ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Building the Herbarium Centrale Italicum in Florence: Mobility, Legal, and Logistical Challenges in the Transfer of the Webb Herbarium

• In Event: Plant Humanities 2 - Rethinking Scientific Collections: Herbaria and Exsiccata

English Abstract

At the Third Congress of Italian Scientists, held in Florence in 1841, botanist Filippo Parlatore called for a radical renewal of botany in Italy and for the creation of a centralised research venue dedicated to the country’s botanical heritage. Founded in Florence in 1842 with the support of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Herbarium Centrale Italicum was envisioned by Parlatore as a shared “national” resource, built through the mobilization of herbaria contributed by both Italian and foreign botanists. Among the first and most significant acquisitions of the new herbarium was the collection donated by the English botanist Philip Barker Webb, which itself incorporated eighteenth- and nineteenth-century exsiccata by Labillardière, Pavon, Desfontaines, and other collectors, in addition to Webb’s own personal collection. Its transfer to Florence, however—from Paris, where Webb resided—was far from straightforward. The recovery of Webb’s herbarium became a genuine legal case, in which the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, thanks to Parlatore’s mediation, intervened decisively from the outset. This talk will use the case of the Webb herbarium to examine the mobility of collections, particularly private ones, through a twofold lens: first, from a legal and economic perspective, exploring how private collections are donated, acquired, and administered; and second, from a logistical perspective, considering how a private collection such as Webb’s is prepared for shipment, transported, and ultimately reorganized and incorporated into a new institutional—and political—context.

Author

• Luca Tonetti, University of Padua