhart Fuchs (and not Carolus Clusius) extensively annotated the three book herbaria. Finally, we reconstruct the story of making of the book herbaria, as evidenced through observations of paper watermarks and handwritten texts in the book volumes, and show that all four book herbaria of Rauwolf were probably bound between 1577 and 1582.

show abstract

The En Tibi herbarium, a 16th century Italian treasure

Cited by 21 publications

References 28 publications

The Zierikzee Herbarium: An analysis of the contents and origins of an enigmatic herbarium

The Zierikzee Herbarium: An analysis of the contents and origins of an enigmatic herbarium

Breaking the silence of the 500-year-old smiling garden of everlasting flowers: The En Tibi book herbarium

The early book herbaria of Leonhard Rauwolf (S. France and N. Italy, 1560–1563): new light on a plant collection from the ‘golden age of botany’

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About