Erbario Figurato - Hoepli 1943

I ordered a real beautiful Herbal. Actually I am changing a little my perspective of this blog. It was born as a sharing opportunity for (Italian) Herbals of Middleage and their study, but with the time and the love for plants and their representation I opted (with this first blog) to extend it also to herbals that were simply  published also in recent times.
The only temporal time I am going to have is not to exceed the IIWW period (1945).

Hence I just received today an original of Erbario Figurato of Hoepli dating 1943.

As you can see this is the third edition with 80 drawings in colours and 283 black and white engravings.

Considering that the book was written during the Fascism (as you can see next to the date, 1943 the Author added  - as it was colpulsory at the epoch - the XXI Roman number, i.e. the 21st year after the rise of Fascism in Italy) the Author extended the investigation on folwers and species growing also in North Africa (Libia) and East Africa (Etiopia, Somaliland and Eritrea) at the epoch part of the Italian Colonies.

An exemple of a black/white drawings

I would like to show the fantastic pictures I found at the end of the Herbal. Really they astonished me for their beauty.

Top: 1 Punica Granatum L. (Melograno) 2 Hedera Helix L.

Top: 2 Rosa Canina

Top: 1 Convallaria majalis L.       2. Ruscus aculeatus L.

Top: 1 Colchicum autunnale L.  2 Veratrum album L. 

Thank you to the Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova

I am going on with my collection of herbals all around Europe. A big thanks before all to the Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova - Ministero dei Beni e della Attività Culturali e del Turismo that provided me a copy of an ancient Herbal to study it. I will come back with some details in my future blogs.

I really appreciated the opening of culture also to not "real" students.Thanks again! Grazie

Michele SAVASTA FIORE de PACTIS