In the past, even in the narrow spaces of Venice, many gardens were above all a resource for human health. In fact, plants and herbs, together with some animal and mineral substances, constituted the raw material for the composition of medicinal remedies. Doctors, apothecaries, but also ordinary people were driven by enthusiasm for the discovery of new plants and new therapeutic properties of known plants. We know them today through the paper gardens they left behind: manuscript and dried herbaria, intensively researched and annotated printed herbaria, recipe books compiled for personal use, letters, and so forth. The exhibition at the Marciana Library displays a selection of these items together with some remarkable examples of the use of ancient medical knowledge.
