Gardens and Medicinal Virtues, Health and Beauty Between Past and Present | Courtesy Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

In the Monumental Rooms of the Marciana National Library, the Five Books of Plants by Pietro Antonio Michiel (1510 - 1576) are on display to the public for the first time, describing the general and beneficial properties of 1.028 plants and herbs, accompanied by as many painted illustrations. In memory of the many gardens that in the past constituted a resource for human's health, the exhibition offers evidence of a virtuous use of ancient medical knowledge, both in the development of new drugs starting from ancient pharmacopoeias and herbariums (such as showcases, with objects from the Aboca Museum and the engravings of the great naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian), and in the artisanal production of a herbal liqueur born from an antidote patented in 1603 and the subject of a centuries-old European success (the Orvietano, with period "leaflets" and advertising prints). The exhibition itinerary also includes three showcases containing contemporary artistic creations inspired by the beauty of the materia medica, declined on paper and linen.

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