Address: Via La Pira, 4
The name Bigallo comes from the Compagnia The The Botanical Museum as such has existed since 1842, a fairly
late date in comparison with the other Florentine museums. Its
formation is essentially the work of the Grand Duke Leopoldo II
of Lorraine who profited from the expert help given by the
internationally famous botanist Filippo Parlatore (Palermo 1816 -
Florence 1877). They gave the already existing collection impetus
by the creation of a Herbarium which they wanted to call the
"Central" to indicate its importance as Italy's
principal example. And in fact it remained for a long time the
richest in Italy and one of the world's best. Parlatore furthered
this end by the donation of his own herbarium and a skilful
policy of exchanges and purchases. Of particular importance were
the Cesalpino, Targion Torzetti and Webb collections; the last
having around 80,000 plants was added to the collection in the
midnineteenth century.
Also in the nineteenth century precious plant collections such as
the tropical herbarium were added, sufficient to fill twelve
large rooms of the Botanic Institute of the University: the
present collection consists of around four million examples. Only
one large room is open to the public, in which are exhibited
various mixed examples: vegetable samples, plant models, old
herbariums and botanical manuscripts. Of note also are the superb
wax models by Calamai and Tortori (early nineteenth century) and
a spendid painted herbarium manuscript of the end of the
fifteenth century.
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