Botanical Exposure

"From botanical literature to the reality of gardens"

For the first time, the heritage libraries of Ajaccio and Bastia are presenting their collections in front of an exhibition on plant science. These works were bequeathed to Corsica by Tommaso Prelà, Lucien Bonaparte, Cardinal Fesch and Louis Campi, with an ambition of excellence for the island population.

All others page for english version is under consructions. 

Following the evolution of botanical thinking through the ages, the exhibition is divided into six main themes: philosophical knowledge in antiquity, the power of medicine and plants in the 16th century, botanics as a science of observation in the 17th century, the rebirth of theoretical botanics and the discovery of new species between the 17th and 18th centuries, the art of gardens in the 18th century, and scientific progress in the 19th century, illustrated in Corsica by the creation of the botanical garden of Ajaccio by Napoleon.

 
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Antiquity.
And philosophical knowledge

Botany, the science of plants, is a very ancient science.
A basic element of civilizations, the plant is used by humans for food, medicine and clothing, and may already be perfuming and dressing.

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thepower of medicine.
and plants.

Part 2,

For nearly a millennium, plants were named and described according to ancient treaties. In fact, the word botanica appears around the year mil, to designate the branch of medicine responsible for studying medicinal plants. Botany is then also called the study of “singles” because each plant gives only one type of medicinal extract.

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Toobservation to description.
rebirth of science.

Part 3,

Following the discovery of new European and exotic flora, numerous catalogs of medicinal plants were created throughout the 16th century. This new conception of plant knowledge, carried by Fuchs in particular, developed until the middle of the 17th century. Botany is becoming a real science of observation.

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thetheoretical botany.
and new species discovery.

Part 4,

The Italian Renaissance, taking up the ancient texts, led with it a revival of botany. Moreover, the discovery of the new world, the journeys of scientists accompanying explorers, the discovery of new plant specimens incite “rhizotomes” - such was the name given to connoisseurs of plants at the time - to review the ancient texts and describe plants more precisely. They bring back their discoveries, start cultivating them in the first university gardens in order to follow their development for description purposes.
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L' Garden art.
French style.

Part 5,

The 18th century saw gardeners as the guarantors of French garden know-how and French horticultural excellence. To be a gardener in the 18th century is to be part of a corporation, strongly hierarchical like any profession of the Ancien Regime, forged at the same time as the establishment of the administrative monarchy. You have to be accepted and pretend to design different gardens such as the vegetable garden, the orchard or even the park. But the art of gardens is much older.

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A Botanist Napoleon Botanist.
A botanical garden in Ajaccio

Part 6

The nineteenth century was the apotheosis of modern botany, laying the foundations and branching into numerous specialized and complementary disciplines that spread around the world. In Corsica, developments in plant science follow the general pattern of the West, linked to new techniques of observation, harvesting, conservation and exposure. Napoleon’s vision of a garden in Ajaccio grew out of his reading and socializing with the learned naturalists of the time, as well as from the physiocratic ideas of his father Charles.

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Heritage Library
 

Numerical Exposure 2021