The commerce in plant-based medications brought in a sizable sum of money for the Venetian Republic. They began pursuing Greece's and Epirus's therapeutic herbs.  Luigi Squalermo, also known as Luigi Anguillara, became the first curator or prefect of the Padova garden in August of 1546.   Luigi Anguillara served as the Duke of Ferrara's herbalist and the first head of Padua's botanical garden.  Anguillara expanded the Padua garden's collection to around 1,500 species by 1552. He had support from the Pope. His father, Francesco Squalermo, was a physician who served Pope Leo X. Anguillara traveled to France, Switzerland, the western Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor as one of the first botanists to collect plants, returning to his cherished garden with numerous varieties that had never been seen in Italy before to collect them for the Orto Botanico of Padova.  In a letter to Ulisse Aldrovandi another Italian botanist, Anguillara, says that he is going to the c...