The pharmacopoeias in Ferrara: history of the pursuit of the Italian unification

At the end of the 17th Century Ferrara is in need of an official pharmacopeia. Even if many were mentioned to work together, Francesco Maria Nigrisoli will honourably take responsibility on the project in the end. Cum haec igitur animo agitarem, nunquàm enim componendae Pharmacopee Ferrariensi manum admovere ... If we have a look at the past, relevant names of the “Studio Ferrarese” gave an important contribute to the world of medicine and pharmacy: referam praeclara duo illa Medicorum Ferrariensium lumina, Antonium Musam Brasavolam, & Ioannem Manardum. Nigrisoli’s Pharmacopeia was written in Latin (1725) and is divided into “XII classes” of galenic preparations. The prescriptions of Ferrara were analysed meticulously. In 1798 Antonio Campana will propose a modern private Pharmacopeia that will be very successful internationally. It was written in Italian and soon replaced the previous one that was in Latin. Only after some decades after the Italian unification the first Farmacopea Ufficiale Italiana was published: it was 1892