36 TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT-MATTER. 
for the latter Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), while he also 
adulterated Musk and the Syrups. The court to which such 
matters pertained, ‘“‘ Avogaria di comun,” caused his prepara- 
tions to be thrown over the Rialto Bridge into the canal, the 
musk was burned, the offender banished from his profession, 
placed in prison, and a fine of four hundred gold ducats im- 
posed upon him—fortunately, in contumaciam.* 
14. The proper study of drugs received an impulse from 
the chief emporium of the drug market of the middle ages.* The 
Signoria of Venice founded in the year 1533, in her Univer- 
sity at Padua, a chair of pharmacognosy, ‘‘ Lecturam Simpli- 
cium,” which she filled by the appointment of the physician, 
Francesco Buonafede. The University of Bologna, as early as 
the year 1534, also received such a “‘Spositore o lettore dei 
Semplici” in the person of Luca Ghini, who, in the year 1544, 
removed to the University of Pisa. Buonafede, “‘ primus Sim- 
plicium explicator,” the first professor of pharmacognosy, dis- 
tinguished himself by the foundation of the first botanical 
garden, which, in accordance with his proposal, in the year 1545, 
was effected by a resolution of the Venetian senate. The land 
required therefor was given by the Benedictine Convent, Santa 
Giustina, with a proper appreciation of the usefulness of the 
purpose. The garden still remains in sight of the magnificent 
cathedral of Sant’ Antonio, in Padua. The decree of the senate, 
in a very admirable and appropriate manner, gives prominence 
to the value of the garden for the study of medicinal plants, 
and carefully provides for the management of the same. From 
the possessions of the Republic on the islands of Candia and — 
Cyprus were to be procured the valuable plants, as also minerals. — 
_ ' Cecchetti, ‘‘La Medicina in Venezia nel 1,300,” Archivio Veneto, 
xxv. (1883), 376. Ibid., xxviii. (1884), 29, it is also stated that, in the 
year 1820, on the Rialto Bridge, inspectors of goods from the Levant 
were appointed, ‘‘ Signori sopra le merci del Levante.” 
* A description of this drug market is still wanting. As men- 
tioned by Fliickiger, loc. cit., p. 634, there existed in Venice, in the year 
1506, a chamber of commerce, “Cinque savii alla mercanzia,” whose 
acts are still preserved in the great Venetian central archives. 
