Rediscovery, digitization and historical analysis of the Rabenhorst Lichenes Europaei collection preserved in the Portici Herbarium (Naples, Italy)

During the renovation of the Museum of Agricultural Sciences, located in the Royal Palace of Portici, a portion of the Lichenes Europaei collection compiled by Gottlob Ludwig Rabenhorst, a prominent German cryptogamist of the second half of the nineteenth century, was rediscovered. The collection consists of 34 bound volumes with rigid cardboard covers, containing a total of 937 herbarium specimens corresponding to 781 distinct nominal entities collected by 111 different botanists from 19 countries predominantly from Europe, with a few extra-European records, reflecting the wide scientific network coordinated by Rabenhorst. In collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II, all specimens were catalogued, recording not only the taxon name but also the date and locality of collection (with updated country names) and the name of the collector. All specimens, preserved in the Herbarium of Portici (PORUN), have been digitized and made available to the scientific community through the website of the Museum of Agricultural Sciences of Portici (MUSA). The digitized collection represents an important historical dataset for taxonomic, nomenclatural, and biogeographical studies of European lichens.