Post on 06-Feb-2018
The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo
Brent Elliott
Historian
Royal Horticultural Society
The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo
- a unique publishing project
DRAWINGS AND PRINTS IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT WINDSOR CASTLE,
THE BRITISH MUSEUM, THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE AND OTHER COLLECTIONS
Cassiano dal Pozzo
(1588-1657)
Life of Cassiano • 1588 born in Torino, grandson of the prime minister
• educated at the University of Pisa
• 1612 moved to Rome
• 1615 began collecting his “museo cartaceo”
• 1623 Secretary to Cardinal Barberini
• 1633 purchased Cesi’s library
Museo Cartaceo: a collection of drawings amassed
by Cassiano, by commission, purchase, and inheritance,
on themes of natural history, architecture and antiquities
Prince Federico Cesi
(1585-1630)
Life of Federico Cesi • 1585 born at Rome, son of the Marchese de Monticelli
• 1603 founds Accademia dei Lincei (other members: Francisco
Stelluti, Johannes van Heeck [Heckius], Anastasio di Filiis)
• Cesi’s father forbids the association
• 1610 Giambattista della Porta joins the Accademia
• 1611 Galileo Galilei joins the Accademia
• 1613 Cesi publishes Galileo’s letter on sunspots
• 1618 Cesi moves to Acquasparta
• 1624 Galileo gives Cesi a microscope
• 1630 Cesi dies
• 1633 Cassiano dal Pozzo buys Cesi’s library
The later history of the Paper Museum
• 1657 Cassiano dal Pozzo bequeaths the Paper Museum to his heirs
• Early C18 Cassiano’s heirs sell the Paper Museum to Pope Clement XI Albani
• 1762 George III buys the Paper Museum from the Albani family, and transfers it to
Buckingham House
• 1834 The Paper Museum is transferred to the Royal Library at Windsor
• 1993 First exhibition about the Paper Museum (at the British Library)
• 1989-93 Publication of Quadri Puteani, four volumes of studies of the Paper Museum
• 2002 David Freedberg, The Eye of the Lynx, on the history of the Accademia dei Lincei, draws
attention to the scientific importance of the collection
• 1996 First volume of the Paper Museum published: Mosaic and Wallpaintings in Roman Churches
• 2000 Martin Clayton becomes managing editor of the project
• 2003 The administration of the Paper Museum project moves from the Royal Library, Windsor, to
the Warburg Institute (University of London)
• 2007-8 The Paper Museum is one of six collections featured in a public exhibition, Amazing Rare
Things, held in London and Edinburgh
David Freedberg, The Eye of the Lynx (2002)
Martin Clayton and the exhibition Amazing Rare Things (2007-8)
The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo Publishing programme: series A
SERIES A: ANTIQUITIES AND ARCHITECTURE
• I ANCIENT MOSAICS AND WALLPAINTINGS by Helen Whitehouse (published 2001)
• II EARLY CHRISTIAN AND MEDIEVAL ANTIQUITIES by John Osborne and Amanda Claridge Volume 1: Mosaics and Wallpaintings in Roman Churches (published 1996) Volume 2: Other Mosaics, Sarcophagi and Small Objects (published 1998)
• III SARCOPHAGI AND OTHER RELIEFS (THREE VOLUMES) by Amanda Claridge and Eloisa Dodero
• IV STATUES AND BUSTS by Amanda Claridge and Eloisa Dodero
• V THE ANTICHITÀ DIVERSE ALBUM by Elena Vaiani
• VI CLASSICAL MANUSCRIPT ILLUSTRATIONS by Amanda Claridge and Ingo Herklotz (published 2012)
• VII ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS by William Stenhouse (published 2002)
• VIII VASES, LAMPS AND OTHER OBJECTS (TWO VOLUMES) by Elena Vaiani and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, with contributions by Donald Bailey
• IX ANCIENT ROMAN TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE (THREE VOLUMES) by Ian Campbell with contributions by Lynda Fairbairn, David Hemsoll, Arnold Nesselrath and Johannes Röll (published 2004)
• X RENAISSANCE AND LATER ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT (THREE VOLUMES) by Paul Davies and David Hemsoll, with contributions by Ian Campbell, Simon Pepper and Johannes Röll (published 2013)
The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo Publishing programme: series B
SERIES B: NATURAL HISTORY
• I CITRUS FRUIT by David Freedberg and Enrico Baldini (published 1997)
• II FUNGI (THREE VOLUMES) by David Pegler and David Freedberg (published 2006)
• III FOSSIL WOODS AND OTHER GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS by Andrew C. Scott and David Freedberg (published 2000)
• IV-V BIRDS, OTHER ANIMALS AND NATURAL CURIOSITIES (TWO VOLUMES) by Paula Findlen, Henrietta McBurney, Arthur McGregor, Arturo Morales, Caterina Napoleone, Ian Rolfe, Eufrasia Rosello, Carlo Violani, Kathie Way, and Onno Wijnands
• VI FLORA: THE 'ERBARIO MINIATO' AND OTHER DRAWINGS (TWO VOLUMES) by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Fabio Garbari (published 2007)
• VII FLORA: THE PARIS MANUSCRIPTS (THREE VOLUMES) by Brent Elliott and Luigi Guerrini
• VIII FLORA: THE AZTEC HERBAL by Martin Clayton, Luigi Guerrini and Alejandro de Ávila. (published 2009)
Citrus Fruit
David Freedberg & Enrico Baldini
Citrus Fruit
Series B Part I. 1997
Citrus Fruit
Digitated lemon
Drawing attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi
(fl.1621-1646)
Ferrari, Hesperides (1646)
Citrus Fruits
Fossil Woods
Andrew C. Scott & David Freedberg
Fossil Woods and other Geological Specimens
Series B Part III. 2000
The Erbario Miniato
Fabio Garbari & Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi
Flora: the Erbario Miniato and other drawings
Series B Part VI. 2007
The Erbario Miniato
The Erbario Miniato
Fol. 74
Salvia aethiopis L.
The Erbario Miniato
Fol. 24
Doronicum pardalianches L.
Annotation:
Aconitum Pardalianches Dioscoridis Plinii nel Eicones 57980
Aconito Pardalianche di Dioscoride Plinio nel Matthiolo 1138
[References: Tabernaemontanus, Eicones plantarum
(1590); Mattioli, I discorsi (1568)]
The Erbario Miniato
Fol. 199
Fritillaria imperialis L.
Flower and stalk cut from another sheet and pasted over
an earlier drawing
Principal annotation:
Corona imperatoria venuta to gostantinopole, la virtu / de
la quale participa del Giglio e’ la scrive il Dodoneo
[Reference: Dodoens, Pemptades (1583)]
Duties of the volume editor
These are the statements the authors make about the uses of plants by witches. I have eliminated all these statements from the entries, though for entry 279 I retained a modified statement: “it has been suggested that some of the alleged phenomena of witchcraft were illusions induced by using stramonium ointments.” It may be that that sentence is sufficient. However, as Della Porta, who was a member of the Lincei, is the original source for this suggestion, I have looked into it further, and here is what I’ve found. You decide whether any of this is worth adding, e.g. in a footnote.
The evidence for the use of particular plants by witches, as far as I can tell, derives from one source: Giovanni Battista Della Porta, in his Magiae Naturalis (Naples, 1558), p. 102. Della Porta removed the passage from later editions; he was attacked by Jean Bodin for effective heresy in apparently denying the reality of witchcraft, and that might be sufficient to account for the self-censorship. Certainly Della Porta’s passage was later cited by critics of witch-hunting, like Weyer (reference: Johann Weyer, Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance: Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum (Binghamton, NY, 1991), pp. 225-6, and note pp. 695-7) and Praetorius (Johann Praetorius [Hans Schultze], Blockes-Berges Verrichtung (Leipzig, 1668), p. 304, and more generally pp. 301-12). All the modern discussions I have read so far can be traced through the paper trail back to Della Porta (e.g. in the Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens, vol. III (1930-31), cols. 1884-6, ‘Hexensalbe’; Elliot Rose, A Razor for a Goat (Toronto, 1962), pp. 40-41; Ginzburg, Ecstasies (1989: Engl. transl. London, 1990), pp. 137-8, 303.
The Aztec Herbal
Martin Clayton et al.,
Flora: the Aztec Herbal
Series B Part VIII. 2009
The Aztec Herbal
Hernandez on Mexican plants
Francisco Hernandez (1515-1587),
Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus
• Written in the 1570s
• 1580: Philip II commissions Nardo Antonio Recchi
to copy it
• Cesi acquires Recchi’s personal copy of the
manuscript
• 1613 Johannes Faber publishes a group of 68
woodcuts made for the book under the title
Mexicanarum Plantarum Imagines
• 1628 Faber publishes the material on animals under
the title Animalia Mexicana
• 1628 The work is printed; some copies of the work
have 1628 as the imprint statement
• 1648-51 Francesco Stelluti finally gets the entire
work published; most copies have “1648” or “1649”
in the imprint statement, though the dedication and
imprimatur are dated 1651
Fungi
David Pegler & David Freedberg
Fungi
Series B Part II. 2005
Forthcoming: Birds, other Animals, and Natural Curiosities
Maned three-toed sloth
Bradypus torquatus Illiger
African civet
Civettictis civetta Schreber
Forthcoming:
Flora: the Paris Manuscripts
The eight Cesi codices
MSS 968-970 and 974-978
Institut de France
Provenance: sold by the heirs of Cassiano dal Pozzo
to the Albani family
Seized by the French army during the occupation of Rome, 1797
Came into the possession of Benjamin Delessert
Sold by Delessert’s son to the Institut de France, 1874
The microscope
A dual lens microscope of the sort
given by Galileo to Federico Cesi, 1624
MS 974
27. Baneberry, Actaea spicata L.; mouse plant, Arisarum proboscideum (L.) Savi; asparagus pea, Lotus tetragonolobus L.; walnut, probably Juglans regia L.
Actaea spicata: Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 504. Arisarum proboscideum: Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 966 (as Arum proboscideum); Savi 1816, p. 6. L. tetragonolobus: Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 773. J. regia: Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 997
MS 974, fol. 26r To upper right is Arisarum proboscideum (Araceae), found in humid
woodlands in central and southern Italy. Above are two views of the spathe, one pulled up to reveal the spadix with the flowers at its base. Below left is the base of the spadix sectioned to display the female flowers, and on the right a magnified view of the anther. The white spongy material that swathes the sexual organs imitates a fungus, attracting fungus gnats to the plant to ensure pollination.
Lotus tetragonolobus (Fabaceae; also known as Tetragonolobus purpureus Moench and Psophocarpus tetragonolobus DC) is an annual found in central and southern Italy in fields and uncultivated land, and is sometimes grown as a food crop. The inscription ‘Sandalida Plinij’ is puzzling: Pliny’s ‘sandalides’ (Natural history, xiii.9.43) was a type of date palm growing in Ethiopia. One former name of the plant was ‘scandalida’, and two centuries ago it was also named Tetragonolobus scandalida Scopoli; but such a confusion is odd, and the annotation may suggest a vague memory of a word with a note to check Pliny’s text.
‘Julus Juglidis’ (the ‘Juglidis’ is a mistranscription of Cesi’s ‘Jugla[n]dis’) depicts a rather dessicated catkin of a walnut tree (Juglandaceae), probably Juglans regia.
MS 974: castor oil plant
134. Castor oil plant, Ricinus communis L. Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 1007
MS 974, fol. 118r
This is one of five folios depicting Ricinus communis
(Euphorbiaceae; see also 136, 137, 364, 750), native to north-
east Africa but extensively cultivated and thus naturalised
throughout the tropics, and found as a garden escape even as
far north as Britain. At upper left is a stem with one of the
palmate leaves for which the plant was valued in the late
nineteenth century for greenhouses and summer bedding. The
plant is monoecious, with the female flowers higher on each
branch than the male. The drawing at upper centre shows an
enlarged flower with its spiny capsule and three red styles, and
to the right is a magnified detail of the tip of a style. Below is a
branch with male flowers on the left, female on the right, and
fruits forming between – these will develop into the beans from
which castor oil is pressed. At the bottom of the sheet is an
enlargement of an individual male flower.
MS 974: passionflowers
Passionflower, Passiflora incarnata L.
MS 974 fols 21 & 23
MS 975: sunflower
179. Common sunflower, Helianthus annuus L. Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 904
MS 975, fol. 33r
This is the first of three folios devoted to Helianthus annuus
(Asteraceae; see also 180, 183), a North American plant first
described by Monardes in 1574 (Monardes 1574, p. 109r).
Camerarius described and illustrated it in his 1586 edition of
Mattioli (Mattioli 1586, p. 262); by 1629 Parkinson could say that
‘everyone is now familiar’ with the sunflower (Parkinson 1629, p.
295); and by the 1660s it was ‘heretofore admired, but now
grown common, not at all respected’ (Rea 1665, p. 191). It is now
cultivated for its seeds throughout southern Europe and has
naturalised locally. Here a life-size flower, with the large central
disc of florets, is accompanied by magnified details of individual
florets showing the columns of anthers fused together and the
gradual emergence of the style and stigma from within the
column. The mature stigma at far right is forked and covered with
dark hairs.
This folio bears no inscription, but the plant is named on 183 and in the
index as ‘Heloscuhil’ (sic), apparently a misrendering of the
Nahuatl eloxochitl. However, the Nahuatl name for the sunflower
was chimalxochitl; the plant that appears in Hernández (1648–
51, p. 376) as eloxochitl was probably Magnolia schiedeana
Schltdl. (and the modern elosúchil is M. dealbata Zucc.; see
B.VIII.25h).
MS 975: papyrus
244. Papyrus, Cyperus papyrus L. 247. Papyrus, Cyperus papyrus L.; three further species of Cyperus
Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 47 C. serotinus: Rottboell 1773, p. 31. C. rotundus: Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 45. C. esculentus: Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 45, or C. strigosus: Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 47
MS 975, fol. 97r MS 975, fol. 100r
MS 975: magnified details of stamens
210. Cypress vine, Ipomoea quamoclit L. Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 159
MS 975, fol. 63r
ANNOTATION: [UL] Quamoclit; scribe: [UC] Quamoclit
This folio contains three drawings, one enlarged, of a flower of
Ipomoea quamoclit (Convolvulaceae), together with two
magnified details of stamens; there is no drawing of the leaves
or the habit of the plant. This is a red-flowered form of the
plant, the colour range extending through pink and white. It is a
native of Central and South America, and was already widely
cultivated in Europe by the 1620s, when Parkinson lamented
that it was not hardy in England: ‘wee seldom haue it, and can
as hardly keep it’ (Parkinson 1629, p. 358).
MS 976: yucca
261. Yucca, Yucca gloriosa L. Linnaeus 1753, I, p. 319
MS 976, fol. 4r
ANNOTATION: [UR] Yuca Aquauiu / 7bris 16.; scribe: [UC] Yuca Aqua Viu: Sett.bris 16
Yucca gloriosa (Agavaceae) is native to the south-east United States. Its earliest recorded introduction into Europe was a specimen given to John Gerard in the 1590s (Gerard 1597, p. 1539), and by 1620 there was a specimen in the Farnese gardens in Rome (Aldini 1625, pp. 33–48); this specimen was apparently observed in a garden belonging to the Acquaviva family. Gerard named the plant yucca by mistake, thinking it was the source of cassava (the unrelated cassava or manioc, Manihot esculenta, is called yuca in parts of Central and South America); Parkinson (1629, p. 434) corrected the error, but by then the name yucca was already established. Like all American succulents that resembled aloes, yuccas were the object of excited interest on the part of Renaissance herbalists, who hoped to find medicinal products analogous to those of the aloe. They were widely grown for ornament and for medicine, and by the eighteenth century were beginning to naturalise in parts of the Mediterranean; today they can be found growing on sand dunes and waste land in northern and central Italy.
This first of two images of a yucca is a study of the entire plant, showing the woody trunk, a large rosette of succulent leaves and a flowering spike. At the upper left is a view of an individual flower, not yet opened.
MS 976: Ferraria crispa
270. Spider iris, Ferraria crispa Burm. Burman 1761, p. 199
MS 976, fol. 12r
Sheet size: 347 x 230 mm, folded at bottom to fit the volume
Ferraria crispa (Iridaceae) is a South African bulbous plant, whose six-
petalled flowers are highly variable in colour and patterning; though
there is no inscription on this folio, it was indexed in the manuscript
as a ‘Lilius’. The plant is fly-pollinated and attracts its pollinators with
a rotting smell, chastening the enthusiasm of many gardeners for
growing it. It was first described in 1633 as ‘Flos indicus e violaceo
fuscus’ by G.B. Ferrari (after whom it was later named) in a book
dedicated to Cesi’s friend and fellow Linceo Cardinal Francesco
Barberini (Ferrari 1633, pp. 168–71; comp. fig. 270); his specimen
had been raised by Tranquillo Romauli, and this drawing may have
been made from one of Romauli’s specimens. According to Ferrari,
the plant had been received in Paris from Dutch sources a few years
previously.
MS 976: Ferraria crispa
Drawing from Paper Museum, MS 976 Engraving from Ferrari, Flora (1633)
MS 976: orchids
307. Man orchid, Orchis anthropophorum All..; tongue orchid, Serapias vomeracea (Burm. f.) Briq.; anatomical details of other orchids
O. anthropophorum: L. 1753, II, 948 (as Ophrys anthropophora); All. 1785: II, 148. S. vomeracea: Burman 1770, p. 237 (as Orchis vomeracea); Briquet 1910–38, I, p. 378. Orchis italica: J.L.M. Poiret in Lamarck 1783–1817 , IV, p. 600. O. simia: Lamarck 1779, III, p. 507. O. militaris: Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 941
MS 976, fol. 47r
ANNOTATION: [UR] Orchid. var; [CR] orchid / Antropoph / feminæ; scribe: [UL] Orchid.’ Varij; [CL] Antropoph. Feminæ
This folio is filled with details of various orchids, most of which are anthropomorphic to some degree. At upper left is Orchis anthropophorum, a plant of grassland, thickets and arid fields through most of the Mediterranean and western Europe. ‘Orchis antropophora’ was a term coined by Fabio Colonna (1616, I, p. 320), and is paralleled by the plant’s vernacular names (e.g. man orchid, Homme pendu), for the divided median lobe and two long lateral lobes suggest a human figure. Two flowers are shown at natural size at (a–b) and an enlarged specimen at (e) (see key diagram); three other flowers are shown at (f, l–m), arranged to emphasise their resemblance to human figures. At top right (c, d) are two flowers of Serapias vomeracea, an orchid of scrubland, thickets and dry fields in all parts of Italy and throughout southern Europe generally.
At lower left (n), in pale wash, is an inflorescence of Orchis italica, a Mediterranean orchid found in dry fields in most of Italy except the alpine north. An individual flower in frontal and lateral views is at (g), (h) and (j), and two highly enlarged views of the gynoecium appear at (i) and (k).
At (o) and (p) are two flowers of O. simia (see 309); and at (q) and (r) are frontal and lateral views of the flower of O. militaris, an orchid of fields and woods throughout much of Europe, including northern and central Italy.
At lower right (s) is a magnified detail of part of an orchid gynoecium with the pollinia removed; the species is probably one of those shown to the left, but cannot be identified.
MS 976: prickly pear
330. Prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. 333. Prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.
MS 976, fol. 69r MS 976, fol. 71r
ANNOTATION: scribe: [UC] Immatura ANNOTATION: [CL ] [–] flos; scribe: [UC] Flores; [C] Mature
MS 976: oak
453. Common oak, Quercus robur L. Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 996
MS 976, fol. 180r
ANNOTATION: [UL] Quercus; scribe: [UC] Microscopio Spectat.
At upper left is a drawing of male catkins of Quercus robur (see 452),
with an enlarged terminal portion towards the lower left. The
rest of the illustrations concentrate on details of the developing
male flowers. At bottom left is the cluster of anthers shown as
the perianth opens, and at lower right the three terminal
flowers of the catkin. Across the centre of the sheet and at top
right are four views, at varying degrees of magnification, of the
anthers emerging into prominence as the perianth rolls back;
and second from top right is a group of anthers that have
opened and shed their pollen.
MS 976: conifers
408. Common juniper, Juniperus communis L.
Linnaeus 1753, II, p. 1040
MS 976, fol. 137r
ANNOTATION: [UL ] Juniper; scribe: [UL] Juniper; [CL] Ex Microscopio
This folio is devoted to Juniperus communis (Cupressaceae), a tree of meadows and dry woods throughout Italy, mostly in mountainous regions. A portion of a male branch is shown at (b) (see key diagram), and strobili at different degrees of enlargement at (c) and (l). At (h) is a highly enlarged view of a female strobilus, the ovules alternating with the scales; a comparable view of a specimen later in the season appears at (e). Highly magnified views of individual ovules appear at (i–k). Views of male flowers appear at (a), (d), (f) and (g), at different degrees of magnification, showing the globular pollen sacs clinging to the base of the horizontal stamens. Mature fruits are shown at (m) and (n).
Draft of a key diagram
a b d
c
e
f g
h ij
k l
m n
MS 976: palm flowers
443. European fan palm, Chamaerops humilis
L. MS 976, fol. 171r
ANNOTATION: [UR] Chamæriphes; [CR] ramulus / ex nro / horto / in
quo / tres in / medio / pilulæ; scribe: [UL] Chameriphes; [CR]
Ramulus ex nrō: horto / in quo tres in medio / pilulæ
This folio contains details of the flowers of Chamaerops humilis
(442). At upper left is the inflorescence, in a more general view
than on the previous folio; to the right are an individual flower,
two rachillae, and a magnified view of an opened anther. At
the centre of the sheet is a side view of the gynoecium; at
centre right, a stalk with rachillae; and at lower left an enlarged
view of a hermaphrodite flower with three carpels and five
stamens – abnormalities are frequent in all the floral parts of
Chamaerops. To lower right are magnifications of an anther
and two detached carpels.
MS 977: mostly algae
565. MS 977 fol. 133 verso. Plocamium
cartilagineum (L.) P.S. Dixon
Plocamium cartilagineum: L. 1753, II 1161, as Fucus
cartilagineus; P.S. Dixon 1967, 58.
ANNOTATION: none
This folio contains a drawing of Plocamium cartilagineum
(see 561) and, at top, a drawing which is probably
an enlarged detail of part of the frond shown below.
MS 977: mostly algae
480. Eel grass, Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile,
with red epiphytic alga, possibly
Cryptopleura ramosa (Huds.) L. Newton
Another drawing of Posidonia oceanica (see 479), this
time showing the flowers, with epiphytes attached at
the end of the leaves below the flowers. As usual,
the epiphytic algae cannot be identified – many
green and brown filamentous epiphytes need
microscopic examination for identification, and
filamentous brown algae can become green once
out of seawater for a prolonged period, especially in
a hot environment.
LITERATURE: Abdelahad et al. 2006, pp. 355–7
MS 977: mostly algae
495. Oyster thief, Colpomenia sinuosa (Mert.)
Derbès & Solier. F.K. Mertens in Roth 1806, III, p. 327 (as Ulva sinuosa); A. Derbès
and A.J.J. Solier in Castagne 1851, p. 95
MS 977, fol. 28r
This alga can be identified with reasonable certainty as Colpomenia
sinuosa (Heterokontophyta: Scytosiphonaceae). The larger
drawing shows four specimens of different size growing on a
rock; to the right is a detached specimen cut through. The alga
was first described by Mertens in 1806 in Spanish waters and
was classified as an Ulva, until Derbès and Solier made it the
type for their new genus Colpomenia in 1851. Like other
species that started their nomenclatural careers in Ulva, its
tissues are thin and translucent; the drawing fails to show this
translucence, unless the paler colour of the detached
specimen is an attempt to suggest it; and perhaps the slice
through this specimen is intended to indicate the thinness of
the tissue. The customary adult form is a hollow ball, which
attaches itself readily to a wide variety of substrates, including
other algae, and can be found in sheltered conditions from
tidal pools to subtidal zones.
Colpomenia sinuosa is one of a number of algae commonly called
‘oyster thief’: if the algae attach themselves to oysters and are
exposed at low tide, the hollow spheres fill with air, and when
the tide rises the algae float, carrying the oysters with them.
The term originated with C. peregrina (though opinion differs
as to whether that is a distinct species or a variety of C.
sinuosa), which appears to have been introduced from
American waters; it was initially confined to the Atlantic and
North Sea, at the beginning of the twentieth century causing
alarm in Breton oyster fisheries, but by 1939 had migrated into
the Mediterranean (see Dickinson 1963, pp. 73–4 for C.
peregrina; Blackler 1967; Cabioc’h et al. 1992, p. 64; Braune
2008, p. 156).
MS 977: mostly algae… but some marine invertebrates
515. Sea pen, probably Pennatula rubra
Pallas Pallas 1766, p. 368
MS 977, fol. 56r
This folio contains two drawings showing progressive stages in the
dissection of a sea pen. The anthozoan [J1] Pennatula rubra
(Cnidaria: Pennatulidae) has often been regarded as merely a
variety of P. phosphorea L., but is generally now treated as a
distinct species; it is depicted several times in MS 978 (712,
762–767). Sea pens are colonial hydroids, hence the lack of
internal organs. The individual polyps grow on the lateral
branches, some of which have been cut off near the stalk in
the upper drawing of this specimen.
This must be one of the messiest dissections ever committed to
paper, no doubt because of the problems of dealing with a
decomposing specimen of a soft-bodied animal without prior
knowledge of its internal anatomy. The first written account of
a dissection of a sea pen was published by John Ellis (1763);
he referred to ‘the trunk, in which we observe nothing but a
kind of yellowish bone, which takes up three parts of the cavity
… covered with a yellowish clear skin, which changes at each
end into a ligament’. This skeletal rod has here been extracted
and is shown at lower right. The artist clearly left space for
further details at right, but did not carry the drawings further.
[What a sea pen looks like, undissected]
MS 978: mostly fungi
659. Tripe fungus, Auricularia mesenterica
(Dicks.) Pers.
MS 978, p. 113
265 x 19 mm, laid down
ANNOTATION: [UL] Muci crista seu Tubauricula /
mucosa cristata multiplex; scribe: [C] Muci crista
seu Tubauricula Mucosa Cristata Multiplex
These two further specimens of Auricularia mesenterica
are mature, forming dense, imbricate clusters. In
both drawings the hairy, zoned upper surface is
depicted.
MS 978: mostly fungi
682. Broom rust fungus, probably Gymnosporangium clavariiforme (Wulfen) DC, on common savin, Juniperus sabina L.
MS 978, p. 145d
279 x 210 mm
ANNOTATION: [UR] christallinum aureum / myxophytum radiatū / sabinæ baccif. Partum; scribe: [UC] Christallinum Aureum / Mÿxophytum radiatum Sabinæ / Baccifer; Partum (‘golden crystalline slime-plant produced in rays from a fruiting Savin’)
The caption refers to a golden crystalline structure growing on savin, Juniperus sabina (Cupressaceae), and it thus shows an infection by a broom rust fungus, probably Gymnosporangium clavariiforme (Basidiomycota: Pucciniales: Pucciniaceae). This fungus has a two-host life-cycle, alternately affecting juniper, the primary host, and rosaceous trees such as hawthorn and pear (and thus it is also known as hawthorn rust). On the secondary host it produces normal rust-like symptoms of yellowish patches on the leaves and white sporangia on the fruit, but on the juniper it forms a ball with orange tongue- or horn-like tubes (telial horns), which produce the spores. These telial horns are much more gelatinous than the drawings suggest.
… but MSS 974 and 978 also depict insects
126. Mantis nymph, possibly Empusa pennata Thunb.
Thunberg 1815, p. 294 (as Gongylus pennata)
MS 974, fol. 112e
These anatomical details are of a mantis nymph, Empusa sp. (Mantodea: Empusidae), possibly E. pennata. At upper left is the head; at upper centre, two mid-section legs; at upper right, the front of the thorax with the front legs; and below, the hind part of thorax with the hind legs and the abdomen.
… and other curiosities
779. Human child, Homo sapiens L., with
anencephaly
Linnaeus 1758, I, p. 20
MS 978, p. 360
170 x 205 mm, engraving, laid down
This is the first of two folios to which have been pasted engravings of
an anencephalic child. This first engraving concentrates on the
head and does not display the entire body. Anencephaly is a
condition in which the larger part of the cerebrum fails to
develop. Portions of scalp and skull are also missing, yielding
the dissected look shown in the engraving; the eye sockets
can also be malformed, hence the frog-like eyes. A foetus with
this condition either is stillborn or dies shortly after birth.
The condition of anencephaly was not unknown to the medical
profession in Cesi’s time. A modern scholar, A.W. Bates, has
traced ten reported cases of anencephaly published in the
century before 1620 (Bates 2005, pp. 217–48); the boy with
the frog-like head (‘puer faciem ranae obtinens’) mentioned by
Liceti (Liceti 1616, p. 129) was no doubt anencephalic. The
first dissection of an anencephalic foetus was carried out in
1646, but a quarter-century passed before it was published
(Hofmann 1671).