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)

http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/fileadmin/images/research/pozzo/prospectus.pdf

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).