Gaetano Savi (1769-1844)

Materia medica vegetabile Toscana

Florence: Molini, Landi & Co., 1805

Folio (14 4/8 x 9 4/8 inches). 60 fine engraved plates by G. Canacci after B. Benvenuti, all with lovely recent hand-colour. Modern half green morocco.

Provenance: With the 19th-century ownership inscription of Erasmi Paluschynscii on the title-page.

First edition, and a beautiful book on the medicinal plants of Tuscany. The botanical garden at Pisa, where Savi was a director, was established under the patronage of Cosimo Medici I in 1545. He continued the implementation of ordering the garden according to the Linnaean system of classification throughout the garden (with the exception of the Arboretum which was planted without a geometrical pattern). He built new greenhouses and a special conservatory for aquatic plants, increased the Garden Library and the Herbarium collections and chaired the session dedicated to Botany and Plant Physiology during the first meeting of the Italian Scientists in 1839, held in the Botanic Garden; a special event with some political significance in view of the unification of Italy" (Garbari). Savi also wrote many educational and scientific books on the local flora. Garbari "From the Garden of Simples to the Botanical Garden of Pisa University." page 92.