Relaciones ocultas a fines del siglo XVIII: La Specimen Florae Americae Meridionalis (1780) del Real Jardim Botânico da Ajuda y los diseños científicos de la Real Expedición Botánica al Virreinato Peruano [by Margarita Eva Rodríguez García & Ana Maria Costa]

This paper shows that in the final decades of the eighteenth century, beyond the diplomatic and military conflicts betweenPortugal and Spain, there were important scientific connections, which have been little studied. Having as a starting point thealmost unknown Specimen Florae Americae Meridionalis (1780), a four volumes botanical work produced in Real Museu da Ajuda(Lisbon), we will explore the interest aroused in the circles of scholars and amateur botanists the arrival in Lisbon of over two hundreddrawings of plants from the Royal Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru (1777-1788). Considering the Portuguese, Spanishand English personalities who were involved in the presence of these drawings in Portugal we will recover some of the practices thatmade possible in this period the circulation of scientific knowledge and the advancement of botany. In this sense, this study aims tomake a novel contribution to the History of Botany in Portugal and Spain, and point paths for future research.