Tobacco in the Erbario Estense and other Renaissance evidence of the Columbian taxon in Italy
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RESEARCH PAPER
Tobacco in the Erbario Estense and other Renaissance evidence of the Columbian taxon in Italy Chiara Beatrice Vicentini1 · Fabrizio Buldrini2 · Carlo Romagnoli3 · Giovanna Bosi3 Received: 3 August 2020 / Accepted: 18 September 2020 / Published online: 27 September 2020 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2020
Abstract The Erbario Estense, preserved in the Archivio Segreto Estense (Modena State Archives, Italy), is one of the very few sixteenth century herbaria still existing today. Among its exsiccata are a dozen species coming from the Americas, one of which is tobacco. The author of the specimen calls the plant Tabacho, ouer Herba Regina; Camus and Penzig, in the late nineteenth century, identify it as Nicotiana tabacum and affirm that it could be the most ancient direct proof of the presence of this plant in Italy. Today, attribution of the specimen to the above-mentioned species is certain and, according to the studies carried out for the present research, only three other sixteenth century exsiccata of N. tabacum still exist, all of them preserved in the Erbario Aldrovandi in Bologna. Therefore, the specimen of the Erbario Estense is extremely precious from a historical and scientific viewpoint. Tobacco was certainly known by the simplists who were working at that epoch in the lively scientific and medical environment of Ferrara, even if, according to documentary sources, real pharmacological use of the plant seems to have taken place only in successive phases. Keywords Este duchy · Ferrara · Ancient herbaria · Nicotiana tabacum · Ethnobotany
1 Introduction Italian herbaria dating from the sixteenth century are the oldest known in Europe today (Moggi 2012). The Erbario Estense is one of the least famous, because for about 250 years, it was preserved in the Archivio Segreto Estense and was discovered only in the late nineteenth century (Foucard 1882). The only study available of the entire collection was published 3 years later (Camus and Penzig 1885). In recent times, some further contributions appeared, focusing on specific aspects of this herbarium such as medicinal or cosmetic plants and their uses at the Este court in Ferrara * Fabrizio Buldrini [email protected] 1
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie, Sezione di Farmaco e Prodotti della Salute, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, via Fossato di Mortara 17/19, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, via Irnerio 42, 40126 Bologna, Italy
3
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via G. Campi 287, 41125 Modena, Italy
(Vicentini and Mares 2008; Vertuani et al. 2014; Cremonini et al. 2016; Vicentini et al. 2014, 2018). The Erbario Estense consists of a papery codex of 146 sheets (32 × 22 cm) numbered on the recto, to which 182 exsiccata are glued, accompanied by a progressive number (apart from a few cases) and the common name of the plant (Camus and Penzig 1885). On top of the first page is w
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