Robert Visiani ~ "Flora Dalmatica"

This great book is set in honor of Robert Visiani, who was the greatest Croatian and world botanist and scientist.
This book is called "Flora Dalmatica", a major work of Robert Visiani, he described 2250 species, of which 60 new, and 5 new genera of plants.

He was born in Šibenik in 1800, where he finished primary school, finished secondary school in Split and then went to the University of Padua.
Although he earned a doctorate in medicine and surgery in 1822, Visiani showed an exceptional interest in botany during his studies, which ultimately did not go unnoticed.
During the school holidays, he always returns home to Dalmatia and his hometown of Šibenik, where he studies plants throughout Dalmatia on long botanical trips.

Antonio Bonato, professor of botany and director of the Botanical Garden in Padua, proposed him as his assistant.
Visiani remained in Padua until 1826, when he returned to Dalmatia, he decides to return to his hometown and use his rich medical knowledge for the benefit of his people, but also with the desire to better study the flora of Dalmatia.

He spent eight years working as a doctor while studying herbs. Since it could not use its full potential on the Croatian coast because it was impoverished by various occupiers who remained in this area (Venetian Republic, Austria-Hungary).
Then Visiani has the opportunity to go to Padua again and to express his talent, research spirit and already acquired knowledge.

It was not so easy to get a vacancy in the Department of Botany at the University of Padua. It was necessary to pass a knowledge test and rigorous exams in Vienna, which was the center of botanical science in that part of Europe. Since Dalmatia at that time was a distant and isolated country, it took him a month in one direction to get to Vienna.

Visiani was elected a substitute teacher in January 1836, after passing the competitive examination, and a year later a professor of botany and manager of the Botanical Garden in Padua.
He spent more than 40 years of exceptional work in this position, and the Botanical Garden in Padua, which is the oldest in the world under his leadership, experienced its transformation and flourishing, which no one has ever surpassed.
Robert Visiani is considered one of the founders of modern botany in Italy.

"Flora Dalmatica" is a book and his very valuable lifework Visiani's many years of research. Published in Leipzig in 1842, is a unique work in which we find 663 genera, 1884 species and 366 varieties of vascular plants, among which 60 new species and 5 new genera of plants were discovered.

The significance of this impressive scientific work is so great that even after almost 180 years since its publication, "Flora Dalmatica" still remains a fundamental landmark for the study of the vegetation of Dalmatia.
Two years after the publication of Flora Dalmatica, in 1844, Visiani exhibited for the first time on a scientific basis the procedure of artificial insemination of a vanilla flower. The process, which was unsuccessfully tried and described by horticultural experts of his time, gave Visiani the reputation of a great scientist, for which he was awarded a gold medal by the Horticultural Society in Vienna.

Although he spent most of his life in Padua, Visiani nurtured a strong sense of attachment to his homeland throughout his life.
This sentiment of his is visible in his poem from his youth "Farewell from Dalmatia", in which he points out that Šibenik is a "theatrically beautiful" city which, located on the slopes of the hill, looks like the edge of an amphitheater. In his mature and late years, Visiani regularly added "Dalmata Sibenicensis" to his signature, while in Flora Dalmatica, in addition to Latin plant names, we also find a list of "Illyrian" or Croatian names.

One of the last, but no less significant, expressions of Visiani's attention and love for his home town was the renovation and upgrade of the first hospital in Šibenik in 1863, which he financed at his own expense.

After almost forty years as full professor of the Department of Botany and director of the Botanical Garden in Padua, Visiania died on May 8, 1878. His last wish was to "find eternal rest among his relatives, friends and fellow citizens." This wish was fulfilled on July 10, 1880, when his remains were transferred from Padua to Šibenik and, with great honors, buried in the cemetery of St. Ana.