Taxonomic study of the plants to be found in the only herbarium of Paolo Boccone (1633–1704) at present existing in Italy

The aim of this paper is the study of the pre-Linnaean herbarium of Paolo Boccone, a 17th century Sicilian botanist. The volume of exsiccata (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. Herbaria produced 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 the herbarium comprises 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 the taxa are 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.