Editing Botanical garden (section)

=== Precursors ===

The idea of "scientific" gardens used specifically for the study of plants dates back to antiquity.<ref name=Hya6912>{{harvnb|Hyams|MacQuitty|1969|p=12}}</ref> The origin of modern botanical gardens is generally traced to the appointment of botany professors to the medical faculties of universities in 16th-century Renaissance Italy, which entailed curating a medicinal garden. However, the objectives, content, and audience of today's botanic gardens more closely resembles that of the grandiose gardens of antiquity and the educational garden of [[Theophrastus]] in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.<ref name=Spencer>{{harvnb|Spencer|Cross|2017|p=56}}</ref>

==== Grand gardens of ancient history ====

[[File:Hanging Gardens of Babylon.jpg|thumb|The [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]]<ref>{{harvnb|Dalley|1993|p=113}}</ref> with the [[Tower of Babel]] in the background, a 16th-century hand-coloured engraving by [[Martin Heemskerck]]]]

Near-eastern royal gardens set aside for economic use or display and containing at least some plants gained by special collecting trips or military campaigns abroad, are known from the second millennium BCE in [[ancient Egypt]], [[Mesopotamia]], [[Crete]], [[Mexico]] and [[China]].<ref>{{harvnb|Day|2010|pp=65–78}}</ref> In about 2800&nbsp;BCE, the Chinese Emperor [[Shen Nung]] sent collectors to distant regions searching for plants with economic or medicinal value.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1915|pp=185–186}}</ref> It has also been suggested that the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonization of Mesoamerica]] influenced the history of the botanical garden<ref name=Hya6912 /> as gardens in [[Tenochtitlan]] established by king [[Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl|Nezahualcoyotl]],<ref>{{harvnb|Toby Evans|2010|pp=207–219}}</ref> also gardens in [[Chalco (altépetl)]] and elsewhere, greatly impressed the Spanish invaders, not only with their appearance, but also because the indigenous [[Aztec]]s employed many more medicinal plants than did the classical world of Europe.<ref>{{harvnb|Guerra|1966|pp=332–333}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1915|p=187}}</ref>

Early medieval gardens in [[Islam in Spain|Islamic Spain]] resembled later botanic gardens, an example being the 11th-century Huerta del Rey garden of physician and author [[Ibn Wafid]] (999–1075 CE) in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]]. This was taken over by garden chronicler [[Ibn Bassal]] (fl. 1085&nbsp;CE) until the Christian conquest in 1085&nbsp;CE. Ibn Bassal then founded a garden in Seville, most of its plants being collected on a botanical expedition that included Morocco, Persia, Sicily, and Egypt. The medical school of [[Montpellier]] was also founded by Spanish Arab physicians, and by 1250&nbsp;CE, it included a physic garden, but the site was not given botanic garden status until 1593.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2006|p=57}}</ref>

==== Physic gardens ====

Botanical gardens developed from [[physic garden]]s, whose main purpose was to cultivate [[herb]]s for medical use as well as research and experimentation. Such gardens have a long history. In Europe, for example, [[Aristotle]] (384&nbsp;BCE – 322&nbsp;BCE) is said to have had a physic garden in the [[Lyceum#Aristotle's School and Library|Lyceum]] at Athens, which was used for educational purposes and for the study of botany, and this was inherited, or possibly set up, by his pupil [[Theophrastus]], the "Father of Botany".<ref>{{harvnb|Young|1987|p=7}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Thanos|2005}}</ref> There is some debate among science historians whether this garden was ordered and scientific enough to be considered "botanical"; instead, they attribute the earliest known botanical garden in Europe to the botanist and [[pharmacologist]] [[Antonius Castor]], mentioned by [[Pliny the Elder]] in the 1st century.{{sfn|Sarton|1993|p=556}}

The forerunners of modern botanical gardens are generally regarded as being the medieval monastic physic gardens that originated after the decline of the [[Roman Empire]] at the time of Emperor [[Charlemagne]] (742–789 CE). These contained a {{lang|la|hortus}}, a garden used mostly for vegetables, and another section set aside for specially labelled medicinal plants and this was called the {{lang|la|herbularis}} or {{lang|la|hortus medicus}}{{mdash}}more generally known as a physic garden, and a {{lang|la|viridarium}} or orchard.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1915|p=188}}</ref> Such gardens were given impetus by Charlemagne's [[Capitulary]] de Villis, which listed 73 herbs to be used in the physic gardens of his dominions. Many of these had already been introduced to British gardens.<ref>{{harvnb|Holmes|1906|pp=49–50}}</ref> [[Pope Nicholas V]] set aside part of the Vatican grounds in 1447, for a garden of medicinal plants that were used to promote the teaching of botany, and this was a forerunner to the University gardens at Padua and Pisa established in the 1540s.<ref>{{harvnb|Hyams|MacQuitty|1969|p=16}}</ref> Certainly the founding of many early botanic gardens was instigated by members of the medical profession.<ref>{{harvnb|Holmes|1906|p=54}}</ref>