Created in around 1700, it contains over 1,300 dried plants from the region of Lower Saxony – all collected, pressed and carefully documented by the Protestant theologian Georg Andreas Ruperti.

Today, this historic herbarium is being digitised and scientifically catalogued in depth as part of a research project. Dr Thomas Biskup, head of the project ‘A testimony to ecclesiastical natural history and an archive of historical biodiversity: The Ruperti Herbarium (1700) of the HAB’, shares what the herbarium reveals about plants, people and world views in the early modern period – and the challenges that such a project entails.

HAB gehört is a production of the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel.

Recording and post-production: Landesmusikakademie Niedersachsen

Editing: Marie Adler

Sound design: Klingebiel Creative