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The Botanical Gardens of Pisa and Padua

The Botanical Gardens of Pisa and Padua

The Botanical Gardens of Pisa and Padua provide an instructive counterpoint to other significant gardens of the period. As opposed to the state-run scientific gardens, or indeed to the colonial gardens established in imperial outposts such as Cape Town or Jamaica, these gardens were associated with universities. They were also much older. Originating in the sixteenth century, they were typically used for the study of materia medica and for the training of pharmacists and physicians. But, of course, their collections also expanded—as did the gardens at Kew, Paris, and Madrid—with the introduction of new specimens to Europe. 

The innovations of the long eighteenth century affected these gardens, too, and their prefects and gardeners contributed to the innovations of the era. At Pisa, Michelangelo Tilli (1655–1740) introduced heated rooms for growing exotic plants during his time leading the garden, and Giorgio Santi (1746–1822) reclassified the garden according to the Linnaean system. 

 
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