En Tibi Herbarium

It contains 473 dried plant specimens, belonging to 455 species and subspecies and 97 families, and is one of the largest and oldest known of its kind.

A fine leather binding, blind and gold embossed ornamentation, and gilt and gauffered edges are all features of the large 42 x 29 cm book.

In 1992, in a paper published in Italian, Sergio Toresella, an expert on medieval herbals, proposed that the herbarium was made in Ferrara in 1542–1544.

Other people were apparently involved in the compilation and offering of the work to an as yet unknown person, possibly as a gift to the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I.

[citation needed] The attribution of the En Tibi and Cibo Herbaria to Francesco Petrollini was mainly accomplished through handwriting analysis.

The second oldest surviving tomato fruit and leaves, preserved in the En Tibi Herbarium [ 1 ]