Explorations, voyages and discoveries

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With the end of the fifteenth century, journeys from Europe intensified and became longer, paving the way for the European states to explore and conquer the rest of the world. The discovery of a completely unknown land, America, and the opening of a sea route to Asia via the circumnavigation of Africa, bring back new plants and animals to Europe to be studied and used; it is the beginning of a colossal work of colonization and a transformation of life both in the West and in the countries reached. Botanic gardens are the places where new botanical species are brought for study and acclimatization and where they are applied to agriculture.


Mappa del mondo Map of the world, 1689 (from Wikimedia Commons)

Plants like corn, tomatoes and potatoes will be introduced into the old world. A true fashion will be born for the exotic that leads, especially in the upper social classes, to the consumption of tobacco, chocolate, coffee and tea. Sugarcane makes a sweetener like sugar available, but also rum. From an orchid of Mexico it is possible to produce the essence of vanilla, sweet and intoxicating. The cotton plantations provide a fibre that in European industries becomes a new lighter, washable fabric, to be dyed with the novel colours that have also come from the Americas, such as logwood for purple, indigofera for blue, and cochineal for red.

During the seventeenth century a sort of primitive cultural tourism, the Grand Tour, began to spread in the European upper classes. A trip to the cities and the most important places – from the artistic and historical point of view – of the old continent is considered essential for the cultural and human formation of the youth – almost a kind of practical education, an experiential juncture. In the eighteenth century this practice becomes a true institution, given its regularity – it is virtually a class duty. The preferred destination is Italy, a place of classical civilization, of the Renaissance, of beauty and a healthy climate. For Italians, European capitals become objectives in which to meet intellectuals with more advanced ideas or particular political models, such as the parliamentary one of the British.

Marsili lives for a long time, and with satisfaction, in Florence, Paris and London. He takes part in cultural life, introduces himself into local society, especially in England, and joins the Academies. He acquires books dedicated to the entire world, splendidly illustrated and filled with geographical tables and maps, with particular attention to travel and exploration reports; some of them remain at the Botanical Garden Library and some are transferred to Biblioteca Universitaria.

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Pierre Belon, Les obseruations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouuees en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & autres pays estranges... (1588)

A work of the French naturalist Pierre Belon, published in 1588 and therefore already antique at the time of its acquisition by Marsili. The text is dedicated to the strange and peculiar features of Greece, Asia, Judea, Egypt, Arabia and other foreign countries. The illustrations of unusual places or animals, such as the giraffe, are surrounded by handwritten notes – the sign of an ancient study.


Belon Representation of the city of Alexandria of Egypt contained in the work of Pierre Belon (from Phaidra)

Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Nauigatio ac itinerarium… in orientalem siue Lusitanorum India...(1599), Histoire de la nauigation… aux Indes Orientales… (1619)

The Dutchman J.H. Linschoten, after having worked for the Portuguese in their Goa estate in India, will print a work with which he will render public their sea route to Asia – via the circumnavigation of Africa – in detailed maps and numerous tables dedicated to the life of the peoples encountered. The text is present in the Marsili library in two different editions, one in Latin and one in French, with a different title but very similar tables.


LinschotenIllustration from the Nauigatio ac itinerarium… (from Phaidra)


Linschoten Plate from Histoire de la nauigation… (from Phaidra)

Simone Parlasca (edited by), Il fiore della granadiglia, ouero della passione di Nostro Signore Giesù Christo… (1609)

A work dedicated to the exotic plant of the passion flower, native to central-southern America. It is a text of religious nature where the passion flower is exalted in poetry and images, here coloured by hand, as a symbol of the Passion of Christ (crown of thorns, spear, nails, column, drops of blood).

Parlasca Parlasca Illustration and title page of Il fiore della granadiglia (from Phaidra)

Johan Nieuhof, Legatio Batavica ad magnum Tartariae Chamum Sungteium… (1668)

Notes of a Dutch embassy in China, with very fine tables on the landscapes and customs of a distant and fascinating people. Descriptions and reproductions of the Orient will intrigue and entrance, provoking a true fashion of chinoiserie – from porcelain, to lacquers, fabrics, garden elements, furnishings, and decorations in general. And for those who cannot afford the rare and expensive original, here are the fashionable objects produced by European artisans, which are also inspired by the images in the books.


Nieuhof One of the plates contained in the work of Johan Nieuhof (from Phaidra)

Antonio de Gouvea, Innocentia victrix (1671)

A very rare volume with the preface by the Jesuit Antonio de Gouvea (1575–1628), and particularly valuable for the woodblock print on double sheets of rice paper folded and glued one on top of the other, with text in three Chinese alphabets (ancient, modern and italics), the transliteration and translation in Latin, which contains several memorials presented by the Jesuits and the sentence with which the Emperor Kang-xi declared Christians free from any accusation against them, ordering the missionaries imprisoned in Canton to be set free. The book, before finding its way in the hands of Marsili, had belonged to Giacomo Recanati and then to Giacomo Soranzo, as documented by the ex-libris respectively and the handwritten note of possession at the head of the volume.

Richard Ligon, A true & exact history of the island of Barbadoes... (1673)

A work by Richard Ligon, a British author who left Britain in 1647 at the age of about sixty to seek his fortune in the new world. In the Barbados islands, to which this volume is dedicated, Ligon owned some sugar cane plantations. The work also contains geographical maps and has the typical appearance of English books.

Ligon Ligon Two plates from A true & exact history of the island of Barbadoes (from Phaidra)

Bartolomeo Martini, Mons Baldus naturaliter figuratus (1708)

Travel is undertaken not only to reach exotic and distant countries, but also to explore areas that, although close, offer elements of great interest. This manuscript testifies to the scientific research on the rich and peculiar flora of Monte Baldo, near Lake Garda. It is a work in 4 volumes bound in two tomes, with more than 200 painted tables by the apothecary Bartolomeo Martini.

Martini Martini Two drawings from Mons Baldus naturaliter figuratus (from Phaidra)

Amedée François Frezier, Relation du voyage de la mer du Sud aux côtes du Chily et du Perou... (1716)

The text illustrates the customs of South America, such as drinking maté, a stimulating drink prepared with the green or toasted leaves of Ilex paraguariensis, today considered the traditional colonial drink par excellence; this drinking custom also spread throughout Europe through that "fashion for the exotic" typical of the eighteenth century. The author, a French military engineer and explorer, made a long journey along the South American coast following the French army.

Engelbert Kaempfer, Histoire naturelle, civile, et ecclesiastique de l'empire du Japon... (1729)

A work in two volumes dedicated to Japan, published posthumously and based on the handwritten notes of the German doctor and naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer, here in a French version. The text, accompanied by numerous images that illustrate various aspects of the Japanese civilization of the seventeenth century, was of great importance since, at the time, the empire of Japan was as closed as possible to those who came from outside. Foreigners, in fact, had to stay only in specific areas and were not allowed to bring home information or drawings of buildings. The second volume is text only.



Frederick Calvert, Coelestes et inferi (1771)

A reissue of the curious Latin poem Coelestes et inferi by Frederick Calvert, seventh Lord Baltimore (1731–1771), descendant of that George to whom the creation of Maryland and the city of Baltimore are owed: the poem that is present in the collection also in the Italian translation is a sort of fantastical journey through history and ancient geography by way of a succession of names, characters, heroes and divinities of the history of ancient mythology, inserted between the verses with particular virtuosity. The engraved antiporta represents Time, a bearded old man who crowns Fame while History, a woman with a pen and paper, immortalises the noteworthy events in books. At the beginning and end of each book vignettes engraved with landscapes, scenes of ruins, capricci and monuments appear, smaller in scale also in the first drop-cap.

Pierre Sonnerat, Voyage a la nouvelle Guinée... (1776)

An account on the journey of the French naturalist and explorer Pierre Sonnerat in the Moluccas and the Philippines, which lasted almost a year. He was the first to describe some plant species (such as cloves and nutmeg) and birds, with particular attention to plants that could contribute to the economic development of the colonies. The delightful antiporta shows us the naturalist-explorer intent on portraying a parrot surrounded by friendly natives and specimens of animals to bring back home.