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A study of an anonymous pre-Linnaean herbarium, currently kept in the "Civica and A. Ursino Recupero" joint library of Catania (Italy) has been carried out. The volume examined consists of 86 unnumbered pages. It is made up of 121 specimens (currently four samples are missing), all belonging to Angiosperms. The samples are not all in good condition; however, it was possible to determine most of them (86%) up to species level. Most of the taxa are made up of alien plants (20.62%) of African and American origin. A series of concordant clues leads us to conjecture that the herbarium was produced by Antonio Bonanno (a pupil of Francesco Cupani) on the orders of the Prince of Cattolica, and/or some of his collaborators (or successors). The report of exchanges of plants with William Sherard, the particular composition of the collection and the documented knowledge of the international literature allow us to place the herbarium in the context of the intense scientific activity that took place in Sicily even after the deaths of Paolo Boccone and Cupani, two important pre-Linnaean Sicilian botanists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is the study of the pre-Linnaeanherbariumof Paolo Boccone, a 17th century Sicilian botanist. The volume ofexsiccata(dated 1680) is currently kept in the Civica and A. Ursino Recupero joint Libraries of Catania (shelfmark 1.31.241). The collection was previously unknown and found by chance in 2002 as a result of reorganisation.Herbariaproduced by Boccone are to be found in many European cities (Lyons, Paris, Innsbruck, Vienna, Wroclaw, Leiden, Oxford). The one that is the object of this study is, at present, the only one in Italy that exists and that can be consulted. The volume examined consists of 138 pages, with 1–5 specimens on each sheet. The material in theherbariumcomprises phanerogams (366 angiosperms and 1 gymnosperm), along with a small number of cryptogams (6 pteridophytes, 1 briophyta and 2 algae). The samples are in a good state of preservation and it has been possible to identify most of them. Most of thetaxaare made up of high altitude Alpine and Apennine plants; some entities have a distribution frequency on the Italian territory which goes from rare to very rare and need to be safeguarded because – some more, some less – they are seriously threatened. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paolo Boccone (1633–1704), a Sicilian botanist of the second half of the seventeenth century, was a figure who still arouses interest in the emblematic character of his scientific experience, which is connected with a personal history that is still in many ways mysterious and unexplored. Elements which help us understand the complexity of the character and the cultural and material difficulties that he had to face are to be found in his works. They have allowed us to build up a picture of his tireless activity as a traveller and his active presence in the majority of European cultural centres of the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]