​The “Herbarium Estense” is a precious and well-known evidence preserved in the State Archives of Modena, anonymous and undated, presumably attributable to the last three decades of the sixteenth century. Is part of a valuable group of survivors herbaria made in Italy by eminent doctors and botanists, real pioneers of the revolutionary scientific method experienced or conceived around the 30s of that century by the doctor and professor of "Simplicium", Luca Ghini: collecting and preserving medicinal dried plants to have them available and observable at any time. It is a volume composed of a total of 149 cards with 181 botanical specimens. It is kept in the fund “Secret Estense Archives” but initially belonged to the Crivelli family, originally from Milan, attested in Ferrara (from the twelfth century), then at Modena (the fi fteenth century).
A collaboration among the State Archives of Modena, the Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology-UNIFE and the Department of Life Sciences-UNIMORE is in progress to conduct a thorough study for the full utilization of this “hortus siccus” and for the determination of its author, the exact period, the taxonomic classification, the production context of the herbarium.