Giardino dei semplici-Garden of simples

More than ten years after 1991 which, together with the fourth centennial anniversary of the foundation of the third and current Garden of simplex in Pisa, saw the publication of the book Giardino dei Semplici. L'Orto botanico di Pisa dal XVI al XX secolo, we have accepted the invitation of the Magnificent Rector of the University of Pisa to republish this work. Much has changed since then: new research and further documentary investigations have added to the history of the gardens and botanic vegetable gardens generally, and the one in Pisa in particular, providing new elements that make it necessary to revise and integrate the previous texts - now available in Italian and English -, in the appendices, the bibliography and the iconography. All this confirms the complexity and breadth of this subject, and the richness of the material available on this prestigious institution, which has always been closely linked to the history of the city of Pisa and its University. The physiognomy of the Garden - the first of which dated back to 1544 and was the oldest European botanical garden annexed to a University - which is considered not only a "garden of science", a privileged place for botanical study, but also, at least for a short period, a "garden of delights and wonders", with an incredible encyclopaedic collection of vegetable species and the site of a real "artistic laboratory" able to produce natural images of great formal value. The Pisa Botanical Garden has been able to offer a great contribution to modern science, during both the XVII and XVIII, and the 1800 and 1900s, confirming its leading role in the international field of scientific research.