Padua Botanical Garden Historical Timeline

Origins

The Venetian Republic authorised the garden in 1545 for the study of semplici -- medicinal plants -- because students of medicine were being taught from books and dried specimens, and misidentifying a plant in practice could kill someone. It was founded as a teaching instrument, not an ornament.

Turning points

A circular wall went up in 1552, for the unglamorous reason that rare and valuable plants were being stolen. The enclosing wall is now part of what makes the original 16th-century design legible.

Influential people

Goethe visited in 1786 and saw a fan palm planted in 1585, which he later cited in The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790) while working out his idea that all plant forms are variations on a single archetype. The palm is still alive, under its own glasshouse, and still known as Goethe's palm.

Cultural evolution

The garden became a conduit for plants arriving in Europe from elsewhere -- lilac, sunflower, potato and others are recorded among early introductions here -- which makes it a document of botanical exchange as much as a collection.

Present-day significance

It remains part of the University of Padua and is still used for teaching and research. The Garden of Biodiversity, a glasshouse complex opened in 2014, added five climate zones under glass without touching the historic circle.