An Italian Herbarium Network Project
Italy’s botanical heritage has gone digital! Over 4.3 million herbarium specimens are now accessible worldwide thanks to a groundbreaking collaboration between Picturae, the NBFC, and leading Italian universities. This milestone marks a new era for biodiversity research and preservation.
4.3 Million Plant Specimens Digitized
We are proud to share a major milestone of our digitization journey with Italy’s National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), in collaboration with the University of Padua and the University of Florence. What began as an ambitious vision years ago has now become a reality: more than 4,300,000 herbarium specimens from Italian botanical collections have been digitized using Picturae’s conveyor technology.
Transforming Accessibility: From Local to Global
This achievement is the result of nearly two years of precise and dedicated collaboration between our organizations. It involved the large-scale scanning of multiple herbarium collections to create a comprehensive digital record of Italy’s botanical heritage. Collections data that were once only locally accessible will soon be available to researchers worldwide via online portals including GBIF.
A Nationwide Effort
This network of Italian herbarium collections includes those in Florence (FI, FIAF, and FT), Padua (PAD), Rome (RO), Turin (TO), Trieste (TSB), Pisa (PI), Pesaro (PESA), Trento (TR), and Siena (SIENA), creating one of the most comprehensive and coordinated digitization initiatives ever undertaken in the country. A truly remarkable accomplishment!
Cross-Team Collaboration
A key factor to the success of this project has been the outstanding work of our digitization teams. With 12 operators producing up to 14,000 images per day, the project kept an impressive pace while meeting the highest quality standards. Close cooperation among institutions, curators, and technical teams made this possible, showing the power of shared expertise and vision.
The Final Phases
The project is now in its final phase, with all remaining specimen data being transcribed and ingested, turning images into searchable, research-ready records. This initiative preserves botanical history, strengthens cross-institutional collaboration, and enables biodiversity research nationally and internationally.
A Big Thank You
We sincerely thank our partners for making this achievement possible. Their vision, leadership, and commitment to Italy’s botanical heritage have been crucial throughout. Their cooperation enabled a national digitization effort and sets a strong example of how academic collaboration can amplify the impact of collections worldwide.
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Discover how our digitization expertise can make your collections accessible to the world as well. Contact us today!
