Costruire un microcosmo vegetale attraverso le lettere: Ulisse Aldrovandi e l’istituzione dell’orto pubblico di Bologna (1567-1568)

This contribution attempts to reconstruct the birth of Bologna’s botanical garden and the role that Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) played in its establishment through a study of some of the letters in his correspondence. In fact, the most effective tool for correctly framing the context is the corpus of letters exchanged with other natural history scholars in the mid-16th century. Letters that concerned the care of the garden, the study of botanical specimens or the exchange of seeds account for more than 10% of the total corpus of 2,104 letters. The percent- age is significant and shows the study of the plant kingdom as one of the most relevant themes in Aldrovandi’s epistolary dialogue. An attempt will be made to clarify the historical context and the types of letters used for the establishment and growth of the botanical garden. Finally, will be analysed the practices of knowledge and the strategies implemented in the correspond- ence for the management of this space dedicated to the study of the plant kingdom.