The Renaissance Herbal at the New York Botanical Garden

As part of its year-long focus on healing plants, the New York Botanical Garden is staging an Italian Renaissance Garden focusing on medicinal herbs. The garden is loosely based on Europe's first botanical garden, planted in Padua in 1545. The garden will be open until September.

And below, the original: Padua's botanical garden in a sixteenth-century engraving and a contemporary photo.