BOTANIC GARDENS, BOOKS, AND IDEAS: DIALOGUE BETWEEN SPANISH AND ITALIAN BOTANISTS (18TH TO EARLY 19TH CENTURY)

This paper examines relations between Spanish and Italian botanists in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, focussing on the role that exchanges of plant species and scientific books played in the botanical network. In particular, the paper analyses relations between the Real Jardin Botanico in Madrid and the botanic gardens of the universities of Parma, Pavia and Genoa, taking into consideration the similarities between the institutes, but above all the profound differences between the historical contexts of Spain, with its ties with the colonies, and Italy. In doing so, the aim is to analyse the scientific contribution of the botanists working in the four institutes, the teaching strategies adopted as a result, but also the political, and almost diplomatic, value assumed by the botanists in the international relations of the time. The primary handwritten sources examined here are the correspondence between botanists, as well as catalogues and registers of the sowing carried out in the gardens. The article also analyses textbooks of the time, published in Spanish and translated into Italian a few years later.