The archive of Giuseppe Raddi in the Library of Botany at the University of Florence

Abstract

The article examines the archival documentation relating to the Florentine botanist Giuseppe Raddi conserved in the Science Library – Botany of the University of Florence. The documentation produced by Raddi and stored in other institutions is also taken into consideration. The events that brought the archive to its current location and the accommodation interventions suffered by it are also briefly described. Finally, the type of documentation contained in it is described and briefly analysed.

Keywords:

• Archive
• Giuseppe Raddi
• University of Florence

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank the director of the Centro Studi Erbario Tropicale (CSET), Riccardo M. Baldini, for inviting me to hold a communication in this conference. I also owe a ‘thank you’ to the director of the Library of Sciences Gianni Galeota for allowing me to accept the invitation and the colleagues of the libraries of Botany and Geomineralogy for allowing me to dedicate part of my ‘working time’ to this task. Other heartfelt thanks go to my friend Mahmoud Salem Elsheik – a distinguished Italian philologist, but here as an Arabic-speaker – for confirming my hypothesis on the nature of the document in Arabic found in the folder relating to the journey to Egypt.