Sixteenth-century plant hunting: Francesco Malocchi’s travel report (1600) for the Orto Botanico in Pisa (original) (raw)
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Viaggiatori Journal, 2018
The aim of this article is to delineate the role of some important Italian naturalists who through their travels contributed to the definition and development of botanical geography, a discipline founded by the great German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. The study, using manuscript and published works, is introduced by the illustrations of Ermenegildo Pini's travels who in the last decades of the eighteenth century explored the mountains of Austrian Lombardy, putting forward useful considerations on the relationship between climate and vegetation. The works of Michele Tenore are then analysed whose naturalistic explorations in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the first half of the nineteenth century are still largely to be studied, as well as those of the Sicilian botanist Filippo Parlatore, renowned for his travels to the Scandinavian peninsula and considered to be Humboldt's greatest follower. Lastly, the peregrinations in Peru of the Milanese Antonio Raimondi are taken into consideration, many details of which have not still been investigated. In conclusion it emerges that the Italian naturalists lagged behind with respect to their contemporaries north of the Alps. However, at the same time their intense curiosity and dedication to science is highlighted, destined to form one of the foundations upon which Italian botany would later be established
The En Tibi herbarium, a 16th century Italian treasure
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Here for you a smiling garden of everlasting flowers' is the inscription in Latin of a 16 th century Italian herbarium kept in Leiden, the Netherlands, since 1690. The origin and botanical content of this herbarium, one of the oldest in existence today, have remained largely unknown. Here we present the plants included in this so-called 'En Tibi' herbarium, which comprises 473 specimens (455 taxa, 97 families), and discuss the geographical provenance of the book based on certain plant traits. The En Tibi is of great historical value as it contains some of the earliest herbarium records of numerous species, among which are useful plants such as oregano, thyme, tomato and hot pepper. Although prepared as a present, the En Tibi is a fine example of new botanical trends that arose in 16 th century Italy. It is an attempt to reconstruct the herbals of classical authors such as Dioscorides, Theophrastus and Pliny, not with illustrations but with actual plant individuals. More than just a collection of medicinal plants, the En Tibi shows an emerging interest in the study of taxonomy and the discovery of new plants, unknown to classical authors. Analysis of the intrinsic and extrinsic traits of the plants reveals a temperate-Mediterranean origin, suggesting that the book was made in central or north-central Italy. Our botanical identification is the first necessary step to further elucidate the origin of the En Tibi and trace the mysterious compiler of this magnificent collection. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: ancient DNA barcoding-ancient herbaria-historical collections-history of botany-Italian flora.
Books, plants, herbaria: Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and his circle in Italy (1539–1554)
History of Science, 2019
This article sets out to throw light on the intellectual and scientific activities of a group of Spanish humanists associated with the diplomat, aristocrat, and writer Diego Hurtado de Mendoza in the course of his fifteen years in Venice, Trent, and Rome, focusing on two aspects that have been neglected to date. These are (a) the integration of practices connected with the study of nature (herborizing expeditions and the production of herbaria) with the work of collating, translating, and commenting on classical texts dealing with natural history and materia medica; and (b) the insertion of these scientific activities in Italy by the Spanish subjects of the Emperor Charles V within the broader context of a specific cultural policy. This policy would later be fleshed out in the scientific project of the Spanish Crown under Philip II, inseparable as it was from the monarch’s political and religious policy.
Travel and exchange of persons, objects, technologies, skills and ideas, though practiced at all times of humankind, are two of the most particular characteristics of the modern Western world. The exchange of seeds and of the information concerning them deserves a special importance in the history of agriculture and botany. On the one hand, seeds were simple and inexpensive to store and to travel, on the other hand they exposed botanists and gardeners to unexpected conceptual and technical challenges. We will first describe some of the particular features of the information contained in seeds, namely their delay in time and space. In the case of Bolognese botanist Ferdinando Bassi (1710-1774) and his extensive correspondence with other botanists like Linnaeus, we highlight how late 18th-century scholars handled the hidden knowledge contained in these plain little objects.
Accettato per la stampa il 19 Settembre 1992 Erbari pre-linneani a Bologna: alcune collezioni dell'epoca di Ulisse Aldrovandi recentemente scoperte. -Bologna fu uno dei centri nei quali si sviluppò, nel XVI secolo, la tecnica di realizzare erbari, grazie soprattutto all' opera di Luca Ghini (1490-1556) e Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605). Varie collezioni realizzate tra il XVI e il XVIII secolo, prima fra tutte l'erbario in 16 volumi di Ulisse Aldrovandi, sono tuttora conservate a Bologna; tra queste, particolarmente interessante è un erbario anonimo databile tra la fine del XVI e l'inizio del XVII secolo, che contiene 273 piante incollate su 88 fogli rilegati. Questo erbario fu esaminato attorno al 1890 da G.E.Mattei, che lo attribuì a Giacomo Zanoni (1615-1682), curatore dell'Orto Botanico di Bologna. Anche A.Baldacci studiò approfonditamente questo erbario, senza tuttavia indicare un possibile autore. Mentre non esistono indizi che avvalorino l'ipotesi di Mattei, alcune note riportate sui fogli d'erbario paiono indicare come autori della collezione i fratelli Jean e Gaspard Bauhin. Per confermare questa ipotesi si è provveduto a confrontare le note manoscritte con le indicazioni presenti nelle principali opere di Gaspard Bauhin (Phytopinax, 1596; Prodromos Theatri Botanici, 1620; Pinax, 1623) e di Jean Bauhin (Historia Plantarum, 1650-1651). Si è inoltre confrontato il materiale presente a Bologna con le collezioni ed i manoscritti dei fratelli Bauhin conservati a Basilea.
Jorge Rodrigues, Humanism and architectural classicism during the Middle Ages: Ancient models and Christian appropriations, from central to peripheral Preliminary communication 7 Paolo de Vingo, Rinascite e rinnovamenti: esempi altomedievali di riuso del classico nella penisola italiana Original scientific paper 18 Filip Lovrić The Problem of Continuities and Discontinuities in Roman and Post-Roman "Rural" Contexts: The Case of Muline Site on the Island of Ugljan (Croatia) Preliminary communication 38 Palmira Krleža, A Contribution to the Problem of Researching Post-Roman Landscapes of Power on the Eastern Adriatic Coast. Case Study of Krk Island Preliminary communication 56 Carles Mancho, Arcus Triumphalem. Auctoritas vs. Renovatio nella Roma del IX secolo Original scientific paper 72 Giulia Bordi, Di papa in papa. Recupero e trasmissione di modelli da Pasquale I (817-824) a Pasquale II (1099-1118) Original scientific paper 81 Eleonora Destefanis, Rinascenze? Vita, oblio e sopravvivenze della scultura altomedievale. Riflessioni sull'ambito italiano Original scientific paper 94 Tancredi Bella, Rinascenze normanne in età di contea. La cattedrale abbaziale di Catania tra XI e XII secolo Original scientific paper 106 Giuliana Massimo, L'impiego della breccia rosata nei cantieri federiciani: scelta estetica o politica? Preliminary communication 119 Elisa Tagliaferri, Classicismo in versione sacra: le pitture murali di San Pietro a Tuscania Preliminary communication 128
2021
The 16th century was a golden age for botany, a time when numerous naturalists devoted themselves to the study and documentation of plant diversity. A prominent figure among them was the German physician, botanist, and traveler Leonhard Rauwolf (1535?–1596), famous for his luxurious book herbarium containing plants from the Near East. Here we focus on the less studied, early book herbaria of Rauwolf. These form a three-volume plant collection bound in leather and gold, which contains over 600 plants that Rauwolf collected between 1560 and 1563 in S. France and N. Italy when he was a student of medicine. We show the botanical value of Rauwolf’s early book herbaria, exemplified by two exotic American specimens, namely one of the oldest surviving specimens of tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), collected in Italy, and the oldest known French record of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). We discuss Rauwolf’s professional botanical network during his student years and suggest that the famous S...