Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Krzysztof Pomian Collectors and Curiosities
Krzysztof Pomian Collectors and Curiosities
1
7
These are the essential features of the academic teaching programme of the
fine arts.
The Farserri collection did indeed justify both the enthusiasm of its
visitors who, like Goethe, felt themselves transported back to the splen-
dours of ancient times,
148
as well as the panegyrics lavished on irs creator
both during his lifetime and well after his death
14
9 Its 253 plaster casts,
which included ninety-three statues, thirty-three busts, twenty-nine heads,
sixty-three figured bas-reliefs, thirteen ornamental bas-reliefs and twenty-
two figurines,]j
0
brought Venice reproductions of the most famous works of
ancient statuary, such as the Laocoon, the Medicis' Ven11s, the Apollo,
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
213
Antinous and Torso from the Belvedere, the Wrestlers from the Uffizi, as
well as Satyrs, Fauns and Centaurs. The same collection also contained 178
terracott.a objects, several bronzes and marbles, along with copies of
of modern sculpture, most notably Michelangelo's Redeemer,
Bermm s Neptune and Giambologna's Mercury.l5l The 125 paintings which
also formed part of the collection were of but little interest. Nearly half of
were Flemish, and the rest were Italian, twenty-eight
re!Igwus pictures for the majority of these, and twenty-four
flowe.r, frurt and animal studies constituting rhe largest propor-
of the Flemish works. Eighteenth-century Venetian painting was not
I? favour, and there were only five specimens of it, two by Carlevaris and
smgle works by Lazzarini, Marco Ricci and Zuccarelli.t52
r_oughly forty years, beginning in the lifetime of Filippo Farsetri,
contiOUI?g under the watchful eye of his heir, Daniele Farsetti (1725-87),
and endmg under that of the latter's son, Anton Francesco, who left forSt
in 1804 after having sold the family collections,l53 the casts of
ancient statues constituted the most precious element of these collections
and played an important role in artistic life in Venice. In 1805 they
?Y the Empe:or of Austria and donated to the city's AcademyJH
The sigmficance of thrs role, to which the Farsetti collection owes its
reputation, stemmed from the fact that it functioned somewhat as an art
school,. in that. artists :-vere given the opportunity to study and copy the
works It contamed. This accounts for Zanetti's hope that there would be a
rebirth of the fine arts in Venice. Although this turned out ro be a forlorn
one very artist, Canova, did acquire at least part of his skill by
the Farsettt His very first works were bought by Filippo
Farserti and went to )Om the casts of the ancient works, at least two of
which, the Wrestlers and the Belvedere Antinous, he copied.t55
Zanetti was not the only one who sought both the reinsertion of the
'primitives', and even of works from the Middle Ages, into rhe history of art
and the. promotion of ancient statues to the level of models for contempor-
ary arttsts. Other people shared the same aims, including Maffei and
in the 1820s did they turn out to lead to incompatible
aesthetiC choiCes. When, in the closing decades of the eighteenth century,
colle.ctors to one or other of these aims, it was chiefly due to
the Impossibrllty of amassmg both paintings and antiquities with artistic
worth, except in the case of particularly wealthy individuals. In other words
thi_s concentration on a single aim was quite simply dictated by the prices of
ObjeCtS.
. Among the ,Venetian collections organized according to historical
dtc.tates, let us first .mention the one owned by John Strange (1732-99), a
Bmon who was resident there from 1774 to 1790, and whose links with a
whole group of Venetian naturalists we will come to later. Formed with the
214 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
help of Giovan Maria Sasso, whose services he employed, Strange's
collection of paintings was, according to Abbot della Lena, 'fa storia visibile
della Pittu1a Veneziana', the 'primitives' being especially well
represented.
1
'
7
Della Lena also talks of the 'Storia visibile detl'Arte' with
regard to the print collection belonging to Count Durazzo, the imperial
ambassador to Venice between 1764 and 1784.
158
Later on, in the 1780s,
Girolamo Manfrin (d. 1802), a nouveatt riche businessman, 'opened a
gallery comprising several rooms filled with paintings by the most
renowned artists, ranging from the very earliest painters to those of the
present day: he had hoped, providing death did not strike him too soon, to
display works from different periods according to their different schools
and dares, so that we might recognize at a glance the faults and splendours
of this art throughout the different periods.' m The aim once more was
therefore to make the history of arr a visible one.
A similar aim appears to have been behind the activities of Giovanni de
Lazara who, from 1776 onwards, set about building up a collection of around
2000 prints arranged chronologically
160
It is, however, the sole collection of
this type that we know of outside Venice. In Padua, on the other hand, there
was obvious interest in the 'primitives', as their works were to be found
there in several collections, most notably in that of the Capodilistas.
161
The
same was true of Vicenza, witness the legacies of Paolina de Porto Godi
(1825) and Carlo Vicentini dal Giglio (1834),
162
and of Rovigo, where
Bartoli describes, though wrongly attributes, a painting by Quirizio de
Murano in the Campanari collection.
16
3 It is in Verona, despite rhe presence
of a large number of their works in that town, chat the 'primitives' seem,
however, to have aroused the least interest in collectors in the last decades
of the eighteenth century. We should add, however, that towards 1820, the
Canossas' gallery, which was apparently arranged in historical order, did
contain a certain number, as did the gallery, newly formed by Francesco
Caldana, which housed 'a set of examples of the school of Verona from its
beginnings to its decline'.
164
The majority of the collections of antiquities which were to be found in
the Venetian Republic during the eighteenth century were not expressions
of taste, and owed their existence not ro a specific aesthetic viewpoint but
rather to that curiosity which is peculiar to historians. The minority did,
however, include the collections of engraved stones belonging to Joseph
Smith and Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder, of whom more later, while that
which belonged to Girolamo Zulian ( 1730-95 ), a Venetian patrician, who
most notably served as his city's ambassador to Rome and Constantinople,
could without hesitation be considered to be neo-classical. During his time
in Rome, Zulian had amassed around seventy ancient vases, which were
later joined by engraved stones, marbles and bronzes, all of which were
placed in the archaeological museum of the Biblioteca Marciana in 1795, in
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
215
accordance with his will.
165
These objects were important because they
belonged to the same collection as the plaster casts of Canova's statues, to
which a special room in the Zulian palace in Padua had been given over.l66
There were, in addition, several original pieces by this artist, and their
number would certainly have been greater had their price not soared far
beyond Zulian's reach.
167
It is this integration of ancient and contemporary
art, characterized by considerable admiration of Canova, who became his
protege during his very first stay in Rome, that makes Zulian an example of
the neo-classical collecror.
Alongside a historical approach to painting, which embraced rhe work of
the 'primitives', Zanetti showed a tendency to promote the aesthetic
qualities of ancient sculpture, henceforth considered as the only model of
perfect beauty. In general, however, these traits were rarely reflected in the
same collection, although they did both surface in the one owned by
Tomasso degli Obizzi (1750-1803). This was kept in his Catajo castle near
Padua and subsequently, in accordance with his will and after numerous
adventures, fell into the hands of the Habsburg archdukes, a fate which led
to its dispersal.
168
A man of many interests, especially in the fields of
numismatics, history and the natural sciences, Tomasso degli Obizzi, who
was in correspondence with several scholars, artists, collectors and dealers,
including P. Arduino, A. Fortis, L. Lanzi, T. Correr, ]. Morelli and A.
Canova, to name but the best known, was certainly a most unusual
individual. Sometimes portrayed as a feudal lord completely behind the
times, content with managing his inheritance and with no apparent tastes
of his own,
16
9 he has recent! y been accorded a place in the museological
avant-garde of his time
170
In the absence of the monograph he so much
deserves, we will simply give a few facts here which it would be difficult to
dispute.
While it cannot be denied that Tomasso degli Obizzi did inherit
numerous objects which he included in his collection, he did make some
additions to ir of his own, devoting, in fact, much of his rime to enriching
and shaping it. Even before 1776 he had received a sarcophagus, complete
with mummy, from Edward Wortley Montagu,t
71
and he went on ro
organize his own excavations in search of inscriptions,
172
and made several
purchases. Letters sent to him by Giovan Maria Sasso show him to have
been in contact with other dealers in art and curios, in particular Abbot della
Lena,
173
and as we shall see, these were not his on! y partners. Out of this
great acquisitive drive sprang a mighty collection, comprising more than
100 statues, twelve torsos, 182 busts, thirty heads, more than thirty urns,
sixty-four bas-reliefs and 125 inscriptions. In addition, there were fifteen
chests containing minor objects, including several thousand medals, cameos
and rings, lamps, fibulae, vases and ivory, bronze and alabaster staruettes. 174
Alongside these were objects associated with Christian worship
216 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
such as candlesticks, crosses, censers, reliquaries, sometimes complete with
relics, altar cloths, ciboria, chalices, as well as around 200 musical instru-
ments, armour, keys, iron gauntlets, horse visors, ancient pistols, halberds,
swords, rifles, lances, hunting horns and so on. Nor should we forget to
mention the paintings - including 104 portraits of famous men - the
engravings, vases of porcelain and various different types of ceramic, and
natural objects.m
The collection established by Tomasso degli Obizzi only reflects
encyclopaedic ambitions on the surface, and does not bear the slightest
resemblance to a Kunst- und WunderkammerY
6
In actual fact, it was
basically the collection of a historian interested in the relics of the past, not
unlike that of Teodoro Correr, of whom more later. Including it in a survey
of different attitudes to art has nonetheless not been an entirely pointless
exercise, even if we do return ro it when we come tO discuss hisrory, as it
illustrates the meeting of the 'primitives' and ancient sculpture, brought
about by a new esteem for medieval objects (easily discerned among those
listed above) which in no way diminished the interest in antiquities. Thus it
is that the medals belonging to Tomasso degli Obizzi dated not only from
ancient times but also from every subsequent period, including the late
Empire, Byzantium, Venice and the Venetian Republic, and continuing
right up to modern times.
177
It will become apparent later on that at the end
of the eighteenth century a series of this kind was by no means uncommon.
The presence of a fairly large number of works by Tuscan and north
Italian 'primitives', some of which dated back to the fourteenth century,
among the Catajo paintings was uncommon, however.
178
It is not known
whether they were purchased by Tomasso degli Obizzi himself or whether
he inherited them. Annoying though this gap in our knowledge may be, it is
of no great consequence. Far more important is the fact that they were put
on display, as we know from the catalogue written by Filippo Aurelio
Visconti, who visited Carajo in 1799 or a short rime afterwardsY
9
Elsewhere, in the castle's church, where the altar was adorned by a
Madonna 'alia Greca', were to be found '23 quadri di pittura Greca incassati
nel muro'.tso Whether these were recent icons or far older pictures painted
on gold is only rarely specified in the inventories. We can therefore
conclude that Tomasso degli Obizzi readily tolerated this type of painting,
as he would have been at complete liberty to rid himself of them had he
wished. Moreover, we know that he was interested in illuminated manu-
scripts and the work of the 'primitives' as late as 1802, when Sasso,
seemingly in reply to a question, explained to him: 'These old paintings by
Vivarino are of more value to art historians than to dealers. Even so, they
please me since my mind i ~ not constantly taken up by business but often
turns to pleasure and to the love of art.'
181
In 1787 Tomasso degli Obizzi
offered to exchange his old paintings for some works belonging to Gavin
Collectors, Natmalists and Antiquarians
217
Hamilton,
182
while in 1795, he charged Canova to look for ancient marbles
for him in Rome, and more especially to buy pieces which had belonged ro
Piranesi
183
In short, his interests in rhe 'primitives' and in antiques surfaced
at the same time, and he made room for both in his collection, the former
serving as reminders of the past history of art, the latter as incarnations of
the beauty intended ro inspire both present and future generations.
7.2 OBJECTS FROM THE NATURAL WORLD
Living and dried plants, minerals, fossils, shells, specimens of fauna,
machines and scientific instruments: before 1750 the collectors interested in
such objects in the Venetian Republic could be counted on the fingers of one
hand. After this date, however, their numbers began to grow, reaching over
sixty in the last decades of the century, no other group of collectors ever
increasing at such a pace. What is more, this is taking into consideration
only those who occupied centre stage, for a further cohort remained in the
wings because of the modesty, and thus invisibility of their collections, just
as the case had been for the owners of small collections of coins and medals
a century earlier. This growth in the interest in natural hisrory was marched
by rhe definitive end to its monopoly by doctors and pharmacists. By the
end of rhe century these accounted for rough! y only a quarter of all
collectors of natural objects, new recruits now being drawn mostly from
high society or from the ranks of the clergy, some of whom were actually
professional naturalists. They devoted most of their time to collecting,
preserving, studying and describing natural objects, activities which were
henceforth accorded a recognized and respected social role, just as the role
of antiquary had been a century before.
Natural history, sociableness and politics
Being a naturalist involved spending most of one's rime examining nature,
either by carrying our experiments in a laboratory or by travelling to see
things in their natural habitat and surroundings. A genuine boran y
dilettante collected plants wherever he believed he would find unknown
specimens, which is why Jean-Franc;ois Seguier (1703-84) covered the
length and breadth of the area around Verona, dogged by exhaustion and
appalling weather, braving slippery and vertiginous paths on the edges of
precipices, as well as the hostility of shepherds who suspected him of
indulging in dangerous magic practices. As the seasons changed, return
visits were also made to these spots by Seguier, in order to identify species
218
Collectors, Natm'alists and Antiquarians
which flowered at different timesl
84
Similarly, two geologists, Giovanni
Arduino (1714-95) and Alberto Fortis (1741-1803) scaled steep mountain
sides in order to determine the composition of the rock and bring back maps
or sketches, as well as specimens of stones, minerals, fossils and, in their
notes, observations on the lifestyle of the local inhabitants, especially in the
case of journeys to distant parts. In short, as Fortis put it, 'naturalists ... are
today's errant knights.' IS) More often than not, these botanical or geological
excursions were not undertaken alone. In 1737 Seguier collected plants in
the company of Giacomo Spada (1680-1749), the priest of Grezzana in the
Verona region, and of Giovanni Antonio Cavazzini, a 'speziale' in Verona,
while in later years he was assisted by Caspar Bordoni and Giulio Cesare
Moreni, yet another Veronese pharmacist.
186
In 1764 a doctor and owner of
a printing press in Verona, by the name of Antonio Turra 1730-96),
organized a plant collecting expedition on Monte Baldo, ":Jth Marco
Guiseppe Cornaro (1727-79), then Bishop of Torcello, and appomted to the
see of Vicenza in 1767.18
7
In 1785 Fortis and Giovanni Battista Gazola
(1757-1834) from Verona even went as far as to take a number of ladies
with them into the mountains in search of fossils.
188
For nature had become fashionable, and botany was now a topic of
conversation in the salons.
1
8
9
Indeed, the 'vi!legiature', ridiculed by
Goldonit9o as periods of futile amusement, also presented opportunities for
collecting natural objects in the nearby countryside,
191
discussing geological
topicsi92 and writing works on natural history.
19
.
3
new of
nature was thus gained against a background of soCial mtercourse, wh1le the
collections, pieces of fresh information, discoveries and hypotheses
resulted from travels far away or excursions into the local countrys1de
provided subjects for both oral and written exchanges. patterns of these
exchanges formed the basis of the networks along whKh travelled
texts and objects, and which we shall be discussing a little later.
knowledge was all the more important in that a fair proportion of the soCial
elite of the Venetian Republic saw natural history as much more than .a
mere distraction or the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, even if thts
aspect never disappeared. It had gained an almost political character, seen as
a means of improving living conditions and fighting prejudices, and would
now be required to play both an economic and an educative role.. . ..
The best proof of this is the title of the journal launched by Gnselm1 m
1764: Gioma!e d'Ita!ia spettante aile scienze natura!i, e principa!mente
al!'Agricoltura, a!l'Indttstria e a! Comercio. This that while never
completely dissociated from medicine, the natural sciences were henceforth
bound particularly tightly to the production of goods. Their to
specific individuals and, in particular, to their health, tended to fall mto
second place, the emphasis being put instead on their role in the increase of
public contentment. Accordingly, a special place was now reserved for the
Collector.r, NatMalists and Antiqttarians 219
narural sciences on the map of knowledge, which accounts for their gradual
restructuring, where botany was forced to cede its dominant position to
mineralogy, which itself was steadily changing into geology, while zoology,
previously pursued by only a very few, aroused increasing interest. Here
were both new disciplines and new objects, including the cultivation of
plants, the rearing of animals, peat bogs, thermal springs, the riches of the
subsoil. With the waning attraction of the exotic came a new interest in
what Ia y at one's very own doorstep
1
94
In the preface introducing his natural history of the Euganean Hills to
the public, Antonio Carlo Dondi Orologio (1751-1801) wrote: 'We uavel in
foreign lands yet do not know our own. Foreigners come and collect all
kinds of fossils in our hills and yet we refuse to let ourselves be persuaded
that a journey amongst our own people, in what we might refer to as our
own home, could be useful, interesting and honourable.' It is worth pointing
out the theme of patriotism here, as well as the triple benefits, economic,
intellectual and social, he sees in travelling in one's own country. The
author emphasizes that such advocacy in no way represents the con-
demnation of travel to distant parts.
I simply regret that nobody should yet have had the useful idea of
assembling exclusively the products of our hills which offer very fine and
varied examples of every sort, and of classifying them carefully and
methodically in order to form a Gabinetto Nazionale. Several learned
naturalists have, at various times, collected certain specific objects, but
solei y because they were attracted by the distinctive features of a thing
considered for its own sake or else because it matched a theory they
adhered to; never in order to form rhe complete collection we need so
much
1
9'
This void was filled neither by rhe naturali:.,ts who studied the products of
the Euganean Hills, nor even by John StraP,se, ro whom nonetheless 'we
owe a great deal, as all that he has succeeded in can be viewed by the public
in our Museum of Natural Hisrory !that is, in the former Vallisnieri
collection]; and it is the on! y collection I of '"'bjects J from our mountains
which exists today.' Dondi Orologio therefore gave himself the task of
'forming a Gabinetto Naziona!e with a well-ord.::red collection of specimens
from them [the mountains] and of devoting a work of natural history to
them'. The outline of this book begins wid-; a description of the state of
agriculture in the Euganean Hills. Only then does the author turn to
lithology, dwelling on certain features which could be ma1-: profitable, such
as the basalt columns and thermal springs.
1
96 Here, tlk epistemic and
utilitarian viewpoints are completely indissociable.
Here we have an illustration of the change in attitude of the collectors of
220 Collectors, NaturaliJtJ cmd Antiquariam
natural objects in the latter half of the eighteenth century, most of whom, as
we shall see, were interested less by objects from faraway places than by
those to be found in the immediate vicinity and who planned their
collections accordingly. These therefore acquired a role of some importance,
for providing they were exhaustive and methodical, they represented an
inventory of the area's resources and made their use a practical proposition.
Hence Dondi's call for a 'Gabinetto Nazionale' and his insistence on the
need for including in it every single thing to be found in a particular region.
Hence also the inclusion in a work on mineralogy of descriptions of the
agriculture and of the thermal springs. Hence, lastly, the considerable
degree of passion which animated arguments on topics at first glance as
unexciting as the presence or absence in a particular area of substances
likely to be of economic interest.
Ten years after the publication of Dondi's book, and four years after his
Saggio de littologia ettganect which contained a method of classifying
minerals from the Euganean Hills placed in the 'Gabinetto Nazionale' the
author was ro form,
197
a certain Paduan abbot, Basile Terzi, published a
short work in which he claimed to have discovered various types of natural
resources, in particular marble quarries and coal seams.L
98
A layman's study
of geology, this work was immediately criticized in an anonymous work,
(written in fact by Fortis), to which Terzi replied citing Buffon and
Valmont de Bomare as his authorities
199
It was at this point that Dondi,
whose works had not even been mentioned, descended into the arena in
order to show that not even a single genuine marble quarry, let alone a coal
seam, could possibly be found in the Euganean Hills, and that Terzi knew
not the slightest thing about science, borrowed its terms without under-
standing them and indulged in speculation in matters where only experi-
ence could decide2
0
We will leave out the eight [Jic!] letters in which Terzi rebutted these
accusations, along with those of Fortis who, meanwhile, had launched three
more scathing attacks on the poor abbot, characterizing him as a paladin of
obscurantism
20
L However, we should underline the significance in cultural
terms of such controversy, in that it proved that with this new interest in
natural resources great attention was paid to the interpretation of these
signs which were constituted by minerals found in a specific region and
brought together in a collection. The debate concerned the legitimacy of
coming to conclusions as to the geological structure of a particular region
and the resources harboured in its subsoil simply by looking at the
landscape and specimens collected from it- Terzi's method- rather than by
calling on people with specific knowledge in the interpretation of natural
objects and in the language needed to describe them. In other words, Dondi
and Fortis defended a profession, that of the naturalist-geologist, which was
gradually becoming established, and whose members alone were supposed
Collectors, NaturaliJtJ and Antiquariam 221
to possess the knowledge required to make pronouncements as to what lay
beneath the surface of the earth, including any eventual natural resources.
True, these subjects concerned everyone, but it was for precisely this reason
that they needed to be dealt with competently.
Ir is because the natural sciences touched on matters concerning every-
body that they formed pan of the general culture, and as such needed to be
accessible to the public. The birth of the profession of naturalist therefore
went hand in hand with efforts to publicize results obtained by science,
along with its terminology and methodology. The propaganda effort
undertaken by the men of the Enlightenment, for this is what it amounted
to, made use nor only of books and journals, bur also of various forms of
extra-curricular teaching, as we can judge from the prospectus of a course on
natural history which Don Giovanni Serafino Volta (1754-1842), one of the
most dominant figures on the naturalist scene in Verona, offered to the
nobility and citizens of the town in 1790.2
2
Divided into three pans, each corresponding to the mineral, vegetable
and animal kingdoms, the forty lessons making up this course were
intended ro explain to the audience the methods and instruments used in
chemistry. They also aimed ro provide a grounding in mineralogy, botany,
and zoology, with a view to expounding the Linnaean sytem, Bergmann's
theory of selective attraction and Scheele's discoveries, as well as making
people aware of the new chemical terminology used by Moreau, Fourcroy,
Berthollet and Lavoisier. In addition to all this, there were all the possible
applications of science to be discussed, and Volta accordingly dealt with the
methods of beer- and wine-making and with that of remedying the
deficiences of the former; with spirits of wine and their uses 'nella chimica
farmaceutica, ed economica; with vegetable matter and its 'preparazioni
/armaceutiche per !a materia medica, ed economiche pe1 l'arte della
Tintura'; with the 'fondamenti de!l'Ornitologia, e della cognizione pratica
dei Volatili' and so on
203
Once again, the epistemic and utilitarian
viewpoints are indissociable.
Volta did not mention collections of natural objects in his course
programme, yet as the author of a catalogue of a museum containing
minerals, petrified objects, a herbarium with 1500 plants, 200 blocks of
different woods, exotic fruit and a very complete series of shells,
204
he was
already involved in the work which was to lead in 1796 to the publication of
the Ittiolitologia veroneJe, which we will be discussing later on. It is thus
apparent that not only did Dondi Orologio combine, in explicit fashion, the
study of the natural sciences and the building of collections, but Volta did
roo, together with all the other naturalists we will be dealing with in the
following pages. It comes as no surprise that the new role accorded to the
natural sciences in the Venetian Republic in the second half of the
eighteenth century led to the purpose of collections being defined in a
222 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
similar fashion. Their role henceforth was to promote knowledge of nature
and contribute to a more efficient use of the republic's natural resources,
though it remains to be seen to what extent these ideas were applied and
what influence they had on both the actual contents of collections and the
criteria employed in their classification.
Plants: a new approach
The tradition of private botanical gardens, which began in the sixteenth
century, if not at the end of the fifteenth, lasted throughout the whole of the
eighteenth century. The most famous garden was most probably the one
created by Filippo Farsetti around 1750 in his Santa Maria di Sala villa,
which was maintained by his descendants until 1804
20
5 This 'co!lezione de
Piame F.sotiche e Indigene'
206
owed its reputation both to its richness and to
the fact that botany lovers were allowed access to it. Naming a new species
after its founder, Antonio Turra wrote that the Farsetti garden was a
'garden whose perfection surpasses the means of a simple individual,
adorned with countless plants, especially exotic ones, some even originating
from South and North America, a garden always open to lovers of
botany'.
207
ln Venice, around 1760, Giacomo Morosini, a patrician and well-
known collector of minerals and fossils, who was in contact with the best
naturalists of the day, owned a botanical garden which he seems to have
inherited from Giovanni Francesco Morosini (1658-1739).
208
A third
botanical garden survived the whole of the eighteenth century in Venice
despite several ups and downs. It belonged to Lorenzo Patarol ( 167 4-1727)
who 'explored the Venetian lagoons studying all their plant species,
bringing back examples from every corner and planting them in his garden,
which he tended with his own hands'. Bequeathed to Count Sebastiano
Rizzo, the garden subsequently passed into the hands of his son, Francesco,
who entirely renovated it. 'He now acquires very numerous series of plants,
almost all from foreign climes, sparing no thought for his purse; since the
Tournefort method is no longer appropriate, he has abandoned it in favour
of the more modern Linnaean one.'
20
9
During his travels in the Venetian Republic in 1736, Pier Antonio
Micheli, a Florentine botanist, visited several small botanical gardens in
Verona.
210
Nine years later, Seguier mentioned the garden owed by Maffei
who, he said, wished to create another one, devoted to botany, in the
courtyard of the Accademia Filarmonica, in close association with the
Museo Lapidario.
211
Between 1767 and 1779, in nearby Vicenza, Bishop
Marco Giuseppe Cornaro, already owner of a botanical garden in his
Merlengo villa, possessed a second one, which Antonio Turra was charged
to look after.
212
When Goethe stopped over in Vicenza in 1786,213 this
Collectors, Natttralists and Antiqttariam 223
garden was no longer in existence, but lists were published in 1794 and in
1802 of plants represented in a Vicenza botanical garden owned by Count
Antonio Maria Thiene.
214
Small botanical gardens were also to be found in
Chioggia in the final decades of the eighteenth century and opening years of
the nineteenth, these being cared for by Bartolomeo Bottari ( 1732-89),
Giuseppe Fabris (1735-94) and Giuseppe Vianelli ( 1720-1803 ),m all three
doctors and at the same time naturalists. The same was true of Vegliano, in
the province of Padua, where the parish priest, Girolamo Romano (1765-
1841), was a namral history dilettante,
216
and of Padua itself, where
Elisabetta Milesi Colombo cultivated rare exotic plants.
217
Lastly, the Iicea
in Verona acquired a botanical garden in 1798, similar gardens also
springing up in Brescia in 1808, and in Venice, Treviso, Vicenza and
Bergamo in 1810.218
It was, however, the herbaria and the descriptions of flora which best
illustrated the spread of interest in plants and the increased knowledge of
them, not to mention the new independence of botany from pharmacy and
medicine. This does not mean that there were but few doctors and
pharmacisrs among the ranks of plant lovers, nor that the herbaria they
composed, such as that of the Veronese doctor, Sebastiana Rotari ( 1667-
1742),
219
and an anonymous Erbario Farmacetttico of 1730,
220
departed
from the tradition of the medicinal herbarium. The majority of herbaria and
descriptions of flora, however, were not so much intended as a guide to the
makers of remedies, but rather as inventories of the plants growing in a
given region, where their uses, including their therapeutic properties, would
perhaps also be given a mention. Thus, a posthumous work by Gian-
Girolamo Zannichelli described the plants growing on the beaches near
Venice,
221
Seguier's books dealt with those found around Verona, and more
particularly on the Monte Baldo and Lake Garda,
222
Francesco Roncalli
(1692-1763), a doctor from Brescia, included an alphabetical list of plants
found locally in one of his works
223
and Giuseppe Agosti (171 5-86), a Jesuit,
listed those growing in Belluno.
224
Likewise, Bottari and Fabris devoted
their herbaria ro plants from Chioggia,
225
while Turra gave over part of his
to ones from Vicenza,
220
so that although this series of names does not
claim to be exhaustive, it does show that the Venetian botanists managed to
cover every inch of the territory during the course of the eighteenth
century, and demonstrates the size of the inventory of local flora drawn up
as they worked.m
Far more than simple inventory-taking was involved, however. As time
went by, plants were placed in alphabetical order only when brief catalogues
were drawn up,
228
more methodical systems of classification taking over
otherwise. In this respect, Gian-Giacomo Zannichelli (1695-1759), who
justified at some length his preference for the alphabetical order in the
preface to his father's book, and with frequent references to Tournefort, still
224 Collectors, Natttralists and Antiquariam
belonged to the old school, something to do, perhaps, with his profession as
pharmacist.229 For his part, Seguier followed the method devised by
Tournefort- who was, in fact, well known in the region
2
3- with Antoine
Jussieu's corrections,m - but by the last decades of the century, even if
herbaria in the style of Bauhin could still be found,m the Linnaean system
was definitely gaining in popularity. This seems due to Turra's efforts,
more than anyone else's, for although his herbarium entitled Vegetabilia
Italiae indigena methodo Linnaeano disposta ... remained in manuscript
form,2ll his Florae italicae prodromus, written towards the mid-1760s,
although on! y published in 1780,23
4
was widely read and established its
author's reputation.m We know of one copy bearing annotations by
someone who collected plants with him near Vicenza and wrote down the
places where they grew, their similarities and differences and changes in
their appearance according ro the rime of year. A second copy of the same
work, a gift by the author to Anton Carlo Dondi Orologio, who added 5 30
names of plants ro the 1718 it already contained, later became the property
of the priest of Vegliano, Don Girolamo Romano.
236
In Turra's book plants
are classified according to the 'sexuale Linnaei systema', which was to be
found at the end of the century not only in publications by naturalists but
even in notes kept by dilettantes, such as the Principii di storia naturale by a
Veronese priest, Luigi Zoppi (1765-1811),237 and other similar manu-
scripts.
The replacement of alphabetical order, which was not really an order at
all but merely a form of layout, by a methodical approach to plants and,
within this, of one system by another, was first and foremost a change in
approach. Whenever one particular method dominates plant study, certain
organs are given more importance, in this case, the visible ones, since both
Tournefort and Linnaeus demanded that the microscope should not be used
when identifying the features which determined the position of each plant
in the system. Tournefort considered that it was the type of flower which
determined which species a plant belonged to, while for Linnaeus it was the
'fructification parts', which required a much closer examination of the plant.
Both methods therefore required the naturalist to learn to look at plants in
such as way as to fasten upon the pertinent characteristics and ignore the
rest. They also needed to learn the language necessary to define the position
of each plant in both a pertinent and an unambiguous way
238
The
disciplined and selective way botanists following in the footsteps of
Tournefort and Linnaeus looked at plants, as well as the language, both
concise and precise, they employed, could equally be applied to animals,
minerals and fossils. Accordingly, botany provided a thorough grounding in
the natural sciences in the eighteenth century, a time when many
naturalists who started out with an interest in plants later turned to other
branches of science.
Collector.r, Natttralists and Antiquarians 225
Zoological collections were far rarer than botanical gardens and herbaria
because at that time techniques only existed for conserving the hard parts of
animals. This was such an important problem for naturalists of the period
that in the catalogue of animals in his Zoologia Adriatica Abbot Giuseppe
Olivi ( 1769-96) made a distinction between the 'objects which naturally
remain in a good state of preservation, that is, they posess solid integu-
ments' and the 'transient and naturally perishable objects'.
2
l
9
As a conse-
quence, zoological collections tended to concentrate on the insects of a
particular region, as in the case of Turra's
240
or, going on to the nineteenth
century, the one owned by one Benedetto da Campo in Verona, who
'formed a rich and choice collection of almost all the insects of our province
and classified and arranged them so well that one could wish tO see them
remain intact for many years'.
241
Some collectors, such as Abbot Dorigny in
Verona
242
or, at the close of the century,]. Lambioi in Belluno,2
43
restricted
themselves to butterflies, and G. S. Volta's publication of a book devoted to
these creatures, with advice as to their capture and preservation,
244
gives
reason to think that these cases were by no means uncommon.
Two higher forms of animal life were also represented in collections: the
one formed by Fra Angelo Ziliani in the Santo Convent in Padua, and which
we have already mentioned, contained quite a large number of birds.
Embalmed by Fra Angelo, these birds mostly came from the local
countryside.
245
The second higher life form consisted of marine specimens,
which could be studied and described immediately after capture, although
collections only included the solid parts, such as the skeletons and shells.
246
Following the pioneering work by Vitaliano Donari,
247
several naturalists,
all from Chioggia, carried out research into the vegetable and animal
specimens to be found in the lagoon and Adriatic. Hence the claim by Abbot
Stefano Chiereghin (17 45-1820) to have gathered 1772 in the lagoon and
the Gulf of Venice, and the nine volumes of drawings of aquatic animals he
left, along with three volumes of text
248
Hence also the career of Abbot
Giuseppe Olivi who, after his apprenticeship with Chioggian naturalists of
the old school, and in particular with Abbot Fabris, with whom he formed a
marine natural history collection, collaborated with Fortis, Nicolo de Rio
and Dondi Orologio, publishing four years before his premature death the
Zoologia Adriatica, the fruit of seven years of toil. This work is a very good
illustration of the twin epistemic and utilitarian approaches which domi-
nated natural sciences at the time, for while it is an example of the most
advanced research of the day, taking the Linnaean system as its basis in
order to rectify its mistakes, fill in any gaps and accommodate the fauna of
the Adriatic, it also includes passages on the regional economy
24
9
Before turning our attention to inanimate natural objects, let us spare
a few lines for the collections of scientific instruments, which both multiplied
and diversified, reflecting the growing importance of observation
226 Co/leeton-, Natttralists and
and experimentation, The largest of these collections was to be found at the
University of Padua, where Giovanni Poleni ( 1683-1761 ), professor of
experimental philosophy since 1739, as well as being an antiquary and
architect, set up a display of machines for physics experiments/
50
a display
mentioned in the guides to the town, along with the astronomical
observatory with its telescopes, spyglasses and clocks,
251
Private collections
of scientific instruments could be found in Brescia, where one had been in
the possession of the Martinengo de Barco family since the seventeenth
century,
252
in Verona, where G, R Gazola owned a physics museum, which
he later gave to the !iceo,
253
and lastly in Venice, where Abbot Antonio
Traversi had amassed in his college a considerable number of machines to
study mechanics, mathematics, aerometry, hydrostatics, magnetism and
'mechanical and artificial' electricity, as well as astronomical instruments
254
The marine bodies on the mountains
Plants, animals and machines were however present only in a minority of
collections of natural objects in the Venetian Republic of the eighteenth
century, This particular brand of collector was actually chiefly interested in
minerals and fossils, and those without any at all were extremely few and
far between. It was not hard to come by them, as the region, especially the
hills and mountains near Verona and Vicenza, was known for the variety of
its rock types and for the presence of several deposits of fossils, the most
famous of which was and still is that of Bolca, where fossilized fish in an
often amazing state of preservation can be found
255
Here, more than
elsewhere, nature itself presented the curious with the task, if one can put it
that way, of accounting for the nature and origin of these foreign bodies,
these being directly linked to the origin of the mountains. Nothing
illustrates the change in attitude towards nature in the eighteenth-century
Venetian Republic better than the history of the solutions put forward to
this problem, part of the history of mineral and fossil collections,
The first generation of Venetian collectors interested in a scientific way
in minerals and fossils was made up of Scipione Maffei and Sebastiano
Rotari from Verona, Antonio Vallisnieri from Padua and Lorenzo Patarol
from Venice, all of whom we have already come across, as well as
Giambattista della Valle, a pharmacist from Vicenza. In 1708 Maffei sent
Vallisnieri a case of 'stones' containing fish from Bolca, and this consign-
ment was not the only one,
256
Eight years later, and again for Vallisnieri,
Rotari drew up a description of the site_
257
The fossilized fish collections
belonging ro these two Veronese certainly date from this period.
258
For his
part Patarol, again a collector of minerals and fossils and a friend of
Vallisnieri, wrote in a letter of 177.4 that his friend della Valle had gone to
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiqttariam 227
Bolca three times and that at that spot he 'had amassed a considerable
number of fine objects, including around 150 fish, so beautiful, large and
well preserved that they would never be outshone by a gallery belonging to
a noble prince,'
25
9 This awakening of the interest in fossils followed a
lengthy dispute between Europe's leading scholars concerning the 'theory
of the Earth' and in particular the Flood,
260
and resulted in its being fought
on less speculative ground, Vallisnieri's book, published in 1721,
participated in this dispute and did indeed deal with the Flood, but its
central problem concerned the presence of marine bodies in the
mmmtains.26t This opened up a new debate on this subject in the Venetian
Republic, and one which was to flourish there right up to the end of the
century,
Each of these five collections had a very different fate. In 1755, for
instance, the della Valle one became part of the University of Padua's
Natural History Museum
2
(>2 itself built up around the Vallisnieri collection,
The Patarol collection was purchased by Tomasso degli Obizzi,
261
while the
one formed by Maffei ended up among Seguier's possessions after the death
of its owner, bound for Nfmes_ Over the years it had been substantially
added to,
264
and was just one of a whole group of Veronese collections, This
group included one Rotari had built up and which had, at least until 1820,
remained in the same family,
26
\ another formed by Andrea Gazola (1695-
1776), one owned by Giulio Cesare Moreni since 1755 and the collection
which had belonged to Giacomo Spada.
266
Spada, who contributed in 1737 to
the debate on marine life forms, drawing on Vallisnieri's book in an attempt
to quash the notion of fossils being merely 'nature's little games' and prove
their antediluvian origin,Z
67
published a catalogue of his collection in 1739,
At that time, this contained several hundred ammonites, nautili, belemnites,
shells and complete fish fossils, as well as minerals,
268
It underwent rapid
growth, as one can judge from the second edition of the catalogue, published
five years later,
26
9 and after Spada's demise became part of the Maffei
collection.
Every gallery and museum, whether it belongs to a prince or to a
personage renowned for his nobility, writings, feats of arms or wealth, is
now required to contain a large showcase filled with fish, crustaceans and
other petrified marine specimens found in the mountains. As the intrinsic
value of most of them does not justify so honourable a position, it would
seem that their owners consider them to be of a rare merit, encouraging
those in search of the key to nature's secrets to determine the origins of
these deposits of the sea, by what fortune they were carried from the sea
to the mountains and what enchantments, if we may put it rhus, changed
them into stone, making eternal the memory of the exile which forced
them to die in lands so strange to them
27
D
228 Co/leeton, Nctturalists and Antiqttariam
This is how Abbot Anton-Lazar Moro begins his book which, in 1740,
rekindled the debate in the Venetian Republic over the presence of marine
bodies on the mountains. It is not possible ro go into his arguments here,
but suffice it to say that Moro used the emergence of islands from the sea
bed to devise a Plutonist theory of the formation of mountains under the
pressure of subterranean heat
271
The same process was used to explain rhe
present location of fossilized marine bodies.
Marine plants and animals, whose remains or relics are today to be found
both on and below the surface of certain mountains, and which were born,
found nourishment and reached maturity before these mountains were
lifted up above the surface of the sea, were carried to the sites where they
now lie in a petrified state when these mountains, leaving the bosom of
the earth covered by water, were raised up to the heights at which we
know them now272
Maffei warmly welcomed Moro's opinions. In the only book of his of an
entirely scientific nature, he devoted one chapter to a resume of them, and
used them to tackle the enigma of the formation of the Bolca deposits.
According to Maffei, its origins lay in a catastrophe caused by subterranean
heat, which suddenly left the fish on dry land.m Not content to quote global
theories aimed at solving the general problem of the presence of marine
bodies in the mountains, Maffei therefore put forward a solution to the
specific question of the Bolca fossilized fish. These deposits were visited in
September 1740 by Giovanni Arduino, who made a drawing in perspective
of them, indicating the fossil-bearing strata, and this was published by
Spada in the second edition of his catalogue.U
1
One of the most learned Italian scholars of his times, whose life, divided
as it was between geological research and his activities as an engineer, is a
perfect illustration of the twin orientations, epistemic and utilitarian, of
eighteenth-century science, Arduino formed a link between the generation
of the naturalist-collectors of the 1730s to 1750s and that which arrived in
force around 1765.
275
In Venice itself, the members of this second
generation included Arduino, John Strange, Giacomo Morosini, Father
Guido Vio (d. 1782), a Romualdian monk from Murano, regarded by Fortis
as one of his mentors, Father Placido Zurla from the same order, Girolamo
Ascanio Molin ( 1735-1813 ), a Venetian patrician who also collected works
of art and Abbot Antonio Traversi, whom we have already mentioned, and
who was the owner of a collection 'of saline and alkaline substances, of
sulphates, limestones and various different types of carbonate salts, mar-
bles, spars and quartzes, barites, simple and composite siliceous stones,
volcanic products, petrified plants and animals, bituminous and inflam-
mable substances, metallic substances, marine products, semiprecious stones
Collector.r .. Naturalists and Antiquariam 229
as well as naturally polished woods and other products of nature'.
276
In 1765, Rossetti mentioned only two collections in Padua containing
minerals and fossils, those belonging to Francesco Leonessa, the town's
most eminent doctor, and to the Lateran canons. Neither was alluded to in
the 1776 edition.
277
Collections of this type became slightly more common
tOwards the end of the century; we could cite those formed by Dondi
Orologio and his adversary Abbot Terzi, both of which were essentially
mineralogical, as well as the one possessed by Tomasso degli Obizzi in
Catajo, the collection at Valdagno owned by Girolamo Festari (1738-1801),
a doctor who was in charge of the springs at Recoaro and the friend of
Fortis, Strange and Arduino,
278
and finally the collection in Padua itself
which was created by Nicolo de Rio, described in the following fashion by
Moschini in 1817:
It is set out according to the method propounded by the famous Haiiy
(Comparative table, etc.) ... We reserve our greatest admiration for a
fine rounded beryl, the so-called 'sunsrone' and a large maxillary tooth
from a masrodon. It also contains several types of marble, specimens of
alabaster, quartz crystals, lead molybdate, sulphurated mercury, fine
copper, carbonate crystals, recently discovered in France, etc. [as well as)
several small ropographical collections intended to show the lithology of
the Euganean Hills.279
Mineral and fossil collectors were undoubtedly active in most of the
minor centres of the Venetian Republic in the closing decades of the
century, though we know of but two: Antonio Gaidon ( 1738-1829), an
architect from Bassano,
280
and a certain Lieutenant-Colonel Milanovitch
from Rovigo.
2
8
1
In this same town, Canon Girolamo Silvestri (1728-68)
took an interest in geology, which he discussed with Arduino, as well as in
the practical problems of the economy of the Polesine, in livestock rearing,
peat bogs, maize growing and so on, but we do not know whether his
collections also contained natural objects.
282
It also seems reasonable to
suppose that a certain Jacopo Odoardi had built up a fossil collection, as he
would otherwise not have been able to write an essay on the marine bodies
to be found in the Feltre district,283 and that similar collections existed in
Treviso and Castelfranco, where the Scotti and Ricati families, together
with their entourage, cultivated the natural sciences.
2
8
4
The naturalistic culture in Vicenza and Verona
As far as collecting and studying minerals and fossils was concerned, none
of the republic's towns, nor even Venice, was as important as Vicenza and
230 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
Verona, where most of the collectors of such objects were to be found, along
with the richest collections. In and around Vicenza, these numbered at least
twelve, and were formed by monks or priests, such as Paolo Calvi ( 1716-
81 ), a historian and antiquary better known as Angiolgabriello di Santa
Maria, Gaetano Pedoni (1744-1809) and Giuliano Serpe (1731-1801), by
doctors, such as Antonio Mastini (1717-1805), Antonio Turra and
Francesco Orazio Scortegagna ( 1767-1851 ), by society figures like Fortis,
nominally an abbot, Count Arnaldo I Tornieri ( 1739-1829) who purchased
Calvi's collection after his death, Luigi Castellini ( 1770-1824) from
Castelgomberto, Girolamo Barettoni (1730-1807) and a certain Maraschini
(1774-1825), whose position in society is unknown to us285
In order to gain a clearer picture of these Vicenza collections, let us take
the one belonging to Don Giuliano Serpe as an example, since Serpe was the
only one to have taken the trouble to print a list of the categories he used to
classify the objects he amassed. These categories were themselves grouped
inro six different classes. To the first belonged the earths, coals, lava and
other volcanic products, minerals, hard stones, concretions, crystals, amount-
ing to a total of sixteen categories. The five remaining classes catered for
fossils: 'calcined elephant bones', fossilized teeth, fish from Bolca and other
sites, insects trapped in schist, vertebrae of different species, along with
univalve, bivalve and multivalve shells belonging to seventeen, twelve and
five different families respectively. The origins of the objects are con-
sistently noted, these being the Vicenza and Verona regions, except in one or
two cases, such as the geodes 'di carattere esotico', minerals and fossils from
Germany and the 'elephant bones' from Cherso, Ossero and Dalmatia, very
probably gifts from Fortis, Serpe's neighbour in Arzignano.
This list of categories is followed by an appendix, of which one passage
merits inclusion here.
I also possess a series of natural sea shells which corresponds to the
above-mentioned petrified sea creatures; note should be taken of several
precious specimens of foreign sea urchins, as well as of the large, rare
pearl snail from the Jamaica seas, which Rumpius calls Cochlea olea.
There is also a large, rare winged murex from the seas off the coast of the
African Congo, as well as various other types of polyps which can be
compared with the collection's petrified specimens.
At first glance just another inventory, this passage actually refers to the
much debated problem, of which more later, of the presence in tropical
waters of living species which could be found in fossilized form in the
mountains around Vicenza and Verona. Serpe was obviously abreast of all
the brest scientific questions, as the list of authors he drew on to classify
objects in his collection shows he knew of relatively recent publications
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians 231
relating to the natural sciences.
286
In this light, like Spada's catalogues forty
years before, Serpe's modest text bears witness to the vigour of the veritable
culture which grew up around the collection and study of natural specimens.
In the Venetian Republic the true capital of this culture was Verona. This
was due firstly to the presence of a relatively large public interested in the
natural sciences - Volta's lectures are proof of this - of whom collectors
represented only a small proportion. Secondly, at least fifteen of these
collectors had a passion for fossils and sometimes also for other natural
objects roo. Thirdly, this group included a large number of members of the
local nobility: Count Alessandro Burri, who added Moreni's herbarium to
his minerals and fossils; the Marquis Ottavio de Canossa who for his part
purchased the fossil collection for which Moreni was also responsible; the
Marquis Giacomo Dionisi, a canon as well as philologist and antiquary, and
someone we will be discussing later; Count G. B. Gazola; Giovanni
Girolamo Orti Manara, from very ancient noble stock; Count Girolamo
Peverelli; the Rotari counts; and Count Ignazio Ronconi. Three abbots, G. S.
Volta, Giuseppe Tommaselli (1733-1818), a chemist, meteorologist, agro-
nomist and antiquary and Giuseppe Venturi (1766-1841), mainly an
antiquary but whose collection included, among other things, 'divers objects
of natural history and astronomy', also belonged to this circle of natural
science lovers, as well as two laymen: Gaspare Bordoni, 'per.rona molto
letterata e buon poeta' and Vincenzo Bozza, a pharmacist and chemist.
287
The composition of this group seeking to promote natural sciences in
Verona illustrates the considerable prestige they enjoyed and also helped
them to gain an important place not only in the rown's intellectual life but
also in its social and fashionable one.
With the death of Maffei and the departure of Seguier, only tile Bordonis,
Morenis and the descendants of Sebastiana Rotari seem to have kept alive
in Verona the tradition of collecting the Bolca minerals and fossils. Fresh
interest came in the 1770s. It was at the beginning of this decade that
Ottavio di Canossa bought Moreni's collection, so that one enjoying such
repute should not become lost to Verona as Maffei's had been.
288
It was also
at this time that Alessandro Burri began to form a collection, organizing
excavations at Bolca in 1776, having obtained permission from the Maffei
family, which owned the deposits.
289
Other collections of fossilized fish also
appear to date from this period. In particular, 1770 appears to be the
approximate date at which Vincenzo Bozza began to build his own.
Containing roughly 700 specimens of fossilized fish, the fruits of twenty
years of searches, Bozza's collection also included every type of petrified
object to be found in the Verona region, as well as a series of European and
exotic shells, with specimens of 150 different species and a series of
minerals.
290
For around fifteen years, this was Verona's most important collection,
232 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
and as such was described by several foreign visitors. Its catalogue was
drawn up by Fortis, whose article, published in 1786, rekindled the
discussion over Bolca, calling attention to the resemblance of three
fossilized fish to living species found in Tahitian waters and even going so
far as to assert - in the final passage, whose authorship he later denied -
that most of the fish found at Bolca were similar to certain current
inhabitants of the tropical seas. This assertion was, moreover, not without
global implications, as in the same article, Fortis drew attention to the
important role the Bolca deposits could play in the solving of major
geological puzzles. 'We have never', he wrote, 'examined this curious site in
any detail; we never imagined that the fish found there beneath the ground
could serve as a focal point for all those endeavouring to make sense of the
chaos of the ancient revolutions which shook the whole of our globe.'29t
Around 1784 it was the turn of one of Fortis' friends, Giovanni Battista
Gazola, to begin a collection. Four years later it already contained approx-
imate! y 400 fossilized fish, and with the purchases of the collections
belonging toJacopo Dionisii and Bozza in 1789 and 1791 respectively, this
figure reached 1200 in 1792. Five years later, the French rook Verona and as
a reprisal confiscated and sent back to France the most precious pieces of
the town's collections. Gazola was forced to cede his own in its entirety to
the natural history museum in Paris, whence it never returned. He formed
another one in a relatively short space of time, however, mainly through
the purchase of the Ronconi collection and as a result of excavations carried
out at Bolca. In his Ittiolitologia veronese Volta gives a description of this
reconstituted collection accompanied by several engravings,292 and this
allows us to ricture a major private natural history museum at the end of
the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
The objects were set out in five rooms, plus a library and a display of
machines. The first one 'displays on the walls, complete with Greek-style
embellishments, all the marbles from the region of Verona - around 600
rectangular pieces - without counting the larger stone slabs arranged
opposite the mirrors whose frames were formed by the aforesaid embellish-
ments.' Along the walls of the same room there were also glass-fronted
cabinets, each divided into two distinct levels
the upper one allowing the eye to take in at one glance a copious series of
natural shells, nor only from the sea bur also from land and from rivers,
and from every corner of the world, set our in accordance with the
linnaean method, their labels giving their technical names and origins.
The lower one contains rhe genera and different species of fossilized
shells placed directly below their natural counterparts, which is why this
precious collection is not only visually surprising but also very useful and
instructive.
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians 233
On display in the second, smaller room, behind glass was 'a substantial
collection of European insects set out according to nature's own system and
described with care, attractively mingled with a collection of birds, some
embalmed and under belljars, others painted on the walls'. Next came the
two rooms housing the 'display of fossilized fish'. Placed in glass cases,
perfectly visible, these were divided up into classes based on the Linnaean
system, and given the description and engravings it would appear that each
case corresponded with a particular class and was divided into two
compartments, so that each type could be placed opposite its counterpart.
At the very bottom of the cases in the first of the rooms of the fossilized
fish display, were 'bulky pieces of fossilized ivory from the Romagnano
excavations'; while in the second each case containing fish was flanked by
two smaller ones, 'where the series of natural marine plants and zoophytes
is matched with the series of impressions of the same plants dug up in the
Vertena quarry, as well as zoophytoliths from the neighbouring mountains'.
The fifth room contained a collection of minerals 'divided into four
classes derived from our theory of mineralogy and placed in a correspond-
ing number of cases'. Each specimen was given a systematic description
attached to its support.
Every gemstone, from the diamond to the aquamarine, is present; among
the semiprecious stones one can see the large pieces of opal from
Hungary, adularia from the St Gotthard, carnelian from rhe orient, as
well as jasper from Egypt, hydroliths from Piedmont and even the rarest
of agates from Germany. In the class of metals, are robe found the n ~ t t i v e
gold of Transylvania, granulated platinum from the Pinto, native silver
and copper from Hungary, yellow lead from Carinthia and red from
Siberia, opalescent iron from the Elbe and the Dauphine province,
tungsric pewter from England, coloured native arsenic from Bohemia,
bismuth and peacock ore from Saxony, crystallized cobalt from Germany,
France's native antimony and coloured antimony from Hungary, miner-
alized and calciferous zinc from Carinthia, native and oxydized manga-
nese from divers places and nickel in irs metallic form from the TyroJ.2
9
l
From the extraordinary to the normal
An exception in terms of size and the costly way the objects were displayed,
the Gazola Museum was in other ways perfectly comparable with the other
collections of natural productions around at that time. Like them, it
reflected the desire to make nature's great diversity and wealth visible by
putting all the objects which had resulted from it on display, on condition
that their conservation was feasible. There was also a wish to render nature
intelligible, to show how its simple and universal principles operated.
234 Co/leeton, Naturalists and Antiquariam
Providing one had sufficient means, the first of these wishes resulted in the
accumulation of objects, as if the collector lived in hope of possessing
specimens of every living species one day, while the second gave rise to the
practice of classifying objects and to procedm:es aimed at bridling the
apparent diversity and revealing an order, if not that of nature itself, at least
that of the human spirit - in other words, a methodical order. It was an
order of this kind that the layout of the exhibition was intended to reflect, as
well as it could, through the arrangement of the objects, whose proximity or
distance was by no means to be arbitrary, and also through their descrip-
tions, which were meant to define the place of each one in the general order
of things. Nature, as portrayed by a well-ordered collection, was no longer
exuberant and incoherent. Instead, it was disciplined and orderly.
A little more than a century before the formation of the Gazola Museum,
Moscardo published the description of his own one.
294
A simple comparison
of one with the other enables one to gauge the changes in attitude towards
nature and more particular! y towards the criteria governing the choice of
objects deemed worthy of inclusion in collections, as far as these can be
identified from the contents and organization of these collections. First of
all, it is clear that there was a shift in emphasis from the extraordinary to
the normal, and away from the object which owed its importance to its
unique properties, to the one which reflected the normal mechanisms of
nature. In scholar! y culture, the quest for miracles therefore became the
search for laws.
There next came a shift in attention away from the exceptional to the
commonplace. Although people continued to be struck by the eccentricity of
certain objects, they now focused their attention on easily found objects,
whose essential characteristic was that they were neither rare nor strange,
but rather commonplace and banal. This was the case of stones, insects,
birds, plants and sea plants and animals, of which specimens abounded in
their thousands.
last of all, there was the move in emphasis away from the exotic to the
native, from the distant to the close at hand. This does not mean that the
distant and the exotic had lost their attraction, but rather that all that was to
be found nearby was even more interesting. Every natural history collection
discussed here was made up in the main of objects originally from the same
region, if nor from the immediate environs. Accordingly, the inhabitants of
Chioggia specialized in marine fauna and flora and the Paduans in objects
from the Euganean Hills, while the nearby mountains kept the collections
of Verona and Vicenza well stocked. Thus, the activities of both botanists
and natural history lovers also involved the selection of different areas to be
covered and the assessment of their resources, in a twofold approach which
was both epistemic and utilitarian.
In the context of this triple transfer of attention from the extraordinary
to the regular, from the exceptional to the commonplace and from the
exotic to the native, fossils posed a problem. The very terminology
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarian.r 235
employed by Volta and Serpe is proof of this, as they only qualified as
'natural' those species actually living, not because they regarded fossils as
the result of some artifice, of course, but because they saw in them the
effects of a distant, exceptional and extraordinary event. It cannot be denied
that the way the shells, crabs and molluscs from the Adriatic, as well as the
plants, were laid out in the Gazola Museum forced visitOrs tO compare
current! y living creatures with fossilized species and see that they were
identical, and Serpe did much the same thing, though on much more modest
a scale. However, specifically on the subject of the Adriatic, this identical-
ness was questioned by Olivi.
If one compares these fossils [from the Vicenza hills and Bassano and
Friuli localities] with the specimens in the present catalogue, one finds:
(1) that the majority of the former did not live in the Adriatic; (2) that
the majority of the latter are not found in the mountains; (3) and that,
accordingly, either the Adriatic never covered the foothills of the Alps, or
else it covered them at a time when they were already flooded by another
sea, or again when the Adriatic was in flood, it was not in the same state
as it is today, in terms of both climate and size and, accordingly in terms
too of the nature of its inhabitantsZ9>
Collections and texts alike, therefore, raised the question of the continuity
between the present and past of both the Earth and its living creatures or
that of the revolutions at the surface of the globe, which in fact amounted to
the same thing.
This very same question applied, in an even more acute form, to the
fossilized fish from Bolca. The article published in 1786, bearing the
signature of Fortis, attested to the presence among them of species still
extant in tropical seas. Two years later, Bozza found that such species were
indeed to be found at Bolca alongside European species and, in order to
explain such a strange coexistence, claimed that the great Flood had mixed
together the waters of all the oceans and the fish of every species.
2
96 Bozza's
article drew a reply from Volta, who in fact repeated the same arguments,
intending to base them strictly on simple facts and reasonings. The facts
were provided by the collections in Verona, where Volta claimed to have
identified 100 species which, after comparison with actual living species
described in works on ichthyology, turned out to correspond to fish found in
the seas of Europe, Asia, Africa and of the two Americas, as well as m
European and exotic freshwaters. His reasoning ran as follows.
If, therefore, fish from every part of the globe, both sea- and freshwater
are buried on Mount Bolca, as recorded in the adjoining catalogue, is it not
natural to imagine that, as we read in the Holy Scriptures, a general
236 Collectors, Naturalists and A ntiquarianJ
flooding of our planet formed, from the waters of the seas and rivers, a
single, swirling ocean, a destroyer of all life, in which the force of the
currents and the inner movement of the floods mixed together earth and
every creature which lived, then as now, in the seas and waters which do
not communicate with one another and in different climates?
Volta found this argument all the more convincing in that the Plutonist
hypothesis was able to explain neither the presence of so great a variety of
fish in a single place nor the fact that they were deposited in limestone.
297
Volta was therefore 'continuist' as far as living creatures were concerned.
For him, the only difference between past and present was in the
geographical distribution of species which had coexisted in times past, and
he saw behind this a global cause, namely the Flood. Every one of these
points was contested, firstly by Abbot Domenico Testa, whose interest in
fossilized fish had been stimulated by a visit to the Gazola Museum, and
secondly by Fortis. Both cast doubts on the validity of identifying fossil fish
with living species, and especially with exotic species. Both agreed that even
if fish from warm climates could be found at Bolca, then rather than having
recourse ro a cataclysm on a global scale, their presence should be explained
by local causes, such as a change in temperature of the waters at Bolca. For
Testa, this could well have been rhe result of volcanic activity, and he
attributed the formation of the fishes' graveyard to the eruption of a
volcano. Fortis, on the other hand, who had carried out studies in the field,
unlike Testa, emphasized the sedimentary nature of the rock at Bolca, which
invalidated the volcano hypothesis.
298
The Bolca fish and the changes in the Earth's surface
In the face of Bozza, Volta and indeed all the 'Naturalisti veroneJi', whose
common stance was expressed by these two authors,2
9
9 Testa and Fortis
attempted to explain the Bolca deposits not by a distant, exceptional and
extraordinary happening, such as the Flood, but by the normal and regular
activity of nature, which was still taking place. Their disagreement over the
role of volcanoes in the formation of these deposits in actual fact concerned
the length of time it lasted. From the very outset, Testa asked himself in his
letters just when such a happening could have taken place, to which Fortis
replied that it probably took place 4000 years ago.l
00
Later on, in his third
letter which included an attack on Volta, Testa conjectured 'that the burial
of the Bolca fish could have taken place sometime between 2207 and 1500
BC, a period of slightly more than seven centuries.'
10
l However, as Cuvier's
example makes clear,l
02
a brief time-scale in geology requires the invocation
of catastrophic changes. This is why Testa turned to the volcano theory, for,
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians 237
in his eyes, the 'rapidita volcanica' provided a far better explanation of the
formation of the Bolca deposit than the 'lentezza marina'.
303
It was simply
too bad for those mineralogists who persisted in drawing attention tO the
sedimentary nature of the Bolca rocks.l
04
Practically octogenarian by this time, Giovanni Arduino did not inter-
vene in the triangular argument between Testa, Fortis and the Veronese
naturalists. In actual fact, he had voiced his opinions concerning Bolca some
considerable time earlier.
Among these [the hills around Verona], Mount Bolca is extreme! y well
known because of the fossilized marine fish and exotic plants to be found
there in the fossil strata of a fine, sandy, limestone rock, and entirely
surrounded by substances of volcanic origin. It is obviously a fragment of
seabed which has been thrust up during the violent upward movement of
these substances caused by an underwater volcanic force, and it has been
left at a steep angle, as we can tell from its many stratifications which are
far from horizontapos
It is, however, clear that these opinions were those of a geologist who was
not going to give a verdict as to either the identity of the fossil fish or the
presence in their midst of species now living in warm seas, the very subjects
which were at the heart of the debate.
Even so, Arduino did not lack ideas on the order in which living creatures
had succeeded one another. In 1760 he wrote to Vallisnieri the Younger:
For the more enlightened observers, however, I also have in my collection
no less marvellous things, namely examples of the different degrees of
perfection of these very same species of petrified aquatic animals. The
cruder and less perfect ones come from the lowest strata of the
mountains, which I refer to as secondary strata in my letters ... but
become increasingly perfect as we move up to the higher strata, reflecting
the order in which they were formed, so that in the final strata, the ones,
that is, that form the tertiary hills and mountains, we see the most perfect
species, which resemble all those we find in the seas today.3
6
Had it been applied to the problems surrounding Bolca, this approach could
have given the debate a different emphasis, as implicit in this passage was
the idea that certain species disappeared over time and were replaced by
new ones bearing an increasing resemblance to those of today. This idea did
not rely on a single and, therefore, extraordinary flood, but rather on a
series of cataclysms of this type, each one explaining a particular change in
the fauna and flora, and each seemingly part of the normal mechanisms of
nature.
238 Collectors, Naturalists cmd Antiquariam
Arduino developed all these ideas in a document, unfortunately left
unfinished and without a date, entitled Risposta allegorico-rornanzesca di
Voniangi Riduano, Osservatore Longobardo, al Celebre 01ittologo
Viaggiatore Sigr Giovanni Giacomo Ferber del Collegia Metallico di Svezia
sopra Ia genesi della presente faccia della Terra. The title is a significant
one, because of its insistence on the literary character of the exercise, the
ironical self-presentation of the author as 'LongobaTdo' (allusion to a certain
vogue for the Middle Ages which reigned at the time?) and above all
because of the explanation of the genetic nature of the approach he adopted.
The opening lines of the work are equally significant.
... Illustrious Ferber, quit those Greek and Roman medals, monuments
to transient episodes in history, and leave their study to the indolent
antiquary who spends his entire life in his rooms, slouched over worm-
eaten books. Observe and enrich your already abundant collection with
those which Vulcan and Neptune, those two eternal and powerful rulers,
have liberally dispersed throughout the Earth's stratified entrails. It is
these which will allow observers to learn of their occupations and
invasions, as well as all that they have been capable of accomplishing,
with the succour of old Father Time, sometimes separately, sometimes
locked in furious combat.
It is throughout this interminable conflict that certain species disappeared
and others came into existence.
Species which had already disappeared were replaced by new ones, whose
development and survival benefited from favourable physical conditions
of which their precursors had been deprived. Their remains, buried and
borne along amid the strata, are the monuments to these successive
changes in the species. The sight of so many of them among the early and
marbled strata of each part of the Earth, and the absence of any
equivalent of them in the seas today, confirms the belief of the naturalists
that they are utterly extinct.
This very same conflict also produced minerals, both volcanic and sedimen-
tary, which in their turn constitute signs or medals left by the great events
of the past.
He who wishes to learn the true version of the great history of our planet,
as well as the many periods of tremendous catastrophes and changes it
has undergone, has no choice but to study these signs and medals
attentively. And also the diversity, number, development, substances,
correspondences and all the other characteristics of the ferruginous, sandy
Collectors. Naturalists and AntiquMians 239
or stony strata which compose the mountains and all other parts of the
Earth.
107
As well as being additional proofs of the importance of collections,
especially collections of minerals and fossils, to the pursuit of the natural
sciences in the eighteenth century, the above-quoted texts also highlight
something the Bolca controversy only intimated. This is the inclusion of the
time factor into the thinking of geologists, or rather the advent of a new
temporalness in their thinking and very perception which, as Arduino
wrote, 'distinguishes at a single glance these later works of Neptune from
those I have situated in the first period .... ' A fresh approach to geological
events, whereby they were placed in chronological order, was required if
scholars were to tackle the problems of continuity and discuss the
revolutions on the surface of the globe, local and global causes and the role
of the waters and volcanoes. However, when the question of time was
raised, it was inevitable that the question of absolute dating would be also,
and at that time, it could only be given a completely fanciful reply. Unlike
Fortis and Testa, who displayed a certain naivety, Arduino was fully aware
of this, and divided the history of nature into four periods 'whose length we
cannot know, given the absence of dates in the Book of Nature'.
308
Fortunately, the question of time could be restricted to that of relative
chronology, and this was now solvable, since a tutored eye could now tell
from a certain succession of strata or corresponding series of minerals or
fossils which events had preceded others. Thanks to this new approach, a
well-organized collection became a visible history of the Earth, just as a
similar collection of paintings now became a visible history of painting.
7.3 HISTORICAL MONUMENTS
It was around 1720 that collections of historical monuments in the Venetian
Republic began to diverge from the model to which they had conformed
until that time. The main features of this model, which had appeared as
early as the sixteenth century, were an almost exclusive interest in
antiquity, the preference shown by antiquaries for inscriptions and medals,
rather than for figured monuments and, among these monuments, for small
objects rather than for large statuary. An additional feature of this model
was the attraction exerted by curious, rare and enigmatic things, although
this did gradually wane in the last decades of the seventeenth century, and
the de facto linking of numismatics with universal history, while epigraphy
formed the link between the latter and local history, and as a result was
invested with political meaning.39 Obviously, a number of collections based
on this model survived throughout the whole of the century, while more or
240 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
less everywhere the collection of inscriptions and the compilation of
anthologies of inscriptions, often left in manuscript form,lto continued. We
will cite as examples of the latter just two works which were published: an
anthology by G. D. Bertoli devoted to antiquities from Aquileia,l
11
and the
list of inscriptions from Vicenza and its environs compiled by J T.
Faccioli.
312
On the other hand, it was only in the fourth, if not the fifth
decade that catalogues were published for a number of important medal
collections, whose origins were far more ancient, such as those which
belonged to Tiepolo,lll Onorio Arrigonil
14
and the Pisanis, the latter having
previously been the property of the Corrers.l
1
5 Continuity therefore did
prevail, but a continuity accompanied by changes in emphasis, which
eventually led to ruptures.
From the baroque tradition to classicism
Foremost among the innovators, whose initiatives, the seeds of which were
sown around 1720 but only came to fruition a quarter of a century later, had
a fairly rapid effect on every aspect of antiquarian studies and opened up
paths down which others were to venture, was undoubtedly the medievalist
and museologist, Scipione Maffei. Medievalist, in that he helped not only to
change opinions on the past history of art, but also - and the first deed
rendered the second feasible - to arouse interest in the Middle Ages in
general as a period occupying a place of cardinal importance in the history
of the Venetian Republic Published in 1732, Verona illustrata underlined
the continuity of history, especially in irs linguistic and artistic
dimensions,
316
by showing that the roots of the present were firmly
anchored in the Middle Ages. Maffei's brand of history, reliant on
epigraphic documents and on the study of monuments, therefore contrasted
with that of the seventeenth-century numismatists, who viewed the Middle
Ages as a black hole but, as we shall see further on, completely revised this
opinion in the 1740s.
Wearing his museologist's hat, Maffei initially intended his lapidary
museum to be a simple variation on the theme of the collection of
inscriptions of local interest. From 1716 onwards, however, the project
began to take on added breadth; Maffei began to talk in 1719 of a 'Museo
universale e publico' ,m the programme of this type of institution being the
one he set out in his famous Notizia di nuovo museo d'iscrizioni a
Ver01za.
318
The initial building work was completed in 1724, with the
erection in the courtyard of Verona's Accademia Filarmonica of a wall in
which were embedded approximately 230 inscriptions. Maffei was not
entirely satisfied with the results which, instead of realizing his ambitious
programme, merely increased the number of stones amassed in the
Collectu; ' Natur,tfi.rts and Antiquarians 241
Accademia's courtyard and gave them greater protection.l
19
Many long
years of work were therefore to go by before he finally saw his ideas bear
fruit. Moreover, he actually modified these ideas to a considerable degree
during his lifetime. To start with, beginning with the period when he was
busy preparing the publication of his Verona illustrata, with requests that
Tiepolo draw the antiquities of the Bevilacqua collection, Maffei manifested
a growing interest in figured monuments, both bas-reliefs
320
and cameos,m
and he henceforth expected his museum not only to contribute to the study
of history, but also to encourage contemporary artists to imitate their
ancient precursors once more.m In addition to this, it was only in the 1730s
that he settled on the definitive architectural design of his museum and
found in the shape of Alessandro Pompei (1705-72) an architect willing
and able to realize it.
123
In its second version, first open to visitors in 1745,
Verona's lapidary museum was more than just a collection of inscriptions
supposed to have some sort of connection with town history, since it
contained many which had none whatsoever, having been brought straight
from foreign pans for display purposes. This desire to transcend the local
and reach for the universal is even more apparent in the MuseJtm
veronense, the book where Maffei listed not only the monuments he had
amassed in Verona but also those he had studied elsewhere, especially in
Turin and Vienna.l
24
The term veronense in the title of this work therefore
has quite a different meaning to the similar determiners in the Memorie
bre.rciane, the Marmora berica or the Momtmenta patavina. Moreover, and
not entirely unconnected with Maffei's universalist ambitions, was the fact
that the museum also contained a number of figured monuments. In terms
of both its contents and architecture, it therefore provided a contrast to the
baroque tradition and heralded a return to classicism.m Known even to
those who never visited Verona, thanks to Maffei's book, his museum was a
considerable influence in the Venetian Republic, numerous rowns in Italy,
as well as abroad.l26
This was, however, only one of a number of those projects which were
embarked on around 1720, bur only came to maturity twenty or twenty-five
years later. They included the book by the two Anton Maria Zanettis,
entitled Delle antiche statue greche et romane, published in 1740 and 1743,
as well as Dactyliotheca Zanettiana by Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder,
which appeared in 1751.
327
Preparations for this work did, it is true, only
begin in 1743, once the previously mentioned work had been completed.
However, Zanetti's collection of engraved stones itself dated from the early
1720s.l
2
S Not unlike Maffei's initiatives and propositions in this respect,
Zanetti's editorial activities had a manifestly anti-baroque message, and
greatly contributed to the return to classicism. We have already touched on
this topic with regard to the work devoted to ancient statues, but it is
nonetheless worthwhile emphasizing here the role of collections of
242
Co!!ecton, NaturaliJtJ and Antiquariam
engraved stones which were not only symptomatic of this change in taste
but were also instrumental in it, on condition that they included pieces
which were interesting not because of their mysterious inscriptions but
because of the quality of their drawings.
It is precisely this shift in attention away from 'erudite stones' and
towards small, figured monuments, which is illustrated by the Zanetti
collection, all the more so when it is compared with that of Antonio
Capello, the contents which were published in 1702, and which uniquely
compnsed amulets, talismans and abraxas. '
29
This was a collection which
enigmas in order to provide scholarly exegetes with an oppor-
tunity to put their great wisdom to the test. The Zanetti collection
however, amassed works of art with a view ro providing pleasure, via thei:
publication, to those unable to see the gemstones for themselves. It was also
to offer artists models to imitate, and in this respect it is
that another promoter of early Venetian neo-classicism, Joseph
Smtth, also formed a collection of engraved stones.
1
3 The parallel between
and is also striking, as each helped in his own particular way
to direct the Interest shown in ancient objects towards works of art and
thereby modify the very principles governing antiquarian culture. Maffei
and Zanetti were both part of the movement which led to the inversion of
the practice of scholars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who
used images or objects to increase their understanding of texts, so by
the second half of the eighteenrh century, it was the texts which contributed
to the understanding of objecrs and images. An antiquarian culture with
strong philological overtones was therefore transformed into an anti-
quarian culture with archaeological and artistic overtones, before the return
in strength of philology at the beginning of the nineteenth century. While
it is true that this change in course was chiefly steered by Caylus in Paris
and by Winckelmann in Rome, the fact remains that Maffei and Zanetti
were foremost among those who initiated it.
Oriental curiosities, finds and excavations
During the period under scrutiny here, many Venetian towns boasted at
least one archaeological collection where, alongside the inscriptions and
medals, statues or fragments of statues, busts, heads, statuettes, funeral
u.rns, amulets, glass vases, fragments of glass, amphorae, lamps, fibulae,
keys, arms and divers utensils were placed. Such were the objects
which were to be found in substantial quantities in the Capello collection in
Venice,
331
pan of which was bought from the Duke of Mantua, and which
was preserved throughout the entire century. Its last owner, Antonio
Capello ( 1736-after 1806), was an example, like Girolamo Zulian and a
Co/leeton, N atura!ist.r and A ntiquariam 243
number of others, of antiquarian curiosity placed in the service of
contemporary art. Not only was his visiting card designed by Canova but he
also commissioned Gianantonio Selva (1751-1819), a friend of the sculptor
and a representative of neo-classical architecture, to decorate one of the
rooms in his apartment in the Procuratie Nove 'with the !Canova] plaster
casts he owned, especially the bas-reliefs where he depicts the early events
of the Trojan War and the most memorable of Socrates' deeds; and in order
to make a greater contribution to his country's heritage he provided the
young students of the art of drawing with examples to imitate, leaving each
the opportunity of benefiting from them as best they could.'
1
l
2
With the exception of the Canova plaster casts, objects of the very same
type formed the contents of the collection created by the Senator Bernardo
Nani (1712-61) and considerably added to by his brother Jacopo ( 1725-97).
With its several hundred antiquities - most notably 180 inscriptions
collected between 1700 and 1761, mostly in Dalmatia and the Peloponnese
-alongside which were 'inscriptions and the monuments of the late Empire
and the Christian era and the orientalia, it constituted without doubt the
largest Venetian collection of its type in the second half of the eighteenth
century.lll It was also the best known, thanks to around thirty publications
devoted to the monuments it contained: to a particular marble or votive bas-
relief, to a particular papyrus, ivory or to coins, or even to a whole class of
objecrs linked by their common origin.
114
This abundant literature devoted
to the Nani collection shows that unlike the one belonging to Antonio
Capello, this one reflected preoccupations which were archaeological and
learned rather than artistic. Even so, it did include a number of works of art
and, among these, large Greek and Roman statues, one of which was 'a
Greek statue of a young girl in Paros marble', which 'had lain forgotten for
many a long year until the Illustrious Cavalier Giacopo Nani saw it and
placed it in his famous museum, submitting it to the judgement of Canova,
who lavishly praised this new acquisition'.m This is an illustration both of
the collector in his role of saviour of works of art and of the weight attached
to Canova's powers of judgement, he being the ultimate authority in
questions of ancient sculpture.
ln the Venetian Republic of the eighteenth century, there is no lack of
proof of the interest in the Orient, particularly in China, in the shape of
carnival costumes, theatre pia ys, operas and furniture, examples of which
could be seen at the Ca' Rezzonico, as well as sundry lacquered objects or
their less costly imitations.ll
6
Towards the middle of the century villas
began to be decorated with chinoiseries, while a few decades later, the
inclusion of a 'Chinese room' became practically de rigueur.
337
Gian-
domenico Tiepolo's frescoes, painted in 1757 in the fore.rteria of the Villa
Valmarana in Vicenza, constitute the best-known example of these images
of China which, placed near scenes of rustic life and carnival times, seemed
244
Collector.r, NatJJralists and A ntiquaria
to belong to a world of play and disguise, intended to amuse: rather than to
instruct. '
38
It is perhaps this link between the idea of a pleasant and frivolous
pastime and these and objects of oriental origin which explains why
apparently nobody decided to form an entire collection of them, and why so
few o! tO be found in collections. There were, in fact, just two
Arab mscnptions m the Maffei museum in Verona,m while in the same city
towards 1730 a certain Domenico Vallarsi, among the divers scholar! y curios
possessed a large Chinese printed Mappamundi'.
140
It is also possible that the
La_teran. Canons in Padua owned oriental objects amongst their 'fdo!J cmd
Dtvmtttes of several ancient and modern nations'.34t
Two collections, however, did reflect an interest in exotic objects on the
pan of their founders, and these were one belonging ro Antonio Vallisnieri,
subsequently the property of the University of Padua, and another owned
the Nanis, and which we only mention here because of this specific
Interest. The Vallisnieri collection conrained curios and artefacts of Persian
Chinese and American origin, in particular objects made by
Indians of South America and a Sogdian calendar dating from the fifteenth
century.
3
"
2
The Nani collection, for its part, contained eight statues
supposedly from India, Tibet and China, as well as a Christian codex written
on palm leaves.
343
It also comprised around a hundred 'Kufic' coins struck
by and sundry Arab, Turk and Tartar dynasties as well a; by the
Chnstwn kings, such as Roger II of Sicily and Alfonso of Castile not co
mention twenty odd 'vetri cttfici', glasses bearing inscriptions, mos;ly with
the names of the Fatimid caliphs.
144
Last of all, this collection contained
orienral manuscripts, another forty of which were placed in the Pinelli
library.
14
\
After this digression into exotic objects, let us look now at the collections
of antiquities scattered around the mainland towns, from Treviso, home of
the Scott is and Crespanis, with their Roman stones and coins, w. to Brescia
where Quirini lived,
147
and then on to Bergamo, where moves were made
found a museum of ancient monuments around I 743.
148
Similar collections
existed in Adria, in the homes of Ottavio (1697 -1749) and Francesco
Girolamo Bacchi (1748-1810) and of Luigi Andrea Grotto (1708-73).349
One was also to be found in Rovigo, in rhe possession of Canon Girolamo
Silvestri, whose contacts with Arduino have already been mentioned and
who_, a.long _with his Rinaldo, a lover of painting, belonged to the
famrly s tlurd generation of archaeologists, historians and collectors. A
series of drawings which were made ar his request between 1750 and 1775
enable us to visualize his collection, and though part of ir came from his
Camillo (1694-1719), and from his father, Carlo (1694-1754),
he himself made considerable additions to it. no Even though it does not
come up to today's standards, the description he gives of a find made near
Rovigo shows that his was definitely the eye of an archaeologist interested
Collectors, Natu1alists and Antiquarians 245
not only by objects suitable for collection but also by the structures and
remains revealed during excavations and which enabled the original state of
the site to be reconstructed.35t
We have already discussed Tomasso degli Obizzi's collection, so let us
move on to rwo Paduan ones which, towards 1765, belonged to Francesco
Leonessa, the town's foremost doctor and to the Lateran canons.
352
In
Vicenza Count Arnaldi Arnalda I Tornieri (1739-1829) had amassed a
substantial collection of antiquities which also included 6000 medals and a
large number of inscriptions.m In VeronaJacopo Muselli (1697-1768) built
up a genuine museum of antiquities of every sort, just as Count Jacopo
Verita (1744-1827) was to do some rime later, as well as Giovanni Fontana
and Abbot Giuseppe Venturi, though on a far more modest scale."
4
Several
objects which once belonged tO these three men are today in the possession
of the Museo Archeologico di Teatro Romano in Verona. Those owned by
Muselli, some of which are also now in this museum, also figure among the
prints of a book he published in 1756; 'we can be sure,' he asserts, 'that we
will not find anything among these which has been drawn a capriccio or else
whose true form has been changed in any way whatsoever.'
355
This is a
concern for accuracy which yet again reveals an archaeologist interested
first and foremost by the way the object itself was rendered.
J acopo Muselli had inherited part of his collection from his uncle, Gian
Francesco (1677-1757), archpriest of Verona cathedral, and in whose home
had finished up several antiquities which had previously belonged ro
Francesco Bianchini ( 1662-1729), a native of Verona who had spent his life
in Rome, where his archaeological discoveries had won him celebrity.
356
Another parr of Jacopo Muselli's collection was, however, made up of
objects found during excavations he had carried out on the site of an ancient
necropolis near Verona. Muselli has left behind him an account of these
excavations in which he gives the location of the site in relation to the town,
describes the different types of tombs and the way the objects found in
them are laid our, suggests a dating system based on coins unearthed there,
and even goes as far as to indicate that the people buried in the cemetery
were paupers as no gold coins and only one silver one were found there.l
57
In the second half of the century other Venetian antiquaries embarked on
excavations, either in order to find out more about a monument or else to
search for objects. In Verona, for instance, following a discovery made
during a dig, Giovanni Fontana organized excavations in the Roman theatre
between 1757 and 1760.
358
The Roman theatre in Vicenza, the layout of
which had already been traced in 1720 by Count Octavio Zago (1654-1737),
was excavated in 1773 by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi (1719-90),359 while in
1778-89, Tornieri organized digs in various different parts of the town in
search of antiquiries.l
60
All this was part of a cultural movement which
embraced rhe whole of Italy. The high points of this movement included the
246 Collectors, N atJralists and A ntiqJarians
discoveries of Herculaneum (1711) and Pompeii (1748), but it was also
given momentum by the excavations in Rome and by the fascination for the
Etruscans which was aroused by the publication of Dempster's De Etruria
rega!is in 1723.
361
This movement was also represented in the Venetian
Republic by one book, published by Maffei in 1728, on amphitheatres,
especially the one in Verona,
362
and another written by Ottavio Bocchi on
the Roman theatre in Adria,
363
as well as by the posthumous publication in
Verona of the work Francesco Bianchini had devoted to the excavations he
arranged on the Palatine,
364
by Giovanni Poleni's supplement to the
collections of antiquities compiled by Graevius and Gronovius and by
commentaries on Vitruvius also by this author.
365
The antiquaries of the
first half of the century were prolific authors, those of the latter half seem
to have published fewer weighty tomes. They did, of course, continue
excavating and collecting, conscientiously protecting all the objects brought
to light, as if they had taken to heart this dictum of Tornieri's: 'Each ancient
piece, however small, deserves to be preserved.'3
66
However, antiquity was
not the only period to attract their attention, as they had now discovered
the Middle Ages, and this discovery took effect in the field of numismatics,
which accordingly acquired fresh meanings.
History and numismatics
Out of the fifty or so collectors of antiquities we know of in the Venetian
Republic of the eighteenth century, more than thirty were either partially
or exclusively interested in coins and medals. Sometimes they owned
collections of ancient coins which were not noticeably different from those a
century or more earlier, even if they had actually only been formed a short
time ago; this, however, was not always the case as a fairly large number
had been handed down from one generation to the next. Here, as elsewhere,
however, a certain continuity was accompanied by shifts in interests, if not
complete breaks with tradition. One of the changes with the least impact
included an increase in the number of collectors attracted in particular to
medals bearing effigies of illustrious figures, such as the holders of high
office and the heroes of memorable exploits, as well as writers, artists and
scholars. These collectors included Nicolo Balbi, whose collection
subsequently fell into the hands of the Pisanis,l67 Tomasso Giuseppe
Farsetti (1720-92), who bequeathed his to the Biblioteca Marciana,lGs
Benedetto Valmarana,3
69
Pinelli,3
70
degli Obizzi,m Tornierim and Jacopo
Muse IIi.
Although Muselli apparently never really grouped his medals into one or
several series organized according to this principle, he did class the
illustrious men represented in his collection in alphabetical and chronologi-
Collectors, NatJralists and AntiqJarians 247
cal order, as well as according to their office, nationality and so on. There is
every indication that universal history amounted to a succession of great
men, completed by a succession of major happenings as far as he was
concerned.m In this sense, he, along with all the other collectors who set
out their collections in the same way, at least on paper, exemplified the way
in which the notion of history as a discontinuous phenomenon, punctuated
by exceptional, rare and extraordinary events and individuals persisted over
a very long period. No purpose is served in dwelling on the contrast
between those who exclusively used series of medals to illustrate history
and those who, while not ignoring them, considered that only a highly
varied series of monuments could enable one to comprehend the essential
nature of history, namely its ceaseless variations.
Towards 1700, Apostolo Zeno (1668-1750) began to amass medals
portraying poets, in order to illustrate a work of literary history he was
working on, but this highly specific collection was abandoned quite rapidly
in favour of a large one of ancient coins.J7
4
later on, Count Gian Maria
Mazzuchelli ( 1707-65 ), from Brescia, formed a collection of medals devoted
to men celebrated in scientific and literary circles. He subsequently
published it in two folio volumes, in which the frontispiece clearly echoes
the vision of society and hisrory underpinning this project. At the foot of
the page on the right, an old man with wings bearing a scythe, a clepsydra
in his right hand, has been knocked to the ground. A winged figure with an
aegis on his breast and a helmet topped with a bird, has placed his foot on
him, and is about to strike him with his lance. Further up the page, a winged
female is blowing a trumpet, while a pyramid and a temple uniting the
sphere and the triangle rise up from the bottom of the page. In short,
Minerva overcomes Saturn, wisdom triumphing over time and death and
bestowing the glory which is the key to long, if not eternal life. In the left
half of the engraving instruments are figured which enable one to conquer
glory, with a pair of compasses, a set square, a telescope and a model of the
universe at the bottom, and at the top, pyramids whose sides are decorated
with medals, the putti actually in the middle of attaching these to the one on
the left. Glory belongs to men of letters and learning.
The book itself consists of a series of plates each featuring several medals;
the accompanying notes give a description of the figures they celebrate.
Among the several hundreds of famous men and women, from Moses to
authors still alive at the time of publication, are representatives of every
tendency, denomination and party, all united thus in glory. Present are both
the heretics and the reformers: Calvin, Fare!, Knox, Luther and Zwingli, but
present too are the inquisitors and the champions of the battle against
Protestantism. Nobody therefore is absent from the roll-call, providing he
or she has been honoured through a medal. The problem is that in this
exercise in glorification an entire period of history is made ro seem utterly
248 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
bereft of famous people. Wrote Mazzuchelli, 'We make a huge leap from
the first to the thirteenth century. The first medal we display after this very
long period was struck in honour of Giovanni da Scio, a member of rhe
Dominican Order who lived around 1230.' Other representatives of the late
Middle Ages include Jacques de Vitry, St Thomas Aquinas, Ottaviano
Ubaldini, Dante, Cecco d'Ascoli, Andrea Dandolo, Wyclif, Petrarch,
Boccaccio and Salutati. There nevertheless remains the gulf of some twelve
centuries which, like the list of prominent figures from the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, reveals the necessarily discontinuous nature of numis-
matic history in a particularly flagrant fashion. This can be seen with regard
not only ro ancient times but to the recent period too. Mazzuchelli cites as
modern celebrities, Bacon, Bayle, Clarke, Descartes, Galileo, Linnaeus,
Locke, Maffei, Malebranche, Malpighi, Maupertuis, Montesquieu, Muratori,
Newton, Pascal and Voltaire. Remarkable by their absence, however, are
Leibnitz, his absence being particularly inexplicable, and Rousseau and
Spinoza, their absence being more comprehensible. The book ends with
several indexes compiled according to nationality, rank, sciences and the
arts, one even dealing with 'sectarians'Y
5
Although he remained within the framework of the traditional numis-
matic representation of history, Mazzuchelli concentrated his medal-
collecting activities on the heroes of the republic of letters and accordingly
only applied the principles which governed the approach of his predeces-
sors and some of his contemporaries to universal history to 'literary
history'. Although the idea of viewing history through its heroes and major
events had become somewhat anachronistic in this domain by the middle of
the eighteenth century, it remained entirely valid when applied to science,
art and literature. The ideas expressed in the collection and in the book were
therefore not obsolete, even if his interests in medals devoted to men of
letters and scholarship did prevent him from taking into account the most
important change which took place in numismatics in his time, a change
which was eventually ro alter the very framework of its representation of
history. This was the advent of the Middle Ages into the field of interest of
the collectors of medals and coins and into that of antiquaries interested in
their country's past.
The first signs of this change appeared as early as the last decades of the
seventeenth century. The papers of Giovanni de Lazara the Elder (1621-90)
included a work entirely devoted to the Paduan and Venetian seals he had
amassed, and to Paduan coins of the Middle Ages. Engravings had been
made of several pieces from this collection, and de Lazara hoped to have
others engraved too, as we can see from the lists of the Sigilli spettanti a
Padova da far intagliare and Sigilli da far intagliareY
6
It is therefore
reasonable to suppose that he envisaged the publication of his seals and
coins, though even if such a project was devised, it was certainly never
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians 249
carried out. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, medieval Venetian
coins and seals were to be found in several other collections in Padua,
Venice and perhaps elsewhere too. In 1662, for instance, Giovanni de
Lazara purchased a medieval seal from Sertorio Orsato, which can be seen
today in the museum in Padua,
377
yet never published a single word on this
subject, even though he did write a work on ancient coins. Accordingly, for a
long time, there was a discrepancy between the practice of certain collectors
and the image they gave to the public of their collections, since they spoke
only about ancient objects and kept quiet about all those that dated from the
Middle Ages.
In 1728 a Venetian senator, Domenico di Vincenzo Pasqualigo (d. ?1746)
finished compiling an anthology of learned essays on the coins in his
collection,
178
a collection which - and herein lies its originality - was
composed of Venetian coins, from the most ancient to the most recent, as
well as lead bullae and tesserae, also Venetian, medals from various different
countries, Italian coins and a number of antiques.
379
The immediately
striking feature of this list is the fact that none of the coins was ancient, and
that the focal points of the collection were Venice and Ita! y. The Pasqualigo
collection, formed in the 1720s, if not earlier, was, in fact, one of the first
Venetian numismatic collections to have such emphasis, just as the essays its
founder wrote were among the first Venetian publications to be devoted to
the coins of the Middle Ages, even though they only appeared in print
between 1737 and 1743. These discussed three of the oldest Venetian
currencies, as well as the coins issued under Doge Domenico Michie! (twelfth
century), as well as Visigoth and Lombard coins
380
- themes which would
soon be taken up by a whole new body of literature.
Numismatics and the discovery of the Middle Ages
The 1730s saw a rapid growth in the number of signs indicating the
numismatists' shift in attention towards the Middle Ages. At the beginning
of this decade, Apostolo Zeno began tO put together a series of Venetian
grossi rnatapani and build up a collection of oselle, buying 500 medieval
seals in 173 3 for fifty Roman crowns, and selling them four years later.
381
In
1738 Muratori embarked on the publication of the Antiquitates italicae
Medii Aevi, the second volume of which contained essays on coins
382
and
found attentive readers in the Venetian Republic. Six years later, Giovanni
Brunacci (1711-72), a Paduan abbot, published a history of the minting of
coins in his town during the Middle Ages
383
based on the collection he had
formed, but also drawing on the collections of de Lazara and of the
Papafavas, who also seem to have been interested for a long time in
medieval Paduan coins. For his part, Brunacci was in contact with Onorio
250 Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
Arrigoni and Aposrolo Zeno,l
84
as well as with Marco Foscarini, a historian
of Venetian literature and future doge, to whom his book was dedicated.JSs
The Brunacci collection did not solely comprise coins.
Abbot Giovanni Brunacci, a scholar and learned historian and antiquary,
has in his possession an extensive collection of medals from the Middle
Ages, from the Byzantine Empire, as well as from divers foreign and
Italian princes, and several seals belonging to our bishops and other
important objects. He has assembled all these things in order to illustrate
the secular and ecclesiastical history of this town and diocese, long
awaited by scholars. I could also mention other monuments and countless
parchments, both originals and copies taken from archive material which
are to be found under his roof, but they are not my concern. Lovers of
painting will, however, have the pleasure of seeing several examples of
very old paintings which appear to date from the thirteenth century or
thereabouts; despite their recent date, we already find them strange and
executed in that clumsy manner which some claim was usual at that time.
He also possesses a small work by our Andrea Mantegna .... \86
This description given by Rossetti in the 1765 edition of his guide is a
good illustration of the link between the awakening in interest in medieval
numismatics and in the Middle Ages in general on the one hand and, on the
other, a certain new esteem for the paintings of the 'primitives'. The de
Lazaras, who collected medieval coins throughout the eighteenth century,387
belonged, like Brunacci, to the same world as Facciolati and Lodoli.
Five years after Brunacci's book, Giangiuseppe Liruti (1689-1780), from
Villafredda in Friuli, the author of several works on local history,lss
published an essay on the currency which was in use in the Duchy of Friuli
between the decline of the Roman Empire and the fifteenth century. It
contained a historical commentary on his collection of medieval coins,
where we learn in passing that a similar collection had been formed by one
'Signor Agricola, Gentiluomo udinese'.
389
This work was followed by others
on the very first Venetian coins. Their author, Girolamo Zanetti, concen-
trated his studies on the pieces in the collection belonging to Antonio de
Savorgnan,l
90
though he did cite at least once the one owned by Giovanni
Soranza.
391
The latter half of the century saw an increase in the number of
collections in Venice entirely or partly comprising coins of local denomina-
tions. A series held to be one of the most complete was to be found in the
home of the Pisanis,
392
two further ones of equal renown being the work of
Lauro de Giovanni Dandolo (1746-1805)393 and Girolamo Ascanio
Molin.'
94
We should also mention the Tiepolo collection, to which Venetian
coins were added during the final decades of the century, as well as the ones
owned by Gasparo Moro, the Gradenigo family and the Mocenigo broth-
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquariam 251
ers.
395
Of all the major Venetian collectors interested in numismatics, only
Pietro Persico (1745-1802) seems to have confined his interest to ancient
coins.l9
6
A closer look at the collection formed by Matteo Pinelli, of which there
exists a reliable catalogue, will provide us with a more accurate picture of a
typical Venetian numismatic collection. It consisted of a series of Venetian
coins from the period stretching from the eleventh to the eighteenth
century, in all, some 1669 pieces, including 221 gold coins and 1161 silver
ones, the rest being copper. In addition, there were forty-five silver coins
and seven copper ones struck in towns later subjugated by Venice and by
the Aquileian patriarchs. 'An additional and quite remarkable ornament to
this collection is a complete series of portraits of doges and their wives,
numbering 168 . . . bearing their names and dates. They have been
executed with great artistry and with the finest of taste by Sig. Francesco
Maggiotto, a Venetian painter.' Seventy-one lead bullae, dating from 1192
to the eighteenth century, and which were normally attached to letters sent
by the doges, matched the set of coins, along with a 'Series of medals of
illustrious Venetian figures and other medals of the Republic of Venice',
comprising 356 pieces in all. 'Enhancing this series of medals are ten
portraits by Francesco Maggiotto, already mentioned, which are not unlike
those of the doges described earlier, and which represent the five Venetian
popes, as well as the five patriarchs of Venice who were cardinals.' This was
the real heart of Pinelli's numismatic collection, for although his 'series of
medals of illustrious men and others struck to commemorate special
occasions' contained far more pieces than the coin series, it seems only to
have had a secondary role, the genuinely important items being those which
were connected with Venice.397
We can quite easily skip over several collections of the second half of the
eighteenth century in the mainland towns which contained in varying
proportions specimens of medieval numismatics; suffice it to mention the
series of seals, 'liturgical instruments and objects' and Byzantine and
Venetian coins in the possession of Tomasso degli Obizzi, who amassed
considerable quantities of them.
398
However, we must not ignore the case of
Verona where, as in Venice and Padua, the interest in the Middle Ages was
expressed not only in the collections of objects from this period but also in
the burgeoning of research, which depended at least in part on these
collections. In 1756, for instance, J acopo Muselli wrote a work, left in
manuscript form despite being obviously intended for publication, which
contained a description of the medieval and modern sections of his
numismatic collection. This included a list of all the coins it comprised, from
the medieval to the contemporary ones - the most recent English coins
dated from 1733- drawn up in alphabetical order according to the names of
their places of origin. This part of the book was completed by two indexes -
252
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians
provinces, towns and localities whence they originated, and names of
princes figuring on them - and was followed by the list of the lead bullae
used by the popes, by Charlemagne and by various doges from Venice,
along with their seals, the stampmarks of sixty-five of these seals being
reproduced alongside this list. l9
9
A member of a later generation, Gian
Giacomo Dionisi (1724-1809), a canon, antiquary and coin collector, who
was incomparably more important to the culture of his rime than Muselli
had been, published a number of works, the ones most worthy of note being
his histories of miming in Verona, and prepared an edition of La Divina
Commedia.
400
Around him revolved figures of lesser calibre, such as
antiquaries, local history specialists and connoisseurs of Dante, whose work
enjoyed a new wave of interest at the end of the century.40J
In the context of seventeenth-century antiquarian culture coins, which
w e ~ e connected with universal history, were contrasted with inscriptions,
whJCh were responsible for the integration of universal hisrory into local
history: both were held to be by far the best sources for students of
antiquity. The changes which began in the 1720s, however, not only caused
both to cede this role to figured monuments but also took coins as the link
between local and universal hisrory, altering the definition of each in the
process. This is because numismatics could not assume its new role unless
the Middle Ages were taken into account, and this meant that history, as
represented through coins, was no longer interrupted by a void of several
centuries but was characterized instead by a new continuity. Nor did this
continuity exactly match that illustrated by the inscriptions, as it was now
based on the length of the regimes in whose name the coins were struck,
and on the techniques required for their production: numismatic history
was essentially an institutional history. Moreover, by minting a coin a town
showed that it was now a place history should take note of, and that it had
attained a certain rank, which explains the imponance now given to the
question of whether a particular town possessed a mint and in what radius
its coins circulated. This importance was reflected in the essays contained in
the Raccoita delle rnonete e zecche d'Italia
402
and in many large and small
volumes, such as one by Francesco Girolamo Bocchi who, with regard to a
silver coin unearthed in Adria in the sixteenth century, attempted, 'with the
aid of clear and irrefragable documents, to make known the fact that Adria
could rival several other famous towns in Italy even after Constantine and
in the Middle Ages (though not in every period, and despite inrerrup-
tions)'.403 Numismatic history became a vehicle for local patriotism.
Even though medieval coins were accorded a new status as historical
sources, which went hand in hand with their metamorphosis into collection
pieces, this by no means implied a willingness to consider them on the same
footing as ancient coins: 'The crudeness and barbarism of ours', wrote
Liruti, while commenting on a piece from his collection, 'are ample proof to
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiq#ariam 253
anyone who has handled many things of this type that it was struck during
the long-distant centuries of barbarism of the most obscure and uncouth
nature ever to have oppressed our Italy and which, brought by the Goths
and other peoples, reach its height during the time of the Lombards ... .'
404
In other words, Liruti refused to attribute any artistic worth whatsoever to
this coin, thereby apparently dissociating this worth entirely from
documentary worth. This dissociation did not only occur when coins from
'barbaric' periods were involved, but rather was a constant feature of
medieval numismatics. 'Although it comes from a miserable period,
although it is of a base metal and of crude and pitiful execution, as was
normal for those times, the medal of Michael and Basil, Emperors of
Constantinople ... seems to me to warrant particular study .. .',
405
wrote
Zanetti on the subject of a Byzantine coin, while Moschini said of
Pasqualigo that he left 'quite a rare collection of coins, even though they
were only Venetian ones'.
40
6 The essential difference between antiquity and
the Middle Ages, and between these and the period which began with the
Renaissance, is precise! y this absence of artistic worth peculiar to medieval
objects, except for a few rare examples so highly charged with patriotism,
that this even coloured the way in which they were judged. Medieval objects
were instructive bur could not arouse any admiration; they were to be
studied but not emulated, and fell not within the ambit of artists but within
that of historians.
The twin poles of antiquarian culture
Having completed this analysis, it would appear that Venetian antiquarian
culture was influenced by two different, if not conflicting tendencies. The
first of these was centred on an antiquity seen from an increasingly ethical
and aesthetic perspective, which gave figured monuments not only a
documentary but also an artistic and a moral value, seeing them as the most
reliable sources for students of ancient history and the best examples to
follow. The second tendency looked towards the Middle Ages from an
increasingly hisrorical perspective. In other words, it no longer condemned
the medieval period out of hand as a rebarbative one. The advocates of the
first tendency placed medieval objects, unless they were relics of the
country's glorious past, on the level of distractions, erecting Gothic
pavilions alongside their Chinese display rooms. The advocates of the
second continued to hold ancient works of art as models and standards of
good taste, so that relations between the two groups were not symmetrical,
given that those who were interested in the Middle Ages also recognized
the aesthetic superiority of ancient art, officially consecrated moreover by
the public institutions - in particular by the academies and museums -
254
Collectors, Natm'alists and Antiqttariam
while the collection of medieval objects was left to private individuals.
Lastly,. the first tendency continually sought out the universal, only
accordmg exemplary status to that which sprang directly from nature itself.
The medievalists, on the other hand, attributed a certain value to the
particular, to local specificities resulting from long traditions. The first was
cosmopolitan, the second patriotic.
Even though they are contrasted in a schematic and systematic fashion
here, these two different movements, which underwent many changes
between the 1720s and the 1830s, and which took several different forms
are none the less real and can even be personified. In the cultural world of
Venice and Venetia in the second half of the eighteenth century, the first
tendency was represented by Angelo Querini ( 1721-96) and the second by
Teodoro Currer (1_750-.1830). Sharing same social background and having
both.' :1p t? a certam pomt, followed the cursus honorum of every Venetian
It nevertheless seems at first sight impossible to compare the two
tn any way, because of the three decades separating their births. This
interval is in fact less important than might first appear, since no real break
occurred in the history of the Venetian Republic between the times when
Querini and Correr reached adulthood, and both abandoned public activities
at almost .the date, in 1775 and 1780 respectively. In 1777 Querini,
by Grrolamo Festari, travelled to Switzerland, where he paid
VISits to a famous geologist, Horace de Saussure, an equally famous botanist
by the name of Albert Haller, the founder of physiognomy, Johann Kaspar
Lavater and, most imporrant of all, to Voltaire. Correr seems never to have
Venice, and this constitutes the first significant difference. However, it
1s on.l Y. when one compares their historical and artistic preferences that
.and Correr turn out to represent the two opposing poles of the
antrquanan culture of their time.107
'Mr Querini is furiously for the ancients' wrote Giustiniana Wynne,
?f Rosenberg (173 7-91) in a description of the villa he possessed
at Alticchtero on the banks of the River Brenta,48 and both the interior of
the house and the surrounding grounds were indeed filled with remains
from antiquity. Inside could be seen a collection of antique curios, 'more
remarkable because of their choice and rarity than because of their number'
comprising lamps, rings, fibulae, cinerary urns, a 'series of Etruscan vases of
eve:y shape and sort' and another made up of 'the strangest and most
anctent of Etruscan, Egyptian and Indian vases' as well as several small
busts.
409
Outside, in the garden, were statues including, one of Marins, large
busts of the Caesars, of Plato, Scylla, Demosthenes and Scipio (whose ashes
were supposed to be contained in one of the urns), allegorical bas-reliefs and
sarcophagi. All these objects were present not only because of their beauty
but also because they bore a message: 'I confess to you, Sir, that this
antiquity's language of predilection, seemed to me at the outset obscure and
Co/leeton, Naturalists and Antiquarians 255
tiresome: have become accustomed to it, and each mythological sign I
glimpse in an ancient or modern work elevates my mind to the most
sublime moral philosophy.'4
10
Engravings depicting an ornithological collection, cards, plans, town
views, portraits of philosophers and sages (not to mention the busts of
Voltaire, Rousseau and Catherine II), a screen covered in topographical
maps of the Republic of Venice and statistics concerning its population and
economy: the decor of the Querini residence was not intended solely to
please: 'there is no ornament in this house which is not also useful,'
411
which was not subordinated to didactic ends, which was not supposed to
teach moral philosophy or knowledge likely to increase the well-being of
man. The same principle governed most of the monuments set out in the
garden: the altar of Friendship, the statue of Ceres erected to commemorate
the Venetian Senate's creation of a magistrate responsible for agriculture;
the temple of Apollo where 'the elogy of rural life and scorn for the false
gaiety of splendour and of show are gaily expressed'
412
It also governed the
botanical garden which was not an 'immense collection of plants in the
manner of Tournefort and Linnaeus' but merely a 'precious selection of
plants useful in pharmacy and medicine which poor peasants and all who
ask can use for no charge. As they are divided into twenty-two classes
according ro the best-known properties and marked with both their
botanical and common names, the gardener can recognize and use them
more easily.'
413
Given the impossibility of studying one by one all the elements of the
garden planned by Querini, each of which had in all probability a complex
symbolism of masonic inspiration,'
14
let us confine ourselves to finding
examples to illustrate the bipolarity behind the way the grounds of
Alticchiero were organized. The civic virtues and 'sublime moral philo-
sophy' represented by several ancient monuments were set opposite the
Chinese pavilion, 'truly baroque and grotesque but ... nonetheless quite
drole and pleasam'.m In a similar fashion, though in a different style, the
statue of Saturn devouring a child faced a statue of Rhea clutching a child in
her arms: 'nothing as explicit or interesting as this symbol of Time, the
destroyer of all things, and Nature which continually reproduces everything
through love, bringing together the elements of matter its enemy dis-
perses'.416 This explains why a labyrinth, the image of life, decorated with
busts supposed to depict both the four seasons and the four ages of man,
leads onto 'Young's wood' the wood of death, with its portals adorned with
the portraits of Heraclitus and Democritus.
417
It is in 'Young's wood' that the sarcophagi were situated, including one
restored by Canova and a Christian one dating from the fourteenth century.
Here roo were a botanical clock and the statue of Time. Near this statue
could be seen two monuments which 'in truth are merely Venetian' but
256 Collectors, Naturalists and A JZtiquariam
which 'because of their antiquity and links with famous events ... could be
of interest to scholars who like the middle ages, or to those seeking to
increase their knowledge of the history of this Republic.'
418
These com-
prised a 'base and most badly sculpted column', a monument to the
'revolution' in ideas about the fourteenth century led by the Tiepolos and
Querinis, along with another erected to commemorate an event later
acknowledged to be fictitious and for this reason 'worthy of inclusion in the
ruins of time, which destroys both truth and falsehood'.
41
9 Querini therefore
did not place monuments from the Venetian Middle Ages on the side of
nature, the side of antiquity, but on the side of time, but transient and not
lasting time; not in the labyrinth of life but in the wood of death.
Everything leads us to believe that Teodoro Correr was diametrically
opposed to Querini in this respect, neither making professions of faith nor
organizing gardens where each object had a message. He simply left behind
him a collection of manuscripts, books, paintings, engravings, objects made
from wood, bronze, ivory and various other materials, seals, coins, weapons
and narural specimens which filled three state rooms and around twenty
other rooms in his residence, although we do not know the exact layout.
420
This extremely rich collection was characterized by its homogeneity, Correr
being interested solely by monuments and documents linked in some way
with Venetian history. Even the antiquities he acquired seem to have been
important in his eyes because they had formerly belonged to eminent fellow
countrymen, one example being the gemstones from Zanetti's set of
engraved stones.m This preference for the historical or documentary value
of objects was translated into the care lavished over the numismatic section
of his collection, particularly over his set of Venetian coins,
422
and in the
number of works by Pietro Longhi, the eighteenth-century painter who was
best represented in Correr's gallery, the obvious explanation being that he
depicted scenes of Venetian life.42J
Correr's activities were not met by universal acclaim, many apparently
accusing him of accumulating any manner of objects without exercising the
least discernment, and without any real aims or criteria. These detractors
were still vocal thirty years after his death,
424
and one can understand their
reactions, for anyone who had grown up with the notion that, except in a
few rare cases, an object only deserved inclusion in a collection if it had
some aesthetic value and was pleasing to the eye, must have felt dis-
concerted by a collector who was motivated by the desire to rescue relics of
the nation's past quite simply because they were relics. So ecumenical an
attitude towards objects, one which Tomasso degli Obizzi, Correr's chief
rival at the turn of the century, seems to have shared, was acceptable in
scholars and in antiquaries interested in monuments of local history and
consequently in the relics of the Middle Ages long before its importance
was realized by a public of any real size. This same public, however,
Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquariam
257
accustomed to the cult of antiquity alone, could only accept this as a
private aberration betraying an absence ?f taste. and an. mabtlny to
distinguish good from bad. It is these reacoons whtch consmute the best
evidence of the originality of the Correr collectton and of. the way tt
overturned eighteenth-century antiquarian culture by. choosmg. a
traditional and medieval emphasis, and thereby heraldmg a turnmg-pomt
in the history of society and taste.
8
Private Collections,
Public Museums
One only needs to draw up a list of the major museums in Venice, together
with the dates when they were founded, to realize that they all began life at
different periods in history. The core collection of the treasure-house of St
Mark's basilica, for example, was established at the beginning of the
thirteenth century, the origins of the Sale d'Armi dei Consiglio di Dieci go
back to the fourteenth century, the Archaeological Museum dates back ro
the sixteenth century, while the Academy's galleries, founded on 12
February 1807, are therefore the fruits of the eighteenth century, like the
Pinacoteca Manfrediniana and Correr Museum. This particular museum
was moreover founded slightly later than the galleries, and the nature of its
very contents was determined to a large degree by the fall of the republic: in
1866 the Risorgimento Museum was added to it. 1868 saw rhe opening of
the Pinacoteca Querini-Stampalia, and 1897 that of the Gallery of Modern
Art. The 1920s brought the Oriental Museum ( 1923) and the Franchetti
Gallery at the Ca' d'Oro (1927), as well as the Natural Science Museum,
which was given autonomy from the Correr Museum in 1924, just like the
Museum of Glass and Glass-making and rhe Museum of Eighteenth-century
Venice at theCa' Rezzonico in 1932 and 1935 respectively. 1951 was the
year in which the Peggy Guggenheim Collection was given a permanent
home in the Venier dei Leoni Palace.
Distinguishing features of a collection
All these facts and dates, except for the last one, have been taken from the
Lorenzetti Guide; in other words, they are familiar to any tourist who takes
the trouble ro visit Venice properly. The history of Venice's collections,
which these facts and dates encapsulate, has by no means been neglected,
Private Collections, Public Museums 259
especially within the walls of the Ateneo Veneto. On 30 January 1879 one
of the Ateneo's members, Francesco Fappani, gave a talk on the history of
collections in Venice, the text of which can be found in his Elenco dei Musei,
delle Pinacoteche e delle varie co!fezioni pubb!iche e private, che un tempo
esistettero, e che e.riJtono oggidi' in Venezia e nella .rua Provincia, on which
he worked for twelve years and left in manuscript form. In doing this he
was, in actual fact, following in the wake of Marco Foscarini, Giannantonio
Moschini and Emmanuele Cicogna, all of whom had rightly considered this
history to be an important component of the history of the arts and letters
in Venice, and of Venetian life in general. Our interest in it, therefore,
merely represents the continuation of a long tradition, and our aim is not so
much to bring forgotten or unknown facts tO light bur to arrive at some
general conclusions regarding collections taken as political, or even
anthropological phenomena.
For this reason, we will be basing most of our arguments on well-known
facts, and will constantly refer back to the list of Venetian museums
arranged in chronological order, since this enables us to take in at a glance
the entire history of public collections as it unfolded in Venice from the
very earliest times right up to the present day, leaving at each of its major
turning-points a new type of museum, and thus becoming woven into the
very fabric of the city.
As to whether a history of this kind can, despite its obvious specificity
and the narrow confines within which it moves, provide a satisfactory basis
for significant conclusions with a sufficiently wide application, this will
become clear from the results obtained. For the time being, we will merely
say that it is so rich that the risk of being bogged down in local anecdote is
not great enough to outweigh the advantages of adopting a rigorous
approach intended to do away with the factual bric-a-brac engendered by a
disregard for chronology and the unity of place, and replace it with a
homogeneous body of knowledge. For all that, we are quite at liberty to
make comparisons and indeed will not hesitate to do so.
Before rounding off this introductory section, a few more remarks still
need to be made regarding the criteria which enable the historian, during
the course of his work, to distinguish a collection from a mere heap of
objects. This work consists, of course, of the study of source material, such
as inventories, catalogues, descriptions left by visitors, travel accounts and
guides, correspondence, memoirs, accountancy documents and so on. The
characteristics of the objects cannot be used as criteria in quite the same
manner, as one only needs to make a tour of the museums and private
collections in any given city to realize that they can contain virtually every
known sort of natural and artificial object. This was just as much the case in
the past, although rhe number of types known to collectors and the methods
of classifying them were different then.
260 Private Collections, Public MuseJtms
The chief distinguishing feature of a collection is the fact that the objects
of which it is comprised are kept either temporarily or permanently out of
the circuit of utilitarian activities. A set of objects assembled in a shop or
boutique in order to be sold does not, therefore, constitute a collection, and
the same applies to sets of instruments intended for the production of
materials or finished products. We have here a criterion which is both easy
to apply and unambiguous, but it is not the sole condition which has to be
mer if we are to begin to talk about a collection. We must therefore add that,
in order to constitute a collection, a set of objects must also be afforded
special protection. This requirement is easy to understand, as objects one
does not protect from physical wear and tear or from theft are effectively
treated as if they were worthless, nothing more than scrap. To all intents
and purposes, scrap is indeed excluded from the circuit of utilitarian
activities and therefore satisfies the first criterion we laid down, yet we
cannot place scrap in the category of colleCtions. The formation of a
collection thus requires solutions to be found to the problems of preserva-
tion and possibly of the restoration of the pieces composing it.
Even with this second criterion, however, we do not arrive at an adequate
definition, for all the above conditions can be met by a hoard of coins shut
away in the basement in a sealed clay pot, given that it has been removed
from the circuit of utilitarian activities and afforded special protection. The
same can be said of a set of paintings guarded in a bank strongroom. The main
difference between treasures of this kind and a collection is that the latter is
placed on display in an enclosed space specially designed for the purpose.
Placed on display, it is introduced into a circuit of non-utilitarian exchanges
where the value attributed to it by irs owner is confirmed or invalidated by
people other than him. This depends on a public (which can be defined in a
multitude of ways) being given access to the collection, and on the existence
of suitable premises along with a successfulla your scheme enabling the pieces
to be seen properly. The formation of a collection intended for mortal beings
(some are occasionally intended for the gods, but this does not fall within our
ambit) therefore means finding away of displaying the pieces it comprises, in
terms of presentation, lighting, the passage of visitors from one piece to
another and so on. In every single case, thought must also be given to the type
of premises used, since they not only provide protection against theft and
damage from the environment, but also bestow unity on a multiplicity of
objects, a unity which allows them all to be perceived as constituent elements
of the same whole. Hence the importance of the architecture and furniture
which determine the nature of these premises and perform the same role for
a collection as a frame does for a painting.
The discovery that a set of objects mentioned in source material satisfies
the above conditions, amounts to the recognition of this set as a collection.
It is particularly important to proceed in this manner when sets of objects
Private Collections, Public Museums 261
amassed in the homes of private individuals are involved, as their functions
are easily misinterpreted if they are not properly identified. It will not be
necessary to adopt this procedure here, however, as this essay simply
requires us to show that with sufficient documentation it is possible to
distinguish a collection from a mass of objects with a different finality.
The formation of public museums: four distinct patterns
Now that these preliminaries have been settled, let us return to the list
given at the beginning of this chapter and use examples from it in order to
illustrate four different patterns of public museum formation.
The first pattern, which we shall call the 'traditional' one, is represented by
every institution which gives rise, in the course of its normal activities, to the
birth of a collection accessible either to all the public or to certain specified
categories, in accordance with a timetable settled in advance, or else on
particularly solemn occasions. This is exactly the case of the treasure of St
Mark's, from its creation in the thirteenth century to the fall of the Venetian
Republic. Placed on display five times a year on the main altar of the basilica,
it was also opened very exceptionally to foreign personalities: John Evelyn,
for instance, was able to visit it in 1645, being part of the retinue of the French
ambassador, while Montfaucon was similar! y favoured in 1698. The treasure-
house of St Mark's therefore functioned as a museum for a very long period
before being officially recognized as such in 1832. However, it did so only
intermittent! y, being closed to the public most of the time. Its role as museum
was a secondary one, and dependent on its primary one of sanctuary and
treasure-house. It was first and foremost a storeroom for objects which,
either relics or emblems of power, had to be displayed above all within the
context of ecclesiastical and political ceremonies befitting their dignity,
which celebrated both St Mark and the nation.
In a similar fashion, and provided no dreadful catastrophe occurred, every
church where paintings, monuments and objets d'art had accumulated
throughout the centuries became the home of a collection to which the
public had access. It is precisely this historico-artisric facet of places of
worship which is stressed in so many of the guides, descriptions of towns
and travellers' accounts, such as Martinelli's brief work, written in 1705 and
entitled Il ritratto ovvero le case piit notabili di Venezia diviso in due parti.
Nella prima si descrivono brievemente tutte le Chiese della Citta, con le
Memorie piit illustri, Depositi, Epitaffi, Iscrizioni, Sculture, e Pitture piit
cospicue, con le dichiarazioni, e Autori de esse .... Some churches were
actually even classed as museums, and A. M. Zanetti the Younger, for
instance, wrote in 1771 that Santa Maria Maggiore 'puo chiamar.ri ... una
compiuta galleria di pitture veneziane'.
262 Private Collections, Public Museums
The collections open to the public did not only accumulate sponta-
neously in churches. They were also quite frequently to be found in the
palaces of princes and kings dutybound to surround themselves with rare
and beautiful things, amass them in large quantities and show them off.
Since it was dictated by the rank they occupied in society and the role they
had to assume, this obligation led to the formation or conservation of
collections even when the individuals concerned had no personal interest
in them. This type of collection, the emanation of power, was represented
in Venice by the one housed in the Sale d'Armi dei Consiglio di Dieci in
the Doges' Palace. Originally intended as an armoury, but subsequently
used as a place where trophies, works of art and gifts made to the republic
by princes and foreign dignitaries were guarded, these state rooms were
the ones chosen to house the collection of ancient coins donated to the
state by Pietro Morosini in 1683. Under strict guard, the Sale d' Armi were
opened from time to time to famous visitors who had been given special
permission. Thus, like the treasure-house of St Mark's, they served for
part of the time as a museum.
Last of all, there were those collections which were open to the public and
grew up in teaching establishments, including the Academy of Fine Arts
(from 1750 onwards) and, most importantly, the University of Padua
where a botanical garden was set up in 1546. This garden, which was
enlarged in the eighteenth century by the addition of ornithological and
mineralogical collections, was visited and described by many naturalists and
the guidebooks of the day recommended visiting it. The foundation of the
University's natural history museum, based on the collections of Antonio
Vallisnieri which his son had donated in 1733, and comprising in particular
a substantial amount of archaeological equipment, followed a different
pattern of public museum formation, which will be discussed later on.
The transformation into a museum of a treasure-house which, even if it
retains its former name, still changes in status, or else of a collection
amassed in a palace or castle, always involves the loss of the liturgical,
ceremonial, decorative or utilitarian role which had originally been pia yed
by their contents. In some cases, this happens quite imperceptibly and
progressively. Objects cease to fulfil their initial functions because they are
no longer fashionable or have suffered damage, or else because the
development of new techniques has rendered them obsolete. Yet they are
conserved because of their historical or artistic value, until the day when it is
decided to display them to the public. For instance, the weapons and suits of
armour kept in the Doges' Palace since the fourteenth century had lost all
semblance of usefulness several centuries later, but then became a collection
put on show to the public- initially a hand-picked public- well before they
were placed in the Arsenal Museum, whence they returned in 1917 to their
original home. The history of the St Mark's treasure-house was even more
---
Private Collections, Public Museums 263
eventful, as it suffered tremendous destruction after the fall of the republic,
and was only reopened after complete restructuring.
Outside Venice, the traditional pattern was followed by a number of
institutions, including the Uffizi in Florence, the Ambrosiana in Milan, the
Munich Art Gallery, the Vatican Museums, the Crown collections in Great
Britain (Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, etc.), the Hermitage in Lenin-
grad, as well as the treasures housed in countless churches in a number of
differem European coumries. All these institutions have a long history,
some dating back as far as the Middle Ages, in the case of church treasures,
others, in the case of the museums, as far back as the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries; even the Hermitage, the most recent among them,
was already in existence in the first half of the eighteenth century. All were
emanations of temporal or spiritual power, and all were opened early on to
the public- the last to be so was the Hermirage in 1852- even if the notion
of public was considerably more restrictive than it is today, and the
conditions of access very different. Often tumultuous, the history of these
institutions is reflected both in their contents, frequently made up of
different strata laid down in successive periods which have undergone a
process of sedimentation lasting several centuries, and in their buildings,
several of which are histOrical monuments intended from the very ourset to
house the works on show there today.
'Traditional' museums therefore differ in several respects from those
formed according to a different, 'revolutionary', pattern. The latter, which
were founded by decree, absorbed works from extremely diverse origins
seized by the state from the homes of their former owners, and were housed
in buildings completely unconnected with these works, generally disused
places of worship converted for the purpose. In Venice, this pattern is
represented by the Academy's galleries, which were solemnly inaugurated
on 10 August 1817, after ten years of preparations and the reconstruction,
overseen by Giannantonio Selva, of the former Church and School of the
Charity and the Convent of the Lateran Canons. The majority of the
paintings on display came from churches and convents. The galleries were,
of course, formed around a core, in this case composed of the collections
belonging to the Academy of Fine Arts, which included paintings and
plaster casts of anciem sculptures. These casts had belonged to Abbot
Filippo Farsetti and had been purchased by the Austrian government in
1805. Apart from these, and the acquisition in 1816 of the Girolamo Molin
legacy, the galleries received several donations from collectOrs - in
particular, 188 pictures from Girolamo Contarini in 1838 - and also
enriched their stocks by purchasing certain works, which brings us back to
the two patterns of public museum formation we will be dealing with later.
Having said this, one must nevertheless recognize that behind the
foundation of the galleries was a centralizing and modernizing system of
264 Private Collections, Public Museums
state control. The decree of 12 February 1807, by which the new Academy
of Fine Arts was set up together with an art gallery, implemented in Venice
the statutes granted to the academies of Bologna and Milan in 1803, and in
this domain the Austrians appear to have pursued the policy embarked on
by the Kingdom of Italy. Under this system, works had been distributed
according to political objectives, these consisting in the main of favouring
the capital to the detriment of the provincial towns. This meant that
Venetian paintings were sent to the Brera gallery in Milan, the aim
apparently being to bring rogether the finest works by the most eminent
representatives of the local 'schools'. Examples of these schools were,
however, to be displayed in greater number in their places of origin, which
explains the initial homogeneity of the Academy's collections, composed
solely of works by Venetian painters, in spite of attempts to exchange some
of these for different ones.
It is useless to dwell on the fact that this pattern of public museum
formation was a direct result of the practices and ideology of the French
Revolution, which the Napoleonic state inherited and which was pro-
foundly influenced by Enlightenment thought, with its anticlerical, if not
antireligious slant, and its belief in the benefits of a strong, philosophy-
based power. This is why the family of museums to which the Academy
galleries belong is only represented in those countries which have under-
gone revolutionary upheaval, even when this has been the result of foreign
conquest, either at the turn of the nineteenth century or else in the wake of
the Bolshevist and Maoist revolutions. The chief precursor is obviously the
Louvre, opened in 1793 and subsequently emulated by other French
museums in the provinces together with others founded under Napoleon in
various European countries. The most notable example of the latter, the
Prado, was the result, at least on paper, of a decree signed by Joseph
Bonaparte in 1809. At the beginning, these museums housed almost
exclusively ancient sculpture and examples of post-Renaissance painting
and sculpture. Later on, they broadened their scope to include other periods
and other domains. In the twentieth century, the revolutionary pattern
governed the creation of the majority of museums in the Soviet Union, in
certain of its satellite states and also in China. The Anglo-Saxon world,
however, contains no example whatsoever of this type.
Neither the traditional- nor the revolutionary-type museums exist in any
great number in either Venice, Europe as a whole or the United States.
Rather, in Venice, if not everywhere, one finds museums based on a third
pattern one could term 'evergetic', to make an adjective out of the name
given to city benefactors in ancient times. These are, in fact, private
collections left to their founders' home towns, to the state or else to an
educational or religious institution, so that the public may have access to
them. The oldest example of this in Venice, if not in modern Europe, is the
Private Collectiom, Public Museum.r 265
Archaeological Museum, which grew, thanks to the 'statuario publico', from
the donations of Giovanni and Domenico Grimani in 1523 and 1587 and
was enriched between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries by the legacies
of several Venetian collectors. If we compare it with the St Mark's treasure-
house and the Sale d'Armi dei Consiglio di Dieci, the public museum created
in the sixteenth century in the antechamber of St Mark's library obviously
constitutes a new type, being once again the gift of a generous benefactor.
New in terms not only of its origins but also of irs contents, since these no
longer comprise curiosities, relics or objects whose value comes from the
material they are made from, but works of art brought together simply
because they date from antiquity.
Other museums of the same type, though with differing contents, were to
make an appearance later on, including the Correr Museum in Venice itself,
the Querini-Stampalia Art Gallery, the Franchetti Gallery at the ca d'Oro
and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Padua boasted the Natural History
Museum, which has already been mentioned, Verona the Lapidary Museum
created by the Accademia Filarmonica at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, and which was greatly enlarged and completely reorganized by
Maffei in the first half of the eighteenth century. At the same time, the
museums founded according to the traditional and revolutionary patterns
saw their initial stocks increase in size thanks to donations from collectors:
we have already noted the numismatic collection Pierro Morosini
bequeathed ro the Sale d'Armi in the Doges' Palace, as well as the Molin and
Conrarini legacies received by the Academy's galleries, and these were
certainly nor isolated cases.
There were a great many museums based on the evergetic model outside
the Venetian Republic, so many in fact that any attempt to list them results
in a volume of a size approaching that of a telephone directory. It is
possible, however, to detect a number of common features. Some, like the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, founded in the second half of the
seventeenth century, belong to the same generation as traditional-type
museums, but the majority were founded much more recently; their 'dates
of birth' span the whole of the nineteenth century, though they are
particularly concentrated at the turn of the twentieth century. In the
majority of cases they were the creations of industrialists, tradesmen and
financiers who owed their prosperity to the current economic expansion,
and who used part of their time and money to set up collections and arrange
for these to be taken care of after their deaths. In Europe, however,
evergetic museums have only ever played second fiddle to the large national
museums based on the traditional or revolutionary patterns. In the United
States, where they have no such rivals, it is a different story, and as a result,
they can be found at every level, from the tiny museum of only local
importance ro those that are known the world over, such the Smithsonian
266 Private Collections, Pttblic Mttsettms
Institution and National Gallery in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum
and Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as the ones to be found in
all the major American cities, a number of universities and so on.
For want of a better term, we shall baptize the fourth pattern of public
museum formation the 'commercial' model. This applies to every museum
formed when an institution either buys separately all the pieces intended to
fill it or else purchases entire collections. The first of these eventualities is
illustrated in Venice by the Modern Art Gallery, which owes its existence to
the acquisition of works displayed during the international biennial art
events. As for the second one, a good example would be the Oriental
Museum, which grew out of the collections formed at the end of the
nineteenth century by Henri de Bourbon-Parme, Count of Bardi, sold after
his demise to a Viennese antiquary and returned to Italy as part of the
reparations paid by Austria after World War I. The best-known museum of
this type is undoubtedly the British Museum, which was founded around the
collection purchased in 1753 from the executOrs of the will of Sir Hans
Sloane for 20,000, after a ruling by the British parliament. It would be
quite superfluous to add that museums, whatever their origins, enlarge their
initial stocks not only through gifts bur also through purchases. These latter
can sometimes be made indirectly, as in the case of a museum organizing or
financing archaeological digs the results of which are then added to its
collections.
These, then, are the four patterns of public museum formation, and it
seems highly improbable that museums have been established other than
through the effects of tradition, the decrees of a revolutionary power, the
action of a generous group or individual or through purchases. Neverthe-
less, although the origins of a museum are important, they do not
completely determine its fate, unless, of course, it remains completely
frozen in time. Every museum, regardless of the way it started life, develops
by receiving gifts and making purchases, either with money from benefac-
tors or else with central, regional or local government funds set aside for
that purpose. In this sense, the activities of every museum follow the
evergetic or commercial patterns, with the exception of countries under
complete state control, whose inhabitants, citizens in name only, cannot
exercise any possible influence over the institutions.
The division of public museums into four different formation patterns
does not therefore enable us to evolve any proper museum typology. Its
interest lies, in fact, elsewhere, since it allows us to relate museum hisrory to
general history, or more accurately, to political, cultural, social and econ-
omic history. This is particularly obvious as regards the history of museums
in Venice, since this highlights, as we have just seen, the links of these
museums with those in power and underlines the role of benefactors in
their creation and development. We should perhaps note that benefaction
Private Collectiom, Public Mttsettms 267
in the Venetian Republic, the motives of which the various wills, from that
of Giacomo Contarini (1596) to that of Teodoro Correr (1830), clearly
explain, was essentially a political phenomenon, a demonstration of
attachment to the nation to which one sought to express gratitude and
praise through the bequest of one's collection to the public. During the
period of the republic, the benefactors mostly consisted of the patricians,
who held the reins of power and possessed full citizenship, while in the
nineteenth century, this role was mainly played by the descendants of
ancient patrician families.
This link between citizenship and benefaction is not peculiar to Venice.
In general, the greater the degree of participation by individuals in the
affairs of the state, the more they show a propensity to place their
possessions at the disposal of the community. The fact that evergetic-type
museums were absent, except in very rare cases, from absolute monarchies
and under the ancien regime, and do not exist in any of roday's totalitarian
states is proof of this. Not only do they not form in political environments
of this kind but existing museums, created following different patterns or,
quite simply, bequests made in the past, only receive gifts from private
individuals in quite exceptional circumstances. Museums of the evergetic
pattern, on the other hand, do exist in oligarchies and are quite numerous in
democracies. As both the examples from the ancient Venetian Republic and
those from the United States show, they benefit above all from increases in
personal freedom in the particular regions in which they are to be found.
This all helps to show the importance of private collections not only to
the formation of public museums but also to their running, as well as
illustrating the links between the two. While private collections sometimes
help to enrich museums which come into existence following the traditional
pattern or else as the result of a decision by the powers that be, they are
also, on occasion, turned into new museums thanks to donations or
foundations, and the time has now come to take a closer look at the dividing
line between public and private and at the relationship between them.
The boundary between public and private
The exact position of the dividing line between public and private has
shifted with the centuries. Nowadays, there is a tendency to identify public
property with state property, but this is only acceptable if one considers the
state not only to be one representative of the general interest but also its
sole representative, two presuppositions which are questionable to say the
least. Whatever the case, the most widely accepted meaning of the term
public applies solely to that which has a link with society as a whole and
with every member of the people, though the definition of a people has also
268 Private Collections, Public Museums
varied considerably down the centuries. One has only to take this particular
definition of the word public to see that in the Middle Ages, and for a long
time afterwards, the collections which accumulated in ecclesiastical build-
ings, especially in places of worship, were public, in that they belonged to
the Christian people represented by an institution which, in the West,
embraced all the members of each society and indeed sought to embrace the
whole of humanity. Moreover, and this is particularly important, they were,
though with certain restrictions it is true, on view to everyone.
Royal or princely collections were private, on the other hand, as their
owners, as individuals, could dispose of them as they wished, which meant
that they only showed them to those they wished. It was to take the work of
many centuries, in the legal and political fields, to determine and incorpor-
ate into the very fabric of the institutions the difference between the king's
status as an individual and the monarchy as a legal entity and the
corresponding distinction between the king's private property and that of
the public, which belonged to the Crown, and of which he was merely the
caretaker, dutybound to pass it on in good condition to his heirs. This
process, which even changed the status of the royal collections, reached
completion sometime between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries,
depending on the particular European country concerned. At the same time
the definition of the people, which had previously been very narrow, was
extended to include all those who spoke the same language, inhabited the
same territory and owed allegiance to the same state, regardless of whether
or not they enjoyed political rights. This meant that the srate could pose as
a coextension of the people and claim to be the sole legitimate representa-
tive of the general interest.
It is in this way that the situation which prevailed in the Middle Ages was
completely overturned. From the point of view of the state-oriented
ideologies, the churches were henceforth synonymous with private institu-
tions, dividing up the subjects or citizens according to religious criteria. The
collections belonging to the Catholic Church followed exactly the opposite
course to that of the royal collections, for while they had previously been
recognized as public, they were now seen as private ones, or even as public
property illegitimately requisitioned by a private institution. Seen from this
angle, as it was during the French Revolution and its sequel, nothing
prevented the state from returning to the public that to which it had a right,
expropriating the church and housing the 'nationalized' objects in disused
places of worship or else in buildings built specifically as museums.
This is rhe bare outline of the history which, in Venice, led to the setting
up of the Academy galleries, filled when a disused church, together with
several new buildings, was stocked with paintings taken from the churches.
However, the new definition of the term public, which this operation
presupposes, and which did not include ecclesiastical property, was
Private Collections, Public Museums 269
introduced to the city by a foreign army exporting revolutionary principles.
Up to the end of the eighteenth century, the siruation had been somewhat
different, for it had been the Venetian collections which were housed in the
churches and palaces of the republic which had been regarded as public.
This can be clearly seen in old descriptions of the 'pubb!iche pitture'
beginning with Sansovino ( 1581) and the successive editors of his book
(Stringa, 1604; Martinoni, 1663 ). Descriptions continued to be written by
Boschini (1674) whose work was revised sixty years later in 1733 by A.M.
Zanetti the Elder, and even by A. M. Zanetti the Younger ( 1771), to
mention but the most important aurhors.
It was with this traditional type of public collection that private
collections were contrasted, and these private collections appeared in the
Venetian Republic earlier than elsewhere, the two oldest ones dating from
the latter half of the fourteenth century. At the beginning of the fifteenth
century, there were at least six Venetian collectors, two of whom lived in
Crete. At this time Florence was apparently the only town in Europe to
boast a greater number of collectors; we know of eleven today. A century
later, there were already several dozen in Venice, and in the second half of
the sixteenth century, Hubert Goltzius, a Flemish numismatist and
engraver, produced a list bearing the names of twenty-five ancient coin
collectors in Venice which, according to him, placed that city in third place
in Italy, after Rome (seventy-one) and Naples (forty-seven), but ahead of
Genoa (seventeen), Milan (sixteen), Florence, Bologna and Padua (eleven).
At the end of the seventeenth century, Martinoni mentioned thirty-one
collectors, but as in the case of Goltzius, this only accounted for the visible
part of a group which was undoubtedly much larger, even though it is
impossible to make an accurate assessment. Indeed, the latter will only ever
be achieved by dint of a vast amount of research concentrated on the
thousands of inventories stored in Venice's archives.
It would be extremely useful on various counts to know the exact number
of active collectors in Venice decade by decade, from the beginning of the
fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth. It would allow one to
measure the extent of this phenomenon and to see how it evolved as the
years went by. It would be possible to make a sociological analysis, albeit a
rather rough and ready one, of the changes in taste and in scientific and
historical interests. Nevertheless, the results of any research of this kind
would by no means undermine the assertion that collectors, whatever their
number, never constituted, in Venice as elsewhere, any more than a small
minority of the population. The advent and growth of this minority
nonetheless had a considerable influence on the evolution of European
culture.
The very first collectors in Venice, Florence and elsewhere, grounded in
the humanists' texts and inspired by Petrarch, were fascinated by antiquity.
270 Private Collections, Public Museums
Their fervent wish was to have, touch, study and examine at their leisure
ancient objects, such as inscriptions, engraved stones, statues and coins.
These objects which, except for a few particularly spectacular examples, had
lain buried beneath the ground, and which accordingly were classed as
rubbish, now acquired a historical, artistic and market value, since people
could be found who were willing to pay, and pay dearly, to obtain them.
This prompted people to start looking for such objects in Italy itself, on the
islands, in Dalmatia and in Greece, on behalf of the waiting collectors in
Venice. It was the beginning of a movement which was to last several
centuries. With the discovery of new, unexpected and often inexplicable
artefacts during the search for ancient objects, fresh explanations had to be
found; this led to the publication of new scholarly works, which in their
turn stimulated new research and so on.
The result of this constant oscillation between text and object was the
gradual accumulation of a new body of knowledge dealing with even the
most diverse aspects of the life and times of the ancients. Its choice of
documents and methods of interpretation changed with time, but its
dominant position in artistic and literary culture was nor challenged until
the nineteenth century. The constitution of this body of knowledge went
hand in hand with the changes in taste which now advocated that the
medieval model should be shunned and the antique model emulated, even if
it was impossible to agree what form this emulation should take (this
became the source of interminable arguments). It also went hand in hand
with the inauguration of a new presentation of history which differed on
several important points from those of the Middle Ages, and finally with
the advent of a new rhetoric and new moral philosophy, which constituted
the synthesis of the Christian requirement for charity towards one's
neighbour in exchange for the salvation of one's soul, and the requirement
for generosity towards one's fellow citizens and native town, in exchange
for glory, the earthly substitute for immortality.
In Venice at the end of the sixteenth century, the entry on stage of the
modern private collector - the individual who collects even though he is
neither king nor prince, and therefore not forced to do so because of rank -
accompanied by the advent of benefaction, the product of this same civic
moral philosophy, resulted in the creation of the 'antiquario publico' an
innovation of great importance following a series of gifts to the republic.
The public collections which were already in existence contained relics,
precious objects, paintings and curiosities, but lacked antiques capable of
fulfilling the role of exemplary works of art, the ancient vases in Sr Mark's
treasure-house serving as reliquaries. In other words, at the end of the
sixteenth century the public collections in Venice continued to reflect a taste
and interests which were no longer the concern of cultured men, who now
focused their attention on antiquities. Therefore, when they donated the
Private Collections, Public Museums 27l
ancient statues destined for the anteroom of the library of St Mark's, the
collectors were making up for ground lost by official institutions in keeping
up with changing public tastes, and in doing so thrust Venice into Europe's
cultural avant-garde.
The attribution of value to things previously held to be valueless, if
indeed any attention was paid to them at all, took place on several occasions
in the history of modern Europe, though obviously its protagonists were
not always humanist collectors and the objects concerned were not always
antiquities. Moreover, even antiquities underwent promotions and
revisions; whereas Federigo Contarini donated statues to the republic at the
end of the sixteenth century, roughly one hundred years later, Pietro
Morosini made a donation of coins, the typical constituents of a scholarly
collection. Although antiquity never lost its exemplary status, by the second
half of the seventeenth century it was no longer seen primarily as a period
to be imitated in every aspect of secular life. The principal aim was now to
gain knowledge of it through the remains it had left behind, though in an
encyclopaedic way and without any order of importance being imposed on
its various different aspects. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century,
the idea that it was art which gave expression to the 'spirit' of antiquity and
which therefore explained its privileged position in history, gained
momentum. Accordingly, the large statues which, since the fifteenth
century, had never ceased to win admiration and serve as a source of
inspiration, now won the favour of the scholars, while the smaller objects
which had formerly sent scholars into raptures, slipped into obscurity. In
Venice, this resulted in the creation of the Academy of Fine Arts and in the
formation of a large collection of plaster casts intended to enable young
artists to familiarize themselves with ancient sculpture. This, of course, was
the Farsetti collection, which rose to fame in the final decades of the
eighteenth century, and which we have already had cause to mention.
The same process affecred other classes of objects, such as those produced
by nature. Apart from ones which were regarded as useful, such as
medicinal plants, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were primarily
interested in rare, exceptional, extraordinary, exotic and monstrous things.
Nature attracted those who sought meanings rather than laws, messages
rather than consistency, small matter whether these came from God or
from demons. The collections of this period faithfully reflect this
unbounded curiosity, which was only brought to heel by the new brand of
post-Galilean science. In Venetia, this turning-point came about at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, with Patarol and Zannichelli in Venice
itself and, most importantly, with Vallisnieri in Padua. Henceforth, interest
began to be shown in the banal, the repetitive and the easily accessible, and
in everything which had previously been ignored, such as the insects to be
found in the countryside, the plants growing in the neighbourhood, stones
272 Private Collections, Public Museums
from nearby mountains and the shells and algae deposited on the beaches
by the Adriatic. They now no longer attracted attention solely because of
potential therapeutic properties, as had been the case with the seventeenth-
century naturalist-pharmacists, bur also because they represented a source
of the objective knowledge needed for the compilation of an exhaustive
inventory of nature. The number of collectors of natural history specimens
steadily increased from the beginning of the seventeenth century onwards,
while the works devoted to the subject also grew in quantity, not to mention
the public lectures on it and the controversies it gave rise to. The Museo
Civico di Scienze Naturali in Venice was a late offspring of this promotion
of natural history, which had already spawned several public museums, such
as that of the University of Padua, in the eighteenth century.
Our third example of previously worthless objects attributed worth, or
rather of devalued objects having their value restored, concerns the
rediscovery of the artistic value of medieval monuments which, for many
centuries, had interested only historians spurred on by local patriotism to
study the period of 'Gothic barbarism'. This purely historical interest in
things medieval, illustrated by the collection of Venetian coins donated to
the republic at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Domenico
Pasqualigo, had already caused Maffei to discover the genuine aesthetic
value of certain medieval monuments in Verona (the Scaliger tombs).
Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, we find paintings by the
primitives in the Paduan collection belonging to Abbot Facciolatti, as well
as in one belonging to someone of the utmost importance in the cultural life
of Venice at this time, Fra Carlo Lodoli. A little later, A.M. Zanetti extolled
the virtues of Carpaccio, while towards the end of the century, Milizia
insisted on the superiority of Gothic as opposed to baroque architecture.
Venice and Venetia therefore took part in the European movement to
upgrade medieval art, a movement which can be traced in England,
Germany and France, and which has left in every Western country
paintings inspired by the miniatures, neo-Gothic buildings and monuments
restored in accordance with the principles of Viollet-le-Duc. Spread over
some 150 years, this movement, like humanism, underwent several internal
transformations, which we cannot dwell on here. Suffice it to say, as a
conclusion, that by altering the perception of Gothic architecture, it affected
the very image of Venice, as Ruskin's The Stones of Venice illustrates.
The final example of this series, although we could have cited still more,
is the attribution of value to non-European art, beginning with Chinese art
in the eighteenth century, although this was given only minor importance,
and continuing with Japanese art in the latter half of the nineteenth
century, followed by African, Oceanic and American Indian art and so on.
This phenomenon, which had a profound influence on the evolution of
European art and decorative arts as a whole, led to the creation of several
Private Collections, Public Museums
273
collections, some of which, like the one owned by the Count of Bardi in
Venice, were later turned into museums.
Every one of these changes in taste, or more accurate! y these shifts in
artistic and historical preoccupations, altered not only the corpus of objects
endowed with meaning and therefore with value, but also the framework
within which they were displayed and the principles governing their layout.
The emergence of the private collector as a cultural type was accompanied
by a change in the layout of interiors, since a place was now set aside for a
scrittoio, studio/a or Jtudio: the place where the collection pieces were
assembled. As early as the sixteenth century, this role had also been given to
the garden, where statues were placed, and to the inner walls of the
courtyard, sometimes also the where busts, bas-reliefs and inscrip-
tions were inserted. The gallery was the next innovation, though judging
from Scamozzi's remarks, it only became popular in Venetia in the course of
the seventeenth century. From this time onwards, therefore, all the main
components of collection architecture had become established: a gallery for
arranging paintings or statues, along with an extra room reserved for
masterpieces, the descendant of the studio/a. These were the elements
which were to be used to organize the space not only of newly built public
museums, following the example of the Uffizi in Florence, with its
differentiation between gallery and tribune, but also of ecclesiastical
buildings converted into museums. Several examples of these conversions
exist in both Venice itself and in Venetia, the most striking one being the
Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, converted by Carlo Scarpa.
Private collections and cultural innovation
The history of artistic and historical preoccupations in Venice, Venetia and
modern Europe as a whole, of which several notable episodes have just been
mentioned, can be likened to a wave train, each wave leaving a well-defined
centre constituted by a group of collectors, and spreading to different
countries, at times affecting domains at a considerable remove from the
original one. Though they may only be transient in themselves, these waves
leave permanent marks on the cultural landscape, carving out lasting
s1gnarures here and there, in the shape of public museums, mostly the
evergetic type, as one can see from the list of Venetian museums extending
from the Archaeological Museum and the Correr Museum ro the Peggy
Guggenheim Collection. These waves do more than simply leaving behind
them museums containing objects to which they have given or restored
value, and thereby caused to rise or return to the surface for, with a backlash
effect, their passage alters the meaning of objects which already enjoy high
esteem.
274 Private Collections, Public MttJeums
No further elaboration is necessary to prove the truth of this statement:
one has only to acknowledge that when it was recognized that art, in the
true sense of the word, and not only 'bizarre productions' had existed in the
Middle Ages, the significance of ancient art had to be redefined, since this
no longer constituted the norm and sole manifestation of beauty. This
change in significance broadened the very definition of ancient art to
include both more primitive works and ones from the late Empire, thus
endowing them with a value they had not previously had. Similar shifts
took place in the definition of modern an which were especially advant-
ageous to the baroque style and to mannerism.
Art historians and the readers of scholar! y works were not the only ones
involved; the mass of people who simply went to look at the works were
also affected, as the new ideas also filtered down into the guides and
catalogues. They were the inspiration behind temporary exhibitions and led
curators to bring out certain pieces from their storerooms and have others
restored. They even had an indirect effect on the appearance of these pieces,
as the meaning invested in them had some influence on the type of
restoration carried out on them. This meant that rather than their original
and elusive appearance, they were given the one they were imagined to
have had. Not only did the way in which they were looked at change, bur
also, to a certain extent, an itself, a fact which the whole of hisrory should
have tried to take into account, as far as documentary evidence allowed. We
are, it should be stressed, talking about art from the past, of which neither
the physical aspect nor the semiotic dimension is static, contrary to firmly
established preconceptions.
Although the four patterns of public museum formation encompass the
legal, political and socio-economic aspects of the relationship between
public museums and private collections, they take no account of the objects
which move from the latter to the former. In the light of the history we
have just outlined, we can see that the relationship between these twin
public and private poles, which have coexisted throughout modern times,
seems to consist of a permanent tension between a certain conservatism on
one side and attempts at innovation on the other. The case of Venice is
quite typical in this respect, and shows how, over a very long period, public
collections greatly lagged behind the artistic, historical and scientific
interests of groups of collectors, groups which were initially very small, but
became progressively larger. Up to the end of the eighteenth century,
donations from private individuals were the only means by which public
collections were able to make up a little of the ground they had lost, even if
they did not bring them entirely into line with current tastes. Purchases, the
first of which seems to have been that of the Farsetti collection, were not
used as a means until the nineteenth century. At length, therefore,
innovatory waves, originating from groups of collectors, altered the
Private Collectiom, Public Mttsettms 275
contents of public museums, bringing them in succession statues and
ancient coins, natural objects, relics of the nation's past, chinoiseries and so
on. Elsewhere, it was a different story, although there is nothing which
really invalidates the general conclusion that private collections were
among the most important sources of cultural innovation from the fifteenth
century onwards. Indeed it is highly likely that they have remained so in the
majority of countries, if not all, to this very day.
Throughout the whole of this account, we have seen that any discussion
of collections must touch on political, economic and social problems.
Moreover, one of the examples quoted earlier shows that collections are also
linked with the natural sciences just as they are with history and art. If,
instead of studying one collection in particular, one examines the phenom-
enon of collecting in a specific country during a well-defined period, one is
forced to admit that this activity is not restricted to any one domain in
particular. Rather, it is characterized by its position at the intersection of
various different domains, by its multi-disciplinary nature. In other words,
the collections of a given country at a given time are, taken as a whole, the
coextension of that country's culture at that particular time. They incarnate
this culture and make it visible to us.
Notes
CHAPTER I THE COLLECTION: BETWEEN THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISfBLE
First published in Enciclopedia Einaudi, vol. III, Turin, 1978, pp. 330-64.
Reproduced in Libre, 3 (1978), pp. 3-56.
Souren Melikian, 'The discreet art of selling a Rembrandt', Intem,1tional
Herald Tribune, 1 Dec. 1974.
2 Le Monde, 3 Feb. 1976.
.'> Henri Mercillon and Pierre Gregory, Tart et l'imp6t', Le Monde, 11 Nov.
1975.
4 A. Buchalski, K. Konarski, A. Wolff, Pol.rki Slownik A1chiwalny (Polish
dictionary of archives), Warsaw, 1952.
5 James Mellaarr, (atal Hiiyiik, 1me des premieres cite.r du monde, s.l., 1971, pp.
207-9
6 Tresor.r d'art chinois, nicente.r decouve1tes archeologiques de Ia Republique
populaire de Chine, exhibition catalogue, Petit Palais, Paris, May-Sept. 1973.
7 Th. Homolle, Donarium, in Ch. Daremberg ;md Edm. Salio, Dictiomzaire des
antiquites grecques et romaines, vol. II, pan I, Paris, 1892, pp. 363-82. Cf. also
H. Thedenat, Favissae, ibid., vol. II, part II, Paris, 1896, pp. 1024-5.
8 E. Cavaignac, Etudes mr l'histoire fincmcihe d'Athime.r all Ve Jiec!e. Le trhor
d'Athimes de 480 a 404, Paris, 1908.
9 Pliny the Elder, NatMal HiJtory, XXXVII, 12-14; translated by W. H. S.
Jones, Loeb, 1963.
10 Ibid, XXXVII, 18-20.
11 Cf. foreword by James G. Frazer to his translation of Pausanias, Description of
He/las, London, 1898, vol. I, pp. XXXVI-XXXVII.
12 Pliny the Elder, Natural Hi.rtory, XXXVII, 3-4.
13 Ann,des Sa11cti Disiboldi, 1125, MGH, SS, val. XVII, p. 23, quoted in K.
Notes to pp. 17-33 277
Leyser, 'Frederic Barbarossa, Henry II and the hand of St James', English
Historical Review, no. CCCL VI, July 1975, p. 491, n. 3. [Translator's note: The
kingdom of the Franks was often referred to by its Latin name in this period.]
14. P. Heliot and M.-L Chastang, 'Quetes et voyages de reliques au profit des
eglises frans;aises du Moyen Age', Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique, vol. LIX
(1964), no. 4 and LX (1965), no. 1.
15 Hubert Silvestre, 'Commerce et val de reliques au Moyen Age', Revue beige de
philologie et d'histoire, vol. XXX (1952), pp. 721-39.
16 Jean Guiraud, Questions d'histoire et d'archeologie chnitienne, Paris, 1906, pp.
235-61.
17 lnventaire du mobifier de Charles V, roi de France, published by Jules Labarre,
Paris, 1879.
18 Choix de pieces inedites relatives au regne de Charles VI, published by L.
Douet D'Arcq, Paris, 1864, val. II, p. 350.
19 Ernest Babelon, Catalogue des camees antiques et modernes d<! Ia Bibliotheque
nationale, Paris, 1897, no. 264.
20 Eugene H. Byrne, 'Some medieval gems and relative values' Speculum, 10
(1935), pp. 177-87.
21 Lord Twining, European Regalia, London, 1967, p. 279.
22 Le Heraut Berry, Chronique dtt roi Chades VII, Bib!. nat., ms. fr. 5052, in
Bernard Guenee and Frans;oise Lehoux, Les Entrees royales de 1328
a 1515, Paris, 1968, p. 73.
23 Hou Ching-Lang, Monnaies d'offrande et Ia notion de tresorerie dam Ia
religion chinoise, Paris, 1975, p. 127.
24 Herodotus, I, 49-51; translated by A. D. Godley, Loeb, 1920.
25 H. Leclercq, Reliques et reliquaires, in Dictionnaire d'archeofogie chretienne
et de liturgie, vol. XIV, cols 2338-43 .
26 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XXXVII, 1.
27 Ibid., XXXVII, 61.
28 Ibid., XXXIV, 6-8.
29 lnventaire du mobilier de Charles V, p. 93, no. 618.
30 Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, London , 1922, pp.
86-91.
31 Yves Coppens, 'La grande avenrure paleomologique est-africaine', Le Courrier
du C.N.R.S., no. 16, Apr. 1975, pp. 36-7.
32 J Desmond Clark, 'Africa in prehistory: peripheral or paramount?', Man
(N.S.), 10, 1975, p. 190.
33 Hommes de Ia prehistoire, exhibition catalogue, Musee Borely, Marseilles,
May-Sept. 1974.
34 Andre Leroi-Gourhan, Prebistoire de !'art occidental, Paris, 1971, p. 35.
35 Idem, Le Geste et fa parole, Paris, 1964, vol. I, p. 152.
36 Franz Steiner, 'Notes on comparative economics', British journal of Sociology,
5, 1954, pp. 118-29. I thank Mr W. G. L. Randles for bringing this article to
my attention.
37 Helene Clastres, La Terre sans mal, Paris, 1975.
38 Edouard Mestre, 'Monnaies metalliques et valeurs d'echange en Chine', Les
Annates sociologiques, D series, fasc. 2, 1937, p. 39.
278
Notes to pp. 34-47
39 Louis Reau, Les Monuments ddtmits de !'art franrai.r, Paris, 1959, vol. I, pp.
65ff.
40 L D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars. A Gttide to the
Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature, Oxford, 1974, R. Weiss, The
Renai.rsance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, Oxford, 1969.
41 Claude Faucher, Recueil de l'origine de Ia !ang11e et de fa pohie fram;oise
(1581), published by]. G. Espiner-Scott, Paris, 1938, pp. 21-2.
42 Hubert Goltz, C. ]uliiJJ Caesar sive Historiae Imperatorum Caesarttmque
Romanorum ex Antiquis Numismatibus Restitutae, Bruges, 1563, f
0
aaaii-cc.
43 Linda Van Norden, 'Sir Henry Spelman and the Chronology of the
Elisabethan College of Antiquaries' The Hu11tington LibrarJ' Qttmterly, 13,
1950, pp. 131-60. Joan Evans, A History of the Society of A miquaries, Oxford,
1956, p. 16.
44 E.-T. Hamy, Les Origines dzt mMee d'Ethnographie, Histoire et Documents,
Paris, 1890. Julius Von Schlosser, Die Kunst- und Wttnderkammem der
Spiitrenaissance, Leipzig, 1908.
45 Krzysztof Pomian, 'Medals/Shells = 'Erudition/Philosophy', see above, pp.
121-38.
46 Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painten A Stud;' in the Relations between
Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque, London, 1963 (new edition:
New Haven-London, 1980).
47 This calculation is based on Fritz Lugt, Repe1'toire des catalogttes de ventes
publiques interessant l'a1t ou fa curio.rite. Premiere periode: vers 1600-1825,
The Hague, 1938.
CHAPTER 2 THE AGE Of CURIOSITY
First published m Scienze, ctedenze occulte, livelli di cu!titl'a, Olschki,
Florence, 1982, pp. 535-57. Reproduced in Le Temps de Ia Reflexion, III
(1982), pp. 337-59.
Les A ntiquitez, Raretez, Plantes, Mineraux et atttres chases considerables de !a
ville et du comte de Castres . .. Avec !e roolle des principaux cabinets et a1ttres
raretez de !'Europe, comrne aussi fe catalogue des chases rares de maistre
Pierre Borel, . .. autheur de ce livre, Castres, by A. Colomiez, 1649; The Roo!le
des principattx cabinets curieux, pp. 124-31. The Catalogue (of which it is the
second, longer edition), pp. 132-49. For further information on Borel, read the
Dictiomzaire de biographie franraise, vol. VI, col. 1096.
2 Quoted in J. Ceard, La Nature et les prodiges. L'in.rolite au XVIe si?x!e, en
F1ance, Geneva, 1977, p. 297.
3 Among Borel's writings, let us noce Bibliotheca chimica, seu Catalogtts
libmrum pbilosophico1um hermeticomm . .. , Paris 1654; De Vero Tefescopii
inventore, cum brevi onmittm conspicil!iorum historia ... AcceSJ'it etiam
centuria observationum micmcospicantm [sic!], The Hague, 1655; Vitae
Renati Cartesii, summi philosophi, compendium, Paris, 1656; Discottrs
110tn'eatt pro1tvant Ia plura!ite des mondes, q11e les a.rtres sont des terres
Notes to pp. 48-51 279
habitees et fa terre zme estoile, qu'elle est hors du centre du monde dam le
troisieJme ciel et se tourne devant !e solei! qtti est fixe, et atttres chases tres-
wriettses, Geneva, 1657.
4 Cf. the remarkable and little-known books by H. Daudin: De Linne a ]ussiett.
iVUthode de classification et idee de serie en botanique et en zoologie (1740-
90), Paris, 1926, and Cuvier et Lamarck. Les classes zoo!ogiques et !'idee de
serie animate (1790-1830), Paris, 1926, 2 vols.
5 Cf.]. Von Schlosser, Die Kttmt- und Wunderkammem der Spiitrenaissance,
Leipzig, 1908; B. J. Balsiger, The Kunst- ttnd Wttnderkammer: A Catalogue
rais01me of Collecting in Germany, France and England, 1565-1750 (Univ. of
Pittsburgh, Ph.D., 1970), University Microfilms, Anne Arbor, Mich., 1971, 2
vols.
6 For all of the following, cf. S. Sperh-Holrerhoff, Les Peintres flamands de
cabinets d'amateurs, Brussels, 1957, which contains reproductions and detailed
analyses of several paintings to be discussed later. I shall only cite the most
recent publications concerning these works.
7 Cf., for example, Frans Francken II, View of an Enthusiast's Galfery at the
beginning of the Seventeenth Century (The Duke of Northumberland, Syon
House, Brentford, Middlesex) or Johannes Georg Hainz, Gallery of Curiosities
(Gotha, Schlossmuseum, Schloss Friedenstein). Reproduced and commented
on in Albert Dzire1 aux PaJ's-Bas. Son voyage (1520-1), son influence,
exhibition catalogue, Brussels, 1977, nos 426 and 181.
8 Cf. Rubens et la pittura fiamminga del Seicento nelfe collezioni pubbliche
fiorentine, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1977, no. 1.
9 Cf. Le Siecle de Rubem dans !es collectiom publiqttes franraises, exhibition
catalogue, Paris, 1977, no. 63.
10 Cf. L'Arnerique vue par !'Europe, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1976, no. 109.
11 Cf. Pedro Pablo Rubens (1577-1640). Exposici6n homenaje, Madrid, 1977,
nos 108-12.
12 Cf. MIISeo del Prado, catalogue of paintings, Madrid, 1972, nos 1403 and 1404.
13 Le Siec!e de Rubens ... , no. 14.
14 Natures mortes. Catalogue du Ia collection dtt musee des Beaux-Arts de
Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 1964, no. 16.
15 Cf. Albert Dztrer aux Pays-Bas, no. 181 and Natures mortes ... du musee des
Beattx-Arts de St1asbourg, no. 28.
16 Cf., for example, Lubin Baugin, Nature morte a f'echiquie1 (Musee du Louvre,
Paris); Philippe de Champaigne, Vanite (Musee de Tesse, Le Mans); Simon
Renard de Saint-Andre, Vanite (France, private collection) in Peintres de
f!eMs en France du XVIIe au XIXe siec!e, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1979,
nos 5, 11, 24. Note that Baugin's painting was regarded as an allegory of the
five senses, and that Les Cinq Sens by Jacques Linard (Musee des Beaux-Arts,
Strasbourg; ibid., no. 15) could have passed as a still life. Cf. also Pieter Boel,
Alfegorie de.r vanitds du monde (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lille) and the
important commentary in Le Siecle de Rubens . .. , no. 8. Lastly, S. Renard de
Saint-Andre, Vanite (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg). Natures mortes du
musee des Beaux-Arts de Stra.rboMg, no. 58.
280 Notes to pp. 52-64
17 Cf. L. Berti, Il Principe della Studio/a. Francesco I dei Medici e Ia fine del
Rinascimento fiorentino, Florence, 1967, in particular pp. 61ff.
18 Letter from G. B. Adriani to Giorgio Vasari (1567) in G. Vasari, Opere, ed. G.
Milanesi, Florence, 1906 (re-edit. 1973) vol. I, p. 35.
19 Antoine Furetiere, Dictionnaire Universe!, Contenant generalement taus les
Mots Fran(ois tant vieux que modemes, et les Termes de toutes les Sciences et
des Arts ... , The Hague and Rotterdam, 1690.
20 Dictionnaire de l'Acadhnie Ft-an(oise, Paris, 1694.
21 Cf. K. Pomian, 'Utopia i poznanie historyczne. !dear republique des lettres i
narodziny postulatu obiektywno5ci historyka', Studia Filozoficzne, 1 (40),
1965, pp. 21-75.
22 St Augustine, De vera religione, 7 and 52; P. L., vol. XXXIV, cols 126 and 146.
Cf. also Confess., X, XXXIV and XXXV (on curiositas.). Also P. Courcelle,
Les Confessions de saint Augustin dam fa tradition litteraire, Etudes augusti-
niennes, Paris, 1963, pp. 101-9.
23 Isidore of Seville, Synonyma de !amentatione animae peccatricis, ll, 71; P. L.,
vol. XXCIII, col. 861.
24 StThomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 2a 2ae 166, 2 ad 3, translated by Th.
Gilby, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London Blackfriars, 1972.
25 Ibid., 2a 2ae 167, 1c and cf. also 162, 4 ad 4.
26 Ibid., 2a 2ae 167, 2 ad 3.
27 Ibid., 2a 2ae 167, 1 ad 1.
28 Michel de Montaigne, Essais, I, XI, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliotheque de Ia
Pleiade, 1953, p. 61. Cf. also I, XXXII; II, XII; III, V. Ibid., pp. 214, 254, 538,
610, 972.
29 Blaise Pascal, PenSties, no. 152; ed. L. Brunschvicg, in CEuvreJ, Paris, G. E. F.,
1925, vol. XIII, p. 76.
30 Jean De La Bruyere, Les Caracteres, chapter. De la mode, in CEuvre.r, Paris, G.
E. F., 1865, vol. II, pp. 135-42.
31 Cf. Rene Descartes, Regulae ad directionem ingenii, IV; A. T. X 371.
32 Idem., La Recherche de la verite par fa lumiere naturelle; A. T. X 449-504.
33 Nicolas Malebranche, De fa recherche de la verite, IV, III and IV; ed. G. Lewis,
Paris, 1945, vol. II, pp. 14-22.
34 Bernard Lamy, Entretiens sur les sciences . .. , Paris, 1684, pp. 34-5. I am very
grateful to Mr Fernando Gil, who brought my attention to this text.
CHAPTER 3 COLLECTIONS IN VENETIA IN THE HEYDAY OF CURIOSITY
First published in G. Arnaldi and M. Pastori Stocchi, eds, Storia della cultura
veneta, Vicenza, Neri Pozza, 1983, vol. 4jl, pp. 493-547.
I should like to express my gratitude to Mme Andrea Ballarin and MM.
Lanfranco Franzoni and Licisco Magagnato for the suggestions and advice
which were so helpful to me when carrying out this research.
Notes to pp. 65-8 281
Cf. J. Shlosser Magnino, La letteratura artistica, 3rd Italian ed. revised by Otto
Kurz, Florence, 1977, pp. 555.
2 Breve Istruzione per intendere in qualche modo !e maniere de gli Auttori
Veneziani in Le ricche miniere della pittura veneziana. Compendiosa
informazione di Marco Boschini. Non .rolo delle P i t t t ~ r e pubbliche di Venezia
ma de!l'lso!e ancora circonvicine, Venice, 1674 (unnumbered pages).
3 S. Maffei, Verona itlustrata. Parte terza contiene le notizie delle cose in questa
citta piu osservabili, Verona, 1732, pp. 175-6.
4 With regard to this definition cf. K. Pomian, 'The Collection: between the
Visible and the Invisible', see above, pp. 7-44.
5 Cf. F. Sansovino, Venetia citta nobilissima et singolare, Venice, 1581, and the
1604 and 1663 editions with the additions by G. Stringa and G. Martinoni,
I. VIII, Delle fabriche publiche.
6 M. Boschini, I gioie!li pittoreschi. VirtttoJo omamento della Citta di Vicema;
cioe l'Endice di tutte le Pitture pttb!iche della stessa Citta, Venice, 1677, 'Al
Lettore' (unnumbered pages).
7 Cf. Le Vite de'Pittori, de G!i Scttltori et A1chitetti Veronesi Raccolte da 1/a?j
Autori stampati, e manuscritti, e de altri partico!ari mernorie. Con fa narratiua
delle Pitture, e Scu!ture, che s'atf1o1/ano nelle Chiese, case et a!tri !uoghi publici
e prittati di Verona e JUO Teritorio. Dal Signor Fr. Bartolomeo Co: Dal Pozzo
. .. , Verona, 1718; l G. B. Lanceni], Ricreazione pittorica asia Notizia
Uni1/ersale delle Pitture nefle Chiese, e Luoghi Pubblici di Verona, Verona,
1720.
8 R. Gallo, 'Le donazioni alia Serenissima di Domenico e Giovanni Grimani',
Archivio 1/eneto, series 5, vol. L-LI ( 1952), p. 52.
9 Ibid., pp. 57ff. The term 'antiquario publico' is used in Mocenigo's will cited
ibid., p. 58. On Federigo Contarini cf. also G. Cozzi, 'Federico Contarini: un
antiquario veneziano tra Rinascimento e Conrroriforma', Boll. del!'Ist. di
Storia della Societa e della Stato veneziano, III (1961), pp. 190-220 and
especially pp. 211. Cf. also for all this M. Perry, 'The Statuario Publico of the
Venetian Republic', Saggi e memorie di Storia defl'arte, 8 (1972), pp. 78ff.
10 Cf. G. Valentinelli, Manni scolpiti del Mttseo ttrcheo!ogico della Marciana,
Praro, 1865, p. XVII.
II [Ch. Patin], Themu1ws N11mismatum AntiqttorttJn et Recentiomm ex Aura,
Argento etA ere, Ab lllu.rt1i.rs. et Eccelentiss, D. D. Petro Mauroceno. Senat01'e
Veneto; Sereni.rsimae Reipublicae LegatuJ, Venice, 1683, foreword
(unnumbered pages).
12 Cf. E. Cicogna, Saggio di bibfiografica veneziana, Venice, 1847, no. 5147.
13 Cf. G. Moschini, Della letteratttra veneziana del secolo XVIII fino a nostri
giomi, vol. II, Venice, 1806, p. 77.
14 Cf. U niversitit degli Studi di Padova, Guida del!'orto botanico, Padua, 1977.
15 Cf. under the direction of H. R. Hahnloser, ll te.roro di San .Ma1'Co, vol. II, If
tesoro e il museo, Florence, 1971, nos 111-14. The horn purchased by
Alessandro Contarini is numbered 113.
16 S. Maffei, Vemua, p. 175.
17 J. Spun and G. Wheler, Voyage d'Jtalie, de Dafmatie, de Grece et dtt L:Jvcmt,
Fait attx annee.r 1675 et 1676, The Hague, 1724, vol. I, p. 1
1
L
282 Notes to pp. 68-70
18 'Decirne [May 1700] Vicentiam petimus, ubi nil mst tritum et vulgatum
observatur', B. de Montfaucon, Dia1ium italicum sive monumentorum
vetentm, bibliothecarum, musaeorum, etc. N otitiae singulares in itinerario
italico collectae, Paris, 1702, p. 437. This is the voice of a Frenchman; the
English made their pilgrimages to Vicenza in order to admire Palladia's
works.
19 M. Misson, No;weau vo;age d'Italie, The Hague, 1702, vol. I, p. 188.
20 Cf. above, pp. 45-64.
21 Cf.]. Von Schlosser, Raccolte d'arte e di rneravigfie del tardo Rina.rcimento
(1908), Florence, 1974, pp. lOlff.
22 Cf. E. Jacobs, 'Das Museo Vendramin und die Sammlung Reynst', Repertor-
illm fur Ktmstwissemchaft, 46 (1925 ), pp. 15-39; T. Boren ius, 'More about the
Vendramin collection', The Burlington Magazine, LX (1932), pp. 140-5.
23 'Un quadro d'un coruo d'India che me fu dona to uiuo'- 'Quadri con l'Aquarelle
de Animali cauatti dal naturale quadrupedi et volatili'. T. Borenius, The Pictttre
Gallery of Andrea Vendramin, London, 1923, pp. 20-1.
24 Ibid, pp. 3-4.
25 I Ieroglifici, overo Commentarii delle occulte significationi degli Egitij, et cdtre
Nationi, compo.rte daf!'Eccefente Signor Giovanni Pierio Valeriano da Balzano
di Befluno. et da lui in cinquantaotto libri divisi, nei qua!i con l'occasione di
leroglifici si tratta della natura di molti Animali Terrertri, Maritimi e Volatili;
delle Piante, dell'Herbe. de'Fiori e de 'Frutti; delle Pietre, delle Gioie e lvletalli;
de 'Font .. de'Fiumi, de'Mari, e dell'Acque tutte, de'Cie!i, delle Stelle, e de Pianeti;
delle iHonete e Medaglie, de Vestimenti et Arme; degl'lnstrumellti Musicali,
Bellici, et IISatili: de'Nmneri, de'Segni, de'Cerri, de'Sogni, e delle Favale, et
altre case c11riose e degne . ... Fabrica non Jo!o utile e Difettevole peri Studiosi
ma necessatia ancora a Pittori, Scttftori, eta quelli che di Statue. di lviedaglie, et
altre Antichita .ri dilettano ... , Venice, 1625. Quoted from A. Buzzati,
Bibliografia bellunese, Venice, 1890, no. 22.
26 Cf. Marc'Antonio Michie!, Notizia d'opere di disegno, ed.]. Morelli, Bassano,
1800; ed. G. Frizzoni, Bologna, 1884.
27 For the Grimanis, cf. R. Gallo, Le donazioni. For Gabrielle Vendramin, cf. A.
Rava, 'II "Camerino delle Amicaglie" di Gabrielle Vendramin', Nuo1'0
Archivio Veneto, vol. XXXIX (1920), pp. 155-81.
28 The text of the will is quoted in G. V<llentinelli, Manni scolpiti, p. XVII, no. 2.
29 For the date of the formation of the collection, cf. the quotations from
Manfredi ( 1602) and Stringa ( 1604) in G. Cozzi. 'Federico Contarini', pp. 213-
14. As to its composition, cf. M. T. Cipollato, 'L'eredita di Federigo Contarini:
gli invemari della collezione e degli oggetti domestici', Boll. dell !Jt. di Storia
della Societa e de!lo Stato veneziano, III (1961), pp. 221-53, especially 225-37.
30 Cf. M. T. Cipollato, pp. 221-3.
31 V. Scamozzi, L'idea della atchitettura rmiuersale divisa in X libri Venice 1615
I, III, xix, p. 305. ' ' '
32 Cf. L Franzoni, 'Pietro Rotari e gli antichi marmi del museo Trevisani',
Rivista di archeo!ogia, IV (1980), p. 71.
:13 M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pittore.rco, ed. A. Pallucchini, Venice, Rome,
Notes to pp. 71-4 283
1966, pp. 608-9.
34 F. Sansovino and G. Martinoni, Venezia citta nobilissima e singolare, Venice,
1663, p. 374.
35 ]. Spon and G. Wheler, Voyage d'ltalie, voL I, p. 44.
36 B. de Montfaucon, Diariurn italicum, pp. 62-3.
3 7 Scamozzi, toe. cit., speaks of '120 quadri de buona grandezza, di mano de piu
eccelenti maestri'. Cf. also S. Savini Branca, Il collezionismo Veneziano ne/'600,
Florence, 1965, pp. 272-5.
38 The Diary of john Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer, Oxford, 1955, voL II, pp. 470-1.
39 Cf. the remarkable preface written by L Puppi to his edition of Girolamo
Gualdo the Younger, 1650. It Giardino di Cha Gualdo, Florence, 1972.
40 Raccolta delle inscrittioni cossi antiche come modeme quadri e pitture statue
bronzi marmi medaglie gemme minere animali petriti libri instrumenti
mathematici che si trovano in Pustorla nella casa et horti, che sono di me
Girolamo de Gualdo, Emilio. D. che sirue anco per lnventario MDCXLIII Net
meso di Dicembre 27. MS Marciana ita!. IV 133 = 5103.
41 L. Panizza, ed., If M11seo Gualdo di Vicenza nei secoli XVJ-XVll. descritto da
Nicolo Basilio (1644), Vicenza, 1854 (Nozze Bollina - di Thiene)
(unnumbered pages).
42 Cf. Raccolta delle inscrittioni, fo 17ff. (first), f
0
21ff. (second), f
0
24ff. (third
piece).
43 Ibid., f
0
35.
-14 Ibid., f
0
196.
45 Ibid., f
0
35.
46 Ibid., ffO 93-9.
47 Ibid., f
0
93.
48 Ibid., fO 34.
49 Ibid., ffO 43-4
50 Ibid., ffO 44-5.
51 Ibid., ffO 35-40,74,77.
52 Ibid., ffO 50ff.
53 Ibid., f
0
57.
54 Ibid., ffO 81-93.
55 Ibid., ffO 76-7.
56 Ibid., ff' 66ff.
57 Ibid., ffD 99ff.
58 Cf. ibid., ffO 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 48, 56, 162.
59 Ibid., ffO 162ff.
60 Ibid., ffO 166-7, 169.
61 Ibid., f
0
25
62 Ibid' f
0
69
63 Cf. L. Puppi, It Giardino, p. XXXVI, no. 97.
64 Raccolta delle inscrittioni, W 40, 184ff.
65 Cf. B. Morsolin, 'II Museo Gualdo in Vicenza', Nuovo Archivio Veneto, voL
VIII (1894), p. 7.
66 Cf. Mary S. Hervey, The Life, CorreJ-pondence and Collectiom of Thomas
Howard, Earl of Arundel, Cambridge, 1921, pp. 450-1.
284
Notes to pp. 74-7
67 Cf. Tbe Diary of ]olm Evelyn, vol. II, pp. 481-4.
68 Notable visitors included Spon (1675), Mabillon and Germain (1685), Misson
(1687), Montfaucon (1700). They will be quoted later. Let us also mention the
fruitless attempt by Caylus in 1714. Comte de Caylus, Voyage d'Italie, 1714-
1715, ed. Armilda A. Pons, Paris, 1914, p. 64.
69 Cf. S. Maffei, Verona illustrata, pp. 230-1.
70 For the history of the Moscardo collection in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, cf. G. Marchini, Antiquari e collezioni archeologicbe dell'Ottocento
veronese, Verona, 1972, pp. 41-6.
71 Note ovvero memorie del Mttseo di Lodovico MoJCardo Nobile Veronese
Academico Filharmonico ... , Padua, 1656 (unnumbered ;ages). '
72 The first to draw attention to this was J. Spon. Cf. J. Spon and G. Wheler,
Voyage d'Italie, vol. II, p. 220. Also S. Maffei, Verona, p. 230.
73 Cf. J. Spon and G. Wheler, foe. cit.
74 Cf. J. Mabillon and M. Germain, Iter italicum litterarium, Paris, 1687, pp. 24-
5.
75 Cf. B. de Montfaucon, Diarium ita!icum, pp. 438.
76 The Moscardo museum constituted one of the finest numismatic collections in
Europe, in Jo. Foy-Vaillant, Numismata aerea Imperato1um, Augustamm et
Caesarum in Coloniis, Municipiis, et Urbibtts jure Latio Donatis, Ex omni
modulo percussa, Paris, 1688, [
0
b III.
77 List in Note ovvero memorie del M:1seo . .. , 2nd, enlarged edn, Verona, 1672,
pp 468-71.
78 Ibid., pp. 472-3.
79 Ibid., p. 474.
80 M. Misson, Nouveau voyage d'lta!ie, vol. I, pp. 160ff.
81 Note ovvero memorie, 1656 edn, pp. 122-3.
82 Ibid., pp. 249-50.
83 Ibid., pp. 296-300.
84 Note ovvero memorie, 1672 edn, pp. 435, 436, 438-9.
85 Ibid., p. 448.
86 Note ovvero memorie, 1656 edn, p. 171.
87 Ibid., p. 205.
88 Ibid., p. 133.
89 Ibid., p. 140.
90 With regard to this, cf. A. Forti, 'Del Drago che si trovava nella raccolta
Moscardo e di un probabile arrefice di tali mistificazioni: Leone Tartaglini da
Fojano', Madonna Verona, vol. VIII (1914), pp. 25-51.
91 Note ovvero memorie, 1656 edn, p. 234.
92 Cf. A. Forti, It Basilica esisteme a! Museo Cit;ico di Storia Naturale a Venezia e
g!i affini simulacri finol'a conoscit1ti- Coutribti!o alta .rtoria della Ciarlataneria,
Venice, 1929 (separate publication taken from Atti del R. Istittt!o Veneto di
SS.LL.AA., vol. LXXXVIII, part 2); idem, 'Imorno ad un "Draco ex Raja
effictus Aldrov" che esiste nel Museo Civico di Verona e circa le varie notizie
che si hanno di simili mostri specialmeme dai manoscritti Aldrovandiani',
Madonna Ve1'0na, vol. I (1907), pp. 57-73.
93 Note memorie, 1656 edn, pp. 235-7.
Notes to pp. 78-80 285
94 In his Note ovvero memorie, 1672 edn, Moscardo publishes a text by
Arhanasius Kircher on hieroglyphics, pp. 372ff.
95 'Anzi fa vastita del Mondo tutto I Di tua magion dentro le sog!ie illu.rtri I In
nuovo Microcosmo ha gia ridutto', is what we read in a poem extolling
Moscardo, published along with others at the front of Note ovvero memorte
(unnumbered pages).
96 This is the comment made by Ch. Patin after citing the names of nineteen
medal collectors in Venice: 'Plures, fateor, sunt mihi incogniti, qui gloriae tuae
studenres,
0
Adriatici maris Regina, numismatum eruditioni, investigationi ac
possessioni operam navant', Introductio ad Historiam Numi.rmatum,
Amsterdam, 1687, p. 247.
97 Cf. 1650. Il Giardino di Cha Gualdo, ed. cit, pp. 7ff.
98 This was a general state of affairs at this period. Cf. N. Edelman, Attitudes of
Seventeenth-Century France toward the Middle Ages, New York, 1946; P.
Frankl, Tbe Gothic. Literary Sources and Interpretations through.
Centuries Princeton, N. )., 1960; K. Pomian, 'Kolekcjonerstwo 1 fllozoha
nowoiytnego muzeum)', Archiwum Historii Fi!ozofii i Myfli
Spoiecznej, voL XXI (1975), pp. 21-86.
99 Cf. L. Franzoni, 'Pietro Rotari', p. 71-2.
. .
100 Cf. A. Zeno, Lett ere, Venice, 1785, no. 94; vol. I, pp. 221 ff. (letter to Fontanmt
of 2 March 1704); B. de Montfaucon, Diarium italicum, pp. . . .
101 Cf. L. Franzoni, 'Pietro Rotari', p. 70ff. It is there that Monresqmeu vtsJted tt.
102 Cf. idem, La galleria Bevilacqua a Verona e l'Adorante di Berlino, Verona,
1964 (separate publication taken from Studi storici veronesi, vol XIV,
idem, Per una storia del collezionismo. Verona: !a gallerta Bevtlacqua, Milan,
1970.
103 Cf. L. Moscardo, Historia di Verona, Verona, 1668, pp. 536, 542-3.
104 Ch. Patin, Histoire des medailles ou introduction a la connaissance de cette
science, Paris, 1695, p. 3: 'Les grands Seigneurs seuls peuvent parer leurs
Palais de ces Statues, a mesure du prix qui excede la mediocre fortune des
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
Parriculiers ... .'
M. Foscarini, Della letteratura veneziana ed altri sc1itti intorno ad essa,
Venice, 1854, p. 395 (the first edition of Della letteratura veneziana dates from
1752).
Cf. M. T. Cipollato, 'L'eredita di Federigo Contarini', especially PP 230-1; L.
Franzoni Per una storia del collezionismo, pp. 161ff.
For the l;istory of the Mantova Benavides collection, cf. L. Polacca, 'II museo di
scienze archeologiche e d'arte dell'Universita di Padova', Atti dell'lstituto
Veneto di SS.LL.AA., vol. CXXV (1966-7), pp. 421-4; Irena Favaretto, ed.,
'Inventario delle amichita di casa Mantova Benavides - 1695', Bolletino del
Museo Civico di Padova, vol. LI (1972), pp. 35-164.
I. Favaretto, introduction to the text of the inventory, ibid., pp. 59-60.
I. Favaretto ed., 'lnventario .. .', pp. 73-4, 119.
Cf. G. F. To:nasini, V. C. Laurentii Pignorii Pat. Canonici Taruisini Historici et
Philologi Eruditissimi Bibliotheca et Mu.reum, Venice, 1632. . .
Pignoria reveals a curiosity for exotica. He even added the followmg to hts
edition of V. Cartari's Immagini delli dei degl'Anttcht . . . : Dt.rcorso mtorno
286 NoteJ to pp. 81-3
aile deita dell'Indie Orientali et Occidentali, con le foro Figure tratte da
g!'originali, che si comeruano ne!le Gal/erie de'Principi et ne'Musei delle
Persone priuate ... I quote the 1674 Venice edition. Cf. also F. Ambrosini,
Paesi e mari ignoti. America e colonialismo emopeo nella cultura veneziana
(secoli XVI-XVII), Venice, 1982, pp. 173ff.
112 These engravings can be found in Pignoria's various different works. We even
have a list of them in G. F. Tomasini, V. C. Laurentii ... , pp. 20-l.
113 Cf. M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pittoresco, pp. 163-4.
114 Cf. ibid., p. 167.
115 Ch. Patin, Histoire des medailles, pp. 12-13. The book was published in Italian
as Pratica delle medag!ie, Venice, 1673; the Latin translation was cited earlier,
see note 96. Patin brought his numismatic collection with him to Padua, and
its catalogue can be found in Thesaurus Numismatum e Musaeo Caroli Patini
Doctoris Medici Parisiensis, s.l., 1672.
116 Idem, Histoire deJ medailleJ, pp. 36-7.
117 Cf. ibid., pp. 180-1, 194 which list the rarest medals. In the catalogue of his
collection, as well as in that of Pietro Morosini's collection, Patin often
emphasizes the rarity of a particular piece.
118 M. Boschini, La carla del navegar pittoresco, p. 609: 'La Medagia d'Oton, cusl
bramada I Dai Prencipi del Mondo, che e si rara 1 La Ia ghe xe, e la ghe xe si
cara I Co' si Ia fusse un'opulente intrada.'
119 Quoted in J. Morelli, Dissertazio11e intomo ad a!cuni viaggiatori eruditi
veneziani poco noti, in Operette, vol. II, Venice, 1820, pp. 130-2.
120 Cf. E. A Cicogna, Saggio di bibliografia veneziana, no. 5210.
121 For a description of this collection, cf. G. A Averoldi, Le scefte pittU!e di
Brescia additate a! forestiere, Brescia, 1700, p. 251. Torra also collected agates
and cameos, paintings, shells, ancient marble srarues, porcelain, weapons and
armour, ancient musical instruments.
122 A. Zeno, Lettere, no. 700; voL IV, p. 154 (letter to Giandomenico Bertoli dated
7 Dec 1726).
123 Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Delle iset-izioni veneziane, vol. III, Venice, 1830, p. 247.
124 Cf.]. Morelli, Dissertazione, pp. 123ff.
125 A. Zeno, Lettere, no. 776; vol. IV, pp. 322-3 (letter to Giandomenico Boldini
dated 12 Jan. 1731 from Venice).
126 ]. Spon and G. Wheler, Voyage d'Italie, vol. II, pp. 369-70.
127 Cf. A!usei Tbeupo!i antiqua nttmiJmata olim co!!ecta a Joanne Domenico
Theupolo. Aucta et edita e Laurentia equite et D. Marci Procuratore et
Federico Senatore fratribtt.f Theupolis, Venice, 1736, 2 vols, with continuous
pagination.
128 Ch. Patin, Hi.rtoire des medai!les, p. 104.
129 Cf. [Ch. Patin], Thesaurus 11ttmismatum ... Petro lv1auroceno ... Sere-
nissimae Reipublicae legatliS, p. 35.
130 Cf. Cbristinae Augttstae Suevorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque Reginae,
lmperatomm, Caesamm, Augustarumqtte d Pompeo ttSque ad Carofltm
!Hagnum Numismatttm Aereomm Seriem, ac Nttmerum. Ex Paterno .Musaeo
exbibet Alexander de Lazara, Padua, 1669.
131 Cf. K. Pomian, L'Ordre d ~ t temp.r, Paris, 1984, pp. Iliff.
NoteJ to pp. 83-7
287
132 Cf. Ch. Patin, Histoire des medai!les, p. 118.
133 Cf. T. Borenius, The Picture Gallet] of Andrea Vendramin, p. 3.
134 Cf. L. Moscardo, Note ovvero memorie, 1672 edn, pp. 465-7.
135 First edition, Venice, 1702. The work was subsequently re-edited three times.
Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Saggio di bibliogra/ia veneziana, no. 517 4.
136 I have borrowed this list from Ch. Patin, Histoire des medaille.r, pp. 12-14.
13 7 Cf. Prodromus iconicus sculptilium gemmamm, Basilidiani, A rrmlectici, at que
Ta!ismani Generis de Musaeo Antonii Capello, senatoris veneti, Venice, 1702.
On this collection, extremely rich in antiquities, cf. B. de Montfaucon, Diarium
italicum, p. 63.
138 On the links between the figure of Venus and the universe of curiosity in the
seventeenth century, cf. above, pp. 52-3.
139 This concerns the frontispiece engraved by Cornelis Galle the Elder, in the
manner of Rubens for the book by H. Goltzius, Romanae et Graecae
Antiquitatis Momtmenta e priscis numismatibm eruta, first edn, Antwerp,
1632. On the same theme, cf. Gods and Heroes. Baroque Images of Antiquity,
exhibition catalogue, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 1968, no. 49.
140 Cf. G. F. Tomasini, V. C. LaMentii . .. , p. 19.
141 0. Rossi, Le Memorie Bresciane. Opera istorica et simbolica, Brescia, 1616, pp.
58-9; one object from this collection is mentioned, p. ]65.
142 Cf. Ibid., pp. 248-68 (Marmi diversi antichi ritrovati in Brescia) and pp. 269-
312 (Marmi antichi sparsi peril territorio bresciano).
143 Idem, Le memorie storiche bresciane, Brescia, 1693. The edition was prepared
by a local antiquary Fortunato Vinacessi. It publishes 439 inscriptions (pp.
231-324), 176 of which were added after the 1616 edition. Cf. CIL V, p. 437,
no. XXXIII.
144 Cf. G. A. Averoldi, Le scelte pittttre, pp. 277-93.
145 Cf. L. Franzoni, Le iscrizioni tomane del Gi,trdino Giusti, s.l., n.d. L Milan,
1981]
146 Cf. Mary F. S. Hervey, The Life ... of Thoma!' Howard, p. 451.
147 Cf. The Dia1J' of john Evelyn, vol. II, p. 487 (1646); The Diary of D. Papebroch
( 1660) in M. Battistini, 'I padri bollandisti Henschenio e Papebrochio nel
Veneto nel1660', Archivio Veneto, series 5, vol. IX (1931), pp. 115-17.
148 Cf. L. Pignoria, Le Origini de Padova, Padua, 1625, p. 66.
149 Cf. L. Moscardo, Historia di Verona, p. 456.
150 This is the version given by L. Franzoni in Origine e st01'ia del Mttseo
lapidario ma/feiano in II Museo Maf/eiano riaperto a! pubblico, Verona, 1982,
pp. 29-72; here p. 3 7. I am gratef11l to Professor Franzoni for communicating
this work in its then unpublished form.
151 Cf. M. Battistini, 'I padri bollandisti .. .', p. 115.
152 Cf.]. Mabillon and M. Germain, Iter italicum, pp. 24-5.
15 3 Cf. J. Spon and G. Wheler, Vo)'age d'Italie, vol. II, p. 220, also Lucia Donaduzzi
Marcon, 'Le i scrizioni del Museo Moscardo di Verona', Epigraphica, vol. IX
(1949), pp. 98-108 and G. Marchini, Antiqttari, pp. 45-6.
154 Cf. L. Franzoni, Origine e storia del MMeo lapidario maf/eiano, pp. 39ff Cf.
also. L. Franzoni, 'L'opera di Scipione Maffei e d'Alessandro Pompei per i1
288
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
Notes to pp. 87-8
Museo pubblico veronese', Atti e Memorie de!l'Accademia di Agricoltura,
Sctenze e Lettere ds Verona, series VI, vol. XXVII (1975-6), pp. 193-218.
Cf. G. Gualdo che Younger, Raccolta delle inscrittioni, W 11 (one inscription),
12 (two), 14 (two), 15 (four), 16 (four), 48 (four), 56 (two), 162 (one). S.
Orsaro: Monumenta Padua, 1652, pp. 276-7, cites eight inscriptions
belongmg to this collectton, mcluding two Greek ones.
Cf. An.giolgabriello Di Santa Maria, Biblioteca e Storia di quegli scrittori cosi
della cttta come del territorio di Vicenza . .. , Vicenza, 1782, vol. VI, pp. LXII-
LXIII.
Cf. ibid., PP. CCXXI-CCXXV and N. C. Papadopoli, Historia gymnasii
patavmt, Vemce, 1726, vol. II, pp. 144-5. Cf. also]. Mabillon and M. Germain
Iter italicum, p. 26 and G. A. Averoldi, Le scelte pitture, p. 249.
handwntten anthology by Cerchiari, Marmora Berica sive antiquitates urbis et
agri vicentini expositae suisque iconibus omatae can be found in the Biblioteca
Bertolliana, Vincenza, shelf-mark 22.9.5.
Cf. Joannis Pieri Valeriani Beltunensis Antiquitatum Bellunensittm sermones
quatuor . .. , Venice, 1620. Pierio quotes around forty inscriptions found more
or less everywhere; it is not an anthology of ones from Belluno and its
environs.
Cf. A. Dal Corno, Memorie istoriche di Feltre. Con diversi avvenimenti nella
Marca e nell'Italiaaccaduti, Venice, 1710, pp. 136, 150-9 (Catalogo
delle ptu sllustrt Iscnztoni Antiche e Modeme, raccolte e in parte dichiarite
dali'Autore).
Cf. A. A. Michieli, 'Vaniloqui e scorribande erudite d'un secentista trivigiano
(Bartolomeo Burchelati)', Atti del Istituto Veneto di SS.LL.AA., vol. CXII
(1953-4), pp. 306-52.
Cf. M. Zorzi, Vita del Signor Conte Camillo Silvestri, nobile di Rovigo e padre
della Romana ErudtZzone. Adornata di varie osservazioni a! suo Museo
spettanti e copiosa di molte aft,e notizie istoriche, critiche, e letterarie, Padua,
1720, pp. 35ff., 49ff.
Cf. L. Franzoni, Antiquari e collezionisti del Cinquecento, in G. Arnaldi and M.
Pastore Stocchi, Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 3/III, Vicenza, 1981, pp. 207-
66, especially 225-34.
S: Orsato, Monumenta Patavina, pp. 49-70 where he reproduces sixty-one
mscnpnons and Elda Zorzi, 'Un antiquario padovano del sec. XVI: Alessandro
Maggi da Bassano', Bolletino del Museo Civico di Padova, vol. LI (1952) pp.
41-98. '
Cf. S. Orsato, Monumenta Patavina, pp. 254-5, 261-3, 274. I. Salomonio, Agri
patavini lnscriptiones sacrae et prophanae, Padua, 1696, pp. 80ff. L. Franzoni,
Antiquari et collezionisti del cinquecento, p. 329. CIL V, p. 265, no. IX.
Cf. the catalogue cited above, note 130, and also: F. Sansovino and G.
Marti Venezia, p. 3 76. Lazara's collection is mentioned, along with those
of Ch. Patm, S. Gruzonus and C. Torta, by]. Foy-Vaillant, Numismata aerea. L.
ll C:iardino, p. XLII, no. 137, cites the handwritten inventory of the
numtsmatiC and sphragistic collection belonging to Giovanni de Lazara: BCP
1474.
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
Notes to pp. 89-90 289
Cf. S. Orsato, Monumenta Patavina, pp. 170-1; I. Salomonio, Agri patavini,
pp. 79-80.
Cf. G. A. Volpi, Vita del conte Sertorio Orsato, in S. Orsato, Marmi eruditi
oz,vero Lettere sopra afcune anticbe i.rcrizirmi, Padua, 1719, pp. IXff.; S.
Orsato, !vfonumenta Patavina, pp. 210-12, 248-9. The other epigraphic
collections mentioned in this work are those belonging to G. Galvano (pp. 35-
6), F. Orsato (p. 139), G. della Torre (pp. 160-1), G. Rodio (pp. 178 and 282),
N. Corradino (pp. 188-9), G. F. Tomasino (pp. 235-7), B. Fichetto (pp. 290-
l).
In addition to the books by Orsato and Salomonio, already cited, cf. G. F.
Tomasino, Urbis patavini inscriptiones saC1ae et propbanae, Padua, 1649;
Idem, Territorii patavini inscriptiones sacrae et prophanae, Padua, 1654; I.
Salomonio, Urbi.r patavini inscriptiones Jacrae et profanae, Padua, 170 I.
Between 1612 and 1616, G. B. Lisca and Cozza de Cozzis drew up an
Auctarium monumentorum, containing reproductions of inscriptions inVer-
ona, which was published in Onuphrii Panvini Veronemis Antiquitatttm
Veronensium libri VIII, Verona, 1648, pp. 237ff. For the exact date of writing,
cf. L. Franzoni, Origine e storia del Mu.reo lapidario maffeiano, which also
deals with other collections of Veronese inscriptions.
Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Delle i.rcrizioni veneziane, Venice, 1824, vol. I, pp. 11ff.
Cf. G. D. Bertoli, Antichita d'Aqrtileia, Venice, 1739; CIL V, pp. 83-5, no.
XXXI.
Cf. M. Foscarini, Della letteratura veneziana, p. 398; CIL V, pp. 220ff.
Cf ibid., pp. 400-1; L. Franzoni, Antiquari e collezioni.rti nel Cinquecento, pp.
213-14 and examples inS. Orsato, Mommzenta Patavina, pp. 247 (antiquities
brought to Padua from Greece), 248-9 (inscriptions brought from Aquileia).
Cf. also CIL V, p. 266, no. XIV.
Cf. A. Zeno, Lett ere, no. 94; vol. I, pp. 221 ff. (to Fontanini, 2 March 1704) and
the four Greek inscriptions reproduced ibid, on pp. 300-1.
Through the intermediary of Paolo Gualdo, the uncle of Girolamo the
Younger. Cf. Pignoria's notes in V. Cartari, lmmagini delli dei, p. 323 and L
Puppi, p. XXIII.
Cf. G. F. Tomasino, Lamentii PignMii . .. Bibliotheca et lvfusaeum, pp. 2-5.
Cf. Jv!usaeum Calceolarimn veronensis a Be1;edicto Ceruto Medico incaeptum.
Et ab Andrea Chiocco Med. PhJ.rico Excellenti.r.r. Co!legii luculenter des-
criptttm et perfectum, Verona, 1622, pp. 294-8.
Cf. G. F. Tomasino, Laurentii Pignorii ... , p. 19.
Cf. G. Benzoni, 'Giovanni Bonifacio (1547-1635), erudito uomo di Iegge e ..
devoto', Studi Veneziani, vol. IX (1967), p. 250.
Cf. L. Pignoria, Le origini di Padova, pp. 59, 123.
Pignoria's notes in V. Cartari, Immagini delli dei, pp. 315 and also 307 and
314.
Cf. In Georgii Contareni obittnn carmina, s.l., n.d. [Venice, 1617], pp. 28 and
35 (texts by Pignoria). A. Chiocco also p<>rticipated in this collective volume
(pp. 12-15).
The friendship with Peiresc is referred to by Pignoria in his notes in V.
Cartari, Immagini de!li dei, pp. 288, 325, 36-1.
290
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
201
205
206
Note.r to pp. 90-4
Cf. G. F. Tomasino, Urbis patavini imcriptiones, p. 389 (expression of
gratitude to Giovanni de Lazara for his help).
This was underlined by his biographer. Cf. G. A. Volpi, Vita del conte Se1torio
Orsato, p. X.
Cf. ibid., p. XI. The first letter in the posthumous edition of Marrni eruditi
( 1719) is moreover addressed to Giovanni de Lazara, ibid., pp. 3ff., whose
medals are cited pp. 194ff., 205ff.
Cf. G. A. Volpi, Vita, p. X.
Cf. S. OrsJto, Gli marmi eruditi, p. 101.
Cf. L. Franzoni, Origine e .rtoria del Museo lapidario rnaffeiano, p. 32.
Cf. M. Zorzi, Vita del SignM Conte Camillo SilveJtri, pp. 88ff.
The contrast between Rossi and Pignoria is well illustrated by the list the
latter placed at the beginning of his Origini di Padova, p. 7: 'Auton de i quczli
per enere falsi, e .rupposti e inventori di cose non vere, io non mi J'01W .rervito.
Cf. E. H. Gombrich, leones Symbolicae. Philosophies of Symbolism and thei1
Bearing 011 Art, in idem, Symbolic Images. Stztdie.r in the art of the
Renaissance, London, 1972, pp. 123ff.
The length of the title of the book by Ferrecio is very eloquent: Mmae
Lapidariae: Antiqztorum in rnarmoribus carmina, seu Deorum Donaria,
Homimmzque Illustrium obliteratcz j'vlomrmenta et deperdita Epitaphia: cum
rerttm perpetramm publici.r incisi.r lapidibus, qui!ms Templomm, A rae,
Votiva in tabellis. lcomtm Styiobatae. mortuorum sepulchra, Facinortfm que
Diagliphica notata iuJ"Sunt: Visa in Umis, Vasc!tlis, LowfiJ-, Lt<cemis, Cof-
ttmnis, Obeliscis, plumbeis Laminis, tabulisque Aenei.r signa carminum: Quae
omnia Labia!i sculpta stylo, et variis locis repo.rita. atque inventa. ln.rcriptio-
nes AntiquissimaJ explanant, expendtmtque memoriae excerptcte notis
hi.rtoricis, in quibus reconditctmm omnium rerum Gentilittm, tam Sacrarmn
quam Propbanarmn, Publico Privatoque fure perhibetttr mentis, triplicique
cognite Indice: Auctore Joanne Bapti.rta Ferrecio, Verona, 1672. The contrast
between Pignoria and Kircher is underlined by B. de Momfaucon,
L'Antiquite expliquee et reprhemee en figures, vol. II, part 2, Paris, 1719,
p. 332.
S. Orsaro, Gli mcn'1ni eruditi o11ero lettere .ropra alcune anticbe i.rcrizioni,
Padua, 1659 lrecte: 1669], pp. 142ff. This concerns inscription CIL V, no.
2865. The daring of the discovery cited here is Mommsen's.
Cf. S. Orsato, Monumenta Patavina, pp. 25-34 and Gli marmi eruditi, p. 153.
Idem, Gfi marmi eruditi, ibid., Ioc. cit.
Ibid., p. 154.
Ibid., pp. 151-5
Ibid., p. 156.
Ibid., p. 1 GO.
Ibid., p. 161 and the inscriptions cited pp. 161-5.
Ibid., pp. 168-9.
Ibid., pp. I 70ff.
Ibid., pp. 178-9
Ibid., pp. 148-9.
Cf. C. Cozzanda, Delict !ibreria breJciana, Brescia, 1685, p. 283.
N ote.r to pp. 94-7 291
207 Cf. M. Gaggio, Notizie genealogiche delle famiglie nobili di Feltre, Felrre,
1936, p. 380.
208 Cf. B. Burchelati, Commentariorum Memorabilium multipliciJ- historiae
ta1visinae lucupleJ promptuarium. Libris quatuo-r distributttrll historico,
antiq11ario, poetae, philosopho, in primis autem christiana ac funebrium
iucmzdum atque utile, Treviso, 1616. Cf. A. A. Michieli, 'Vaniloqui e
scorribande', p. 328.
209 Cf. M. Zorzi, Vita del Signo1 Conte Camillo Silvestri, p. 88.
210 Pignoria is not only author of Origini di Padova, bur also editor of a curious
short work by V. Contarini on Antenor, the Trojan founder of Padua. Cf. L.
Pignoria, L'Anten01'e, Padua, 1625. Cf. also S. Orsato, lrtoria di Padova, Padua,
1678; the second part of this work remained in manuscript form.
211 Cf. L. Simeoni, Gli Jtudi storici ed archeologici di Scipione Maffei, in Studi
maffeiani, Turin, 1909, pp. 728ff.
212 'Ce mot de Gothique est assez commun chez les Curieux, et c'est ainsi qu'on
appelle tout ce qui parait ancien et mal fait:' Ch. Patin, Hhtoire des medai!!es,
p. Ill. Cf. also the works cited in note 98 above.
213 Antenor's romb is represented in L. Pignoria, L'Antenore, p. 36 and S. Orsaro,
Monmnenta Patavina, p. 3.19 where it features among the supposed ancient
inscriptions. However, Orsato does not deny the historical authenticity of
Antenor, restricting his criticism ro the tomb, ibid., pp. 343ff. The Scaliger
tomb is represented in 0. Panvinio, A ntiquitatum Vemnensium /ibri VIII,
from p. 96.
214 Archivio Academia Filharmonica, Reg. 43 degli Atti (gia segnato Libra XI),
ff
0
34v-3Gr. I am indebted to Professor L. Franzoni, who introduced me to this
text and provided me with a typed transcription of it.
215 Cf. 0. Rossi, Le Memorie Bresciane, 1616 edn, pp. 48 and 148.
216 Cf. G. Bertondelli, Historia delta cittci di Feltre, Venice, 1673, p. 114.
217 Cf. A. dal Corno, Memorie istoriche di Felt1e, p. 155.
2 I 8 Cf. S. Orsato, Monumenta Patavina, pp. 294ff.
219 Cf. idem, J'v[armi emditi, p. 10 I.
220 Cf. L. Moscardo, HiJtoria di Verona, pp. 416-17. This concerns the Cen,t in
casa di Simone, which currently hangs in the Sabaude Gallery, Turin.
221 As is the case in Pignoria's gallery, for example, cf. G. F. Tomasino, Laurentii
Pignorii ... Bihliotbeca et Mu.raeum, p. 19; at the home of the Manrova
Benavides, cf. I Favaretto, ed., Inventario, no. 136, p. 99 and no. 142, p. 101; at
the home of G. Gualdo the Younger, cf. Raccolta delle iscrittioni, f
0
37. Cf. also
S. Savini Branca, p. 133 (N. Crasso's inventory, 1656). This cult of the hero
was best reflected in the collections of portraits of famous men and women.
As, for example, in the home of L. Moscardo. cf. Note overo memorie, 1672
edn, pp. 465-7,474. Cf. also B. Dal Pozzo, Le Vite de'Pittori, p. 291 (Fattnri
collection; thirty-seven portraits of famous men and women), p. 292 (Mosconi
collection: 262 portraits), pp. 308-9 (Dal Pozzo collection: twenty portraits)
and M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pittoresco, p. 610 (collection belonging
to Count Bencio).
222 A. Zeno, Lettere, no. 527; vol. II, p. 206 (toP. C. Zeno, 16 Nov. 1720) and cf.
no. 593, vol. II, p. 3M (to Murarori, 8 Feb. 1723).
292
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
23)
234
235
236
237.
238.
239
240
241
242
24.)
244
245
246
247
Notes to pp. 97-100
Cf. ibid., no. 769; vol. IV, p. 308 (to G. F. Baldini, 25 May 1731).
Cf. ibid., no. 812, vol. IV, pp. 388-9 (to the above, 5 Dec. 1733).
Cf. S. Maffei, Traduttori italiani asia notizia de'tolgarizzamenti d'Antichi
Scrittori Latini, e Greci, che sana in lttce. Aggiunto it volga1izzamento d'a!Ctme
insigni lscrizioni Greche; E !a Notizia del nuovo Musuo d'Iscrizioni in Verona.
Col paragone fra !e lscrizioni, e !e iHedaglie, Venice, 1720, pp. 173-4.
Ibid., p. 176.
Cf. ibid., pp. 183-90.
Cf. ibid., pp. 196ff.
Ibid., p. 197.
Ibid., pp. 197-8.
Ibid., pp. 207-8.
A. Zeno, Lettere, no. 776; vol. IV, pp. 322-3 (to G. F. Baldini, 12Jan. 1731).
Cf. ibid., nos. 860,929, 1023; vol. V, pp. 71-2 (to G. D. Bertoli, 8Jan. 1734),
215 (to Baldini, 5 May 17.)6); vol. VI, p. 9 (to G.B. Parisotti, 2Jan. 1739).
Ibid., no. 777; vol. IV, p. 325 (to Bertoli, 19 Jan. 1731).
Cf. K. Pomian, Erudition/Philosophy', above pp. 21-38.
Pharmacopea sive De vera Pbarmaca conficiendi & jJreparandi Metbodo [ . . . ]
Q1tae lviethodJtJ a p!acitis non solum Priscorum l'vfedicorum, qui in Gr,tecia
f!oruemnt, & p1aecipue Galeni huim artis paretiHimi depromptct fttit: Sed
utiam a mandatis illomm, qui A1abiam decorartmt, & maxime MeStte, qtti hac
in arte nemini fuit seczmdtt.r . .. , Venice, 1617.
Cf. S. Maffei, Verona il!ustrata, part 2, pp. 224- 5; L. Franzoni, Origine e storia
dellviuseo !apidario maffeiano, p. 31.
P. A. Scardo, Botanica in ltalia. fdateriali per Ia Jtoria di questa .rcienza,
Venice, 1895 del R. Istituto Veneto di SS.LL.AA., vol. XXV, no. 4),
p. 55.
Mentioned, along with the garden belonging to F. Nutio, G. F. Morosini and
G. Duodo, by P. Coronelli, Guida de'Forestieri per Sllccintamente osservare
tutto if pit! riguardevo!e nella citta di Venetia, Venice, 1697, unnumbered
pages. Also mentioned by Caylus, Voyage d'Italie, p. 84, who visited it.
Cf. P.A. Saccardo, Botanica in ltalia, p. 114.
Cf. Catalogus -variorum plantarum hortolo ]oh. Behm, Venice, 1669 and
Fasciculits sive elench11s herbarum summa studio ac delectatione cultus a M.
Nutio pharmacopolo veneto, Venice, 1678, P. A. Saccardo, pp. 32 and 118.
Mentioned in particular by Arundel in his notes for Evelyn. Cf. Mary S.
Hervey, The Life ... of Thorna.r Howard, p. 451.
Cf. F. Sansovino and F. Martinoni, Venezia citta nobiliJJinza e singolare, pp.
369-70.
Cf. F. Pona, Si!eno, avera Bellezze dell Luogo de!f'lllmo Sig. Co. Gio. Giacomo
Giusti, Verona, 1620, p. 73. This grotto is also mentioned in Papebroch's
journal. Cf. M. Battistini, 'I padri bollandisti', p. 116.
Cf. E. Battisti, L'amirinaJcimento, Milan, 1962, pp. 164-5 and especially 182-
4. On coral and fire, ibid, p. 168. We should add that a branch of coral is
included in Jan Bruegel's Allegory of Fire (Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, inv. 68).
F. Sansovino and G. Martinoni, Venezia citta nobi!i.rJima e singolare, p. 3 70.
Cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica i17 It alia, paHim; A. Schwarz, eel., Per una .rtoria
Notes to pp. 101-5 293
della farmacia e del farmacista in Italia. Venezia e Veneto, Bologna, 1981, p.
54.
248 Cf. G. Glizzi, 'Calzolari, Francesco', Dizionario Biografico deg!i Italiani, vol.
XVII, pp. 65-7; A. Donati, Trattato de'semplici, pietre, e pesci marini, che
nascono nel lito di Venetia. La maggior parte non conosciuti da Teofrasto,
Dioscoride, Plinio, Galena, et altri Scrittori .. . , Venice, 1631, p. 2.
249 Cf. for example A. Donati, Trattato de'semplici . .. , pp. 12, 24-6 and passim.
250 Cf. C. Massalongo, 'In memoria di Fra Fortunato da Rovigo', Madonna
Verona, vol. XI (1917), pp. 34-6, This herbarium can now be seen in the
Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali in Verona.
251 Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Delle iscrizioni veneziane, vol. V, pp. 113 and 116-7.
252 On the Chiavenna book, which appeared in Treviso in 1648, cf. Biographie
universelle ancienne et moderne, vol. VIII, pp. 373-4.
253 Cf. J. Evans, Magical jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
particularly in England (1922), New York, 1976, pp. 15-16, 140ff.
254 A. Donati, Trattato de'semp!ici, p. 117.
255 Cf. Variorum fossilium apparatus, ex collectaneis I H Zannichellii, et in ipsius
pharmacopolio publicae eruditioni venetiis exhibitus, Venice, 1720; Enum.er-
atio rerum naturalium quae in Musaeo Zannichelliano asservantur, VeniCe,
1736.
256 Cf. De reconditis, et praecipuis co!Lectaneis ab honestissimo et sole-rtissimo
Francisco Calceolario veronensi in Musaeo adservatis, Joannis Baptistae Olivi
Medici testificatio, Venice, 1584.
257 Here is the subtitle: In quo multa ad natura/em moralemque Philosophiam
Spectantia, non paucam ad rem Medicam pertinentia erudite proponuntur et
explicantur supellectile quae artefici plane manu in aes incisae studiosi
exhibentur. For the title, d. above, note 177.
258 In the elogy to him, we read that Ca1zolari 'in hoc quidem Musaeo quicquid
rarum, et singulare in se habet natura, magnanis.rma impensa ex variis mundi
regionibus coaceruauit': Ibid., p. 2.
259 I. Favaretro, ed., 'Jnventario .. .', p. 91.
260 Ibid., nos. 127, 129-31, p. 98.
261 Ibid., p. 100.
.
262 Cf. C. A. Levi, Le Collezioni veneziane d'arte e d'antichita dal secolo XVI at
nostri giomi, Venice, 1900, vol. II, p. 119.
263 Ibid., pp. 121-2.
264 Cf. Produzioni Marine cioe Cochle, Altioni, Turbinetti, Coralloide, Madrepore,
e simili. Raccolte, e diliniate de me Fra Petronio da Verona ... , Venice, 1724.
Biblioteca Civica, Verona, MS 2047.
265 Ibid.,
0
165.
266 Cf. C. Lodoli, Notizie della vita, e degli studj del Kavalier Antonio Vallisnieri,
in A. Vallisnieri, Opere fisico-mediche, vol. I, Venice, 1733, p. XV.
267 Ibid., p. LIII.
268 Ibid., pp. LIII-L VI.
269 Ibid., p. LVII. Cf. also L. Polacca, pp. 425-7.
270 Ibid., p. LVI.
271 Ibid., Joe. cit.
294
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
Notes to pp.105-9
Caylus, pp. 56-7.
Cf. L. Patarol, Osservazioni intomo alia Nascita, vita, costumi, mutazioni, e
sviluppi detla Cantaride de Gig!i (1712), in A. Vallisnieri, vol. I, pp. 255ff.
L. Patarol, to G. D. Bertoli, 28 Dec. 1723. Cited in E. A. Cicogna, Detle
tsctnrom veneztcme, vol. V, p. 119, in the notes.
Cf. C. Ridolfi, Le Meravigfie detl'Mte o vera le Vite degli i!!ustri Pittori veneti
e della stato (1648), ed. D. Von Hadeln, Berlin, 1914-24, 2 vols.
Cf. F. Paglia, If Giardino della Pittura, ed. C. Borelli, Brescia, 1967, 2 vols. This
work, drawn up between 1663 and 1675 was continually corrected and revised
up to the author's death in 1714. Ibid., pp. 11ff.
Cf. M. Boschini, La cat'ta del navegar pittoresco, the index under 'Venezia,
Palazzi, Case, Collezioni', pp. 800ff.
Cf. F. Sansovino and G. Martinoni, Venezia citta nobilissima e singo!are, pp.
374-8.
Cf. B. dal Pozzo, Le Vite de'Pittori, pp. 28lff.: 'Galeria di Quadri che
s'attrouano nelle Case particolari di questa Citta'.
Cf. G. A. Averoldi, Le scelte di Brescia, pp. 243-7: 'Nota de'Quadri di
Pittura, con il nome de gl'Autori suoi, li quali s'attrovano neUe Stanze in Casa
del Conte Pietro de Testio Lane'.
Cf. C. A. Levi, Le Collezioni veneziane, vol. II, pp. 81-117 and vol. I, p.
LXXXI.
Cf. I. Favaretro, 'Inventario .. .', pp. 54-5: this collection contained ninety-
eight paintings and drawings and 130 prints and engravings.
In Padua, paintings are noted in the collections belonging to C. Torta and G.
della Torre. Cf. respectively G. A. Averoldi, Le scelte pitt11re di Brescia, p. 251,
and S. Orsaro, j'vfonttmenta Patavina, pp. 160-1. For Silvestri, cf. M. Zorzi, Vita
del Signor Conte Camillo Silvestri, p. 74. In the eighteenth century, this was to
be the largest picture gallery in Rovigo, cf. F. Bertoli, Le pitture, sculture ed
architetture della citta di Rovigo, Venice, 1793, pp. 236-59. For Treviso, cf. D.
M. Federici, lvfemorie Trevigiane su!!e opere di disegno, Venice, 1803, vol. II,
pp. 223ff., which says nothing about the seventeenth century. Let us add
finally that F. Scanelli does not mention any private collections of paintings
other than in Venice and Verona. In Vicenza, Treviso and Brescia he only
describes publicly owned paintings. Cf. I! 1Hicrocomzo de!Ja Pittura Cesena
1647.
, '
Cf. G. Campori, Raccofta di cataloghi ed inventarii inediti di quadri, statue,
disegni . .. , Modena, 1870, pp. l75ff., 192ff. On these collections cf. also L.
Franzoni, If Co!lezionismo dal Cinquecento al!'Ottocento, in Cu!tura e Vita
Civile a Verona, Verona, 1979, pp. 615-20.
Cf. L. Moscardo, Historia di Verona, pp. 416-17, where we also learn that,
when visiting his museum, Spinola rold Moscardo that he was ready co pay
any price for this painting.
Cf. the Dolfin inventory, in S. Savini Branca, II co!lezioniJmo vemziano, pp.
159-65 and the Canossa inventory, in Maria Simonetta Tisato Premi, 'Il
Canossa collezionisti di quadri secondo un inedito inventario del secolo XVII'
Studi storici veronesi, vol. XXVIII-XXIX (1978-9), pp. 108-79. '
Cf. L. Rognini, Regesti dei pittori operanti a Verona tra Ia fine del Seicento e
Notes to pp. 109-11 295
l'inizio del Settecento, in L. Magagnato, ed., La pittura a Vetona tra Sei e
Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Verona, 1978, pp. 281ff.
288 des voyages de monsieur de lv!onconys . .. , Lyons, 1666, vol. II, p. 414
and cf. also p. 425.
289 Cf. M. Boschini, Bteve lnstruzione per intendere in qualche modo le maniere
de gli Autto1i veneziani, in idem, Le ricche miniere della pittura veneziana,
unnumbered pages.
290 Cf. Mary F. S. Hervey, The Life ... of Thomas Howat'd, p. 410; E. K.
Waterhouse, 'Paintings from Venice for Seventeenth-Century England: some
records of a forgotten transaction, Italian Studies, vol. VIII (1952), pp. 1-23.
291 Cf. M. Muraro, 'Studiosi, collezionisti e opere d'arte venete dalle lettere al
cardinale Leopolda de'Medici', Saggi e memorie di Storia dell'Arte, vol. IV
(1965), pp. 67-81; Gloria Chiarini de Anna, Leopolda de'lvfedici e la
formazione della .r11a racco!ta de di.regni, in Anna Forlani Tempesta and Anna
Maria Petrioli Tofani, eds, Omaggio a Leopolda de'lvfedici, exhibition cata-
logue, Florence, 1976, vol, I, pp. 26-39.
292 Cf. E. Jacobs, 'Das Museo Vendramin', pp. 23ff.
293 Cf. M. Muraro, 'Studiosi ... Leopolda de'Medici', pp. 74., and for all this S.
Savini Branca II collezionismo veneziano, especially pp. 61ff.
294 Cf. G. Campori, Raccolta di cataloghi, pp. 178 and 195. It should be noted,
however, that three paintings by Falkenburg from the Muselli collection were
added to dal Pozzo's. Cf. ibid., p. 186 and B. dal Pozzo, le Vite de'Pittori, p. 308.
295 L. Magagnato, Saggio bio-bibliografico, indice analitico ragionale e scelta di
tavole, in B. dal Pozzo, Le Vite de'Pittori, reprint, Verona, 1967, p. XXIII.
296 Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Saggio di bibiografica veneziana, nos. 5087, 5093, 5094,
5099, 5105, 5122, 5143, 5169, 5175, 5176, 5187, 5193, 5197, 5210, 5218. All
these publications deal with collections already or about to be dispersed in the
1840s.
297 Cf. the inventory of Giovanni Pietro Tirabosco: S. Savini Branca, II co!fezio-
nismo veneziano, pp. 125-30.
298 Cf. idem, ibid., pp. 52ff.
299 Cf. L Alberon, Le arti figurative in collective work, Stotia di Bass ana, Bassano
del Grappa, 1980, pp. 507-8.
300 B. dal Pozzo, Le Vite de'Pittori, p. 283. The painting belonged to the Marquis
of Canossa according to the inventory established after his death, where it was
attributed without any hesiration to Guido Reni and valued at 250 ducats. Cf.
M. S. Tisaro Premi, 'II Canossa collezionisti', p. 151, no. 162.
301 B. da1 Pozzo, Le Vite de'Pittori, p. 173.
302 Cf. Mary Secret, Being Bernard Berenson, London, 1980, and the reviews of
this book: Anita Brookner, 'The master of the attributions', Times Literary
Supplement, 18 Jan. 1980 and S. Schama, 'Berenson's Elixir', The London
Review of Books, 1 May 1980.
303 For Dal Pozzo, for example, an Alessandro Turchi (towards 1578-1649) or a
Claudio Ridolfi (1570-1644) are not 'moderni'. Cf. Le Vite de'Pittori, pp. 285-
6. Cf. also M. Boschini, La carta delnavegar pittoresco, p. 591.
304 Cf. M. Muraro, 'Studiosi, collezionisti ... Leopolda de'Medici', especially pp.
69ff.; S. Savini Branca, II collezioniJmo veneziano, pp. 47ff.
296
Notes to pp. 111-17
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
Cf. M. Boschini, La carta del nave gar pitoresco, pp. 255ff. The quotation comes
from p. 260.
Cf. ibid., pp. 158-9.
Cf. ibid., p. 169.
Ibid., p. 263.
Ibid., p. 256.
Ibid., loc. cit.
Ibid., p. 263.
Ibid., p. 264.
Cf. ibid., pp. 260-1, editor's nore.
Cf. S. Savini Branca, II collezionismo veneziano, pp. 79ff., l79ff. and L.
Magagnato, Saggio bio-bib!iografico, pp. XXI-XXII.
This applies ro the Canossa collection, for example cf. B. dal Pozzo, Le Vite
de'Pittori, pp. 282-3, which mentions seventeen paintings, and the 1687
inventory in M. S. Tisata Premi, 'II Canossa collezionisti', which contains 387
numbers.
We have already noted this in Boschini. Cf. also the praise for Verona at the
beginning of dal Pozzo's book, and for Brescia and its antiquities in Averoldi's
book.
Cf. B. dal Pozzo, Le Vite de'Pittori, pp. 305-9 and Magagnato, 1! percono
critico, in La pittura a Verona tra Sei e Settecento, pp. I3ff. especially p. 22.
For Venice, the inventories of Giovanni Pierro Tirabosco, Michele Pietra,
Gasparo Chechel, Daniele Dolfin, Giorgio Bergonzi were used, these inventor-
ies being taken from S. Savini Branca, II collezionismo veneziano, pp. !25-30,
134-40, 140-7, 159-65, 165-78. The reasons for this choice are given below.
For Verona, the Canossa inventory, already cited, and the 1695 Barbieri
inventory were used, these coming from [A. Avenal], 'La galleria Barbieri
nelli anni 1695 e 1729', Madonna Verona, vo!. VII (1913), pp. 189-202.
Unfortunately, the paintings in this inventory are often anonymous.
In the seventeenth century, these painters were sometimes placed in the
Venetian school. Thus, for example, in theJabach collections. Cf. Dessins de fa
collection ]a bach en 1671 pam Ia collection roy ale, Paris, 1978, pp. 6ff.
For the Muselli and Curroni collections, the estimates are based on the lists
published by G. Campori, Raccolta di cataloghi, pp. 178-92 and 196-202. On
the Bergonzi collection, cf. S. Savini Branca, I! collezioni.rmo veneziano, pp.
186ff.
Cf. S. Savini Branca, ll collezionismo veneziano, p. 140.
The latter can be found in the following inventories: Tirabosco, nos. 1, 34, 56,
88, 94; Bergonzi, nos. 255,287, 345; Canossa, no. 124; Barbieri, nos, 156,264.
Cf. also B. dal Pozzo, Le Vite de Pittori, pp. 289, 292, 295, 307.
In the case of the Muselli collection, this results from the title of the
document: Inventario delle pittme che s'attrovano in Verona nella Galleria del
Sigt. Christoforo Muse!li, G. Campori, Raccolta di cataloghi, p. 178.
Cf. La pittura a Verona tra Sei e Settecento, and in particular the article by S.
Marinelli, Lo stile 'eroico' e !'arcadia, especially pp. 54ff.
For the Grimani Calergi, Dolfin and Bergonzi collections, cf. the references in
S. Savini Branca, II coltezionisrno venezLmo, pp. 227-8, 213-14, 188-91. For
Notes to pp. 117-22 297
M. Pietra, cf. M. Boschini La Carta del navegar pittoresco, pp. 584-5.
326 This happens in five different cases. Cf. S. Savini Branca, II collezionismo
veneziano, pp. 161, 162, 163.
327 Cf. Fr. Haskell, Patrons and Painters. A Study in the Relations Between Italian
Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque, New Haven -London, 1980, pp.
256ff.
328 Cf. the Bergonzi inventory, nos. 100, 109, 176, 197, 198, 204,217-19, 223-6,
235, 242, 295, 321-5, 387.
329 Cf. ibid., nos. 132,133,140,181,202,203,208,248,249,257,303,316,317,
331, 332, 337, 358,454.
330 Cf. ibid, nos. 101, 105, 231, 232, 356.
331 Cf. V. Scamozzi, L'idea delta architettura, pp. 305, 328ff. and the description of
the palace owned by Girolamo Cavazza in F. Sansovino and G. Martinoni,
Venezia Citta nobi!issima e singolare, pp. 393ff.
332 Cf. S. Savini Branca, II collezionismo veneziano, pp. 159-65 and in particular
161-2 (the gallery).
333 Cf. M.S. Tisata Premi, 'II Canossa collezionisti', pp. 144-50 (the gallery), 150-
3 (the second room).
334 Ibid., p. 156.
335 Cf. S. Savini Branca, If collezionismo veneziano, pp. 116-2! and in particular
p. 119 (the gallery).
336 Cf. ibid., pp. 137-8 ('Studio de'quadri originali').
337 Cf. ibid., pp. 165-71 ('Camara sopra li due Rij') and pp. 171-2 (Portico').
CHAPTER 4 MEDALS/SHELLS = ERUDITION/PHILOSOPHY
First published in Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, vol. CLI-
CLIV, 1976, pp. 1677-703.
]. Span, Recherche des antiquites et curiositris de la ville de Lyon. Avec un
Memoire des Principaux Antiquaires et Curieux de !'Europe, Lyons, 1673, pp.
212-18.
2 P. Bizot, Histoire mhallique de Ia Republique de Hollande, Paris, 1687,
Preface; Le Livre commode des adresses de Paris pour 1692 par Abraham du
Pradel (Nicola.r de Blegny), published by E. Fournier, Paris, 1878, pp. 216-31.
3 Ch.-C. Baudelot de Dairval, De l'utilite des voyages et des avantageJ que Ia
recherche des antiquitez procure savam, Rauen, 1727, vol. II, pp. 412-34.
4 A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville, 'Lettre sur le choix et !'arrangement d'un cabinet
curieux', Merwre de France, June 1727, pp. 1294-330.
5 CorreJpondance inedite du comte de Cay/us avec le P. Paciaudi, theatin ( 17 57-
65 ), suivie de celles de !'abbe Barthelemy et de P. lvfariette avec le me me,
published by Ch.Nisard, Paris, 1877, vol. I, p. 144; letter dated 11 Feb. 1760.
6 On the collection belonging to P.-D. de Cleves, cf. an essay by Abbot ].-].
Barthelemy cited in M. Badolle, L'Abbe ]ean-]acque.r Barthelemy et l'helle-
nisme en France dam Ia seconde moitie dtt X VIlle siec!e, Paris, s.d., p. 67, note.
On that owned by Michelet d'Ennery, cf. Ch.-Ph. Campion de Tersan,
298 Notes to pp. 122-6
Catalogue des medailles antiques et modernes ... du cabinet de .M. Ennery,
Paris, 1788. On that belonging to ]. Pellerin d. Michaud, Biographie
universelle, vol. XXXII, pp. 400-1.
7 M. Grimm, Correspondance litthaire, philosophique et critique, published by
M. Tourneux, Paris, 1877 onwards, vol. VI, p. 266.
8 L-V. Thiery, Guide des amateun et des etrangers voyageurs a Paris, Paris,
1786, 2 vols. The figures are given in accordance with the table of contents.
9 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue raisonmf des coquilles et autres curiositeJ naturelles,
Paris, 17 36, pp. V and VI.
10 A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville, L'Histoire Naturelle eclaircie dans deux de ses
parties principales. La Lithologie et Ia Concbyliofogie ... , Paris, 1742, pp.
198-210. The list is incomplete: 'le respect ne permet pas de nommer ici
plusieurs Dames', p. 210.
11 Idem, op. cit., Paris, 1757, pp. 112-32.
12 A.-R. de Liesville, Noms des collectionneurs d'bistoire nature!le in 1767, Caen,
1867; this is a reprint of the list published in Concbyfiologie nouvelle et
portative ... , Paris, 1767.
13 A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville, La Conchyfiologie ou Histoire Naturelfe des
coquilles de mer, d'eau douce, terrestres et fossiles ... , Paris, 1780, vol. I, pp.
199-270. I have not counted the number of collections listed here, and which
had ceased to exist by 1780.
14 M. Grimm, Correspondance litteraire, vol. IV, p. 42.
15 Ibid., pp. 163-72.
16 Ibid., vol. V, p. 212.
17 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue d'une collection considerable de diverses curiosites
en tous genres contenues dans fes cabinets de feu .M. Bonnier de fa .Masson . .. ,
Paris, 1744; Bib!. nat., cabinet des Estampes, Yd. 10.
18 L.-V. Thiery, Guide des amateurs.
19 Cf. E. Lamy, Les Cabinets d'histoire naturelfe en France au XVIIIe siede et le
Cabinet du Roi (1635-1793), Paris, 1930. Y. Laissus, 'Les cabinets d'hisroire
naturelle', in Enseignement et diffusion des sciences en France au XVJIIe
siecle, under the supervision of R. Taton, Paris, 1964, pp. 659.
20 Cf. H. Omont, .Missions archeologiques jran0aises en Orient aux XVIIe et
XVIIIe siecles, Paris, 1902, S. Rocheblave, Essai sur fe comte de Caylus, Paris,
1889, pp. 109ff.
21 'Lettre ecrite a Monsieur Hearne, sur Ia dissertation dont il est parle dans les
Memoires du mois de Fevrier 1713. Par Mr de Ia Roque', Journal de Trevoux,
XIII, Sept. 1713, p. 1540.
22 Cf., for example, Correspondance inedite du comte de Caylus, vol. I, p. 456;
letter of 8 Apr. 1764.
23 La Science des medailles antiques et modemes, par le P. Joubert, avec des
remarques historiques et c1itiques de .M. de La Bas tie, Paris, 17 39, vol. I, p. 3 3.
24 Ibid., vol. I, pp. 4-5.
25 Ibid., vol. I, p. 25.
26 On the link between the negative attitude towards the Middle Ages and the
pre-eminence of the aesthetic standpoint, cf. K. Pomian, 'Kolekcjonerstwo i
filozofia (Narodziny nowoczesnego muzeum)', Archiwum Historii Filozofii i
Notes to pp. 127-33 299
.Myfli Spoleczenej, vol. XXI ( 1975 ), pp. 29-86 and]. Voss, Das .Mitte!alter im
historischen Denken Frankreichs, Munich, 1972, pp. 183ff.
27 One example taken from ten others: Abbot Rothelin, 'est assez avance dans
une collection qu'il a enrrepris de faire des Medailles Imperiales en Or et en
Argent', Ch.-C. Baudelot de Dairval, De f'utifite des voyages, vol. II, p. 431.
28 P. Bizot, loc. cit.
29 ].-B. Dubos, Reflexions c1itiques sttr fa poesie et fa peinture, Utrecht, 1732,
vol, I, pp. 48-9.
30 Joubert, La Science des medailles, vol. II, p. 108.
31 P. Bizot, Joe. cit.
32 Cf. A. Momigliano, 'Ancient history and the antiquarian', in Contributo a!la
Storia deg!i Studi C!aJSici, Rome, 1955.
33 Cf. E. Babelon, Les Origines et l'bistoire de l'enseignement de fa numts-
rnatique, Paris, 1908, p. 12.
34 Cf. K. Pomian, 'Dziejopisarstwo erudyt6w i kryzys historiozofii w drugiej
po!owie XVII wieku', Archiwum HiJtorii Filozofii i lv1.yfli Spolecznej, vol.
XVIII, 1972, pp. 243-67.
35 E. Spanheim, Relation de fa Cour de France en 1690, Paris-Lyons, 1900, p. 263.
36 P. Bizot, Joe. cit.
37 Ibid.
38 Ch. Perrault, Mhnoires de ma vie. Quoted in]. Jacquiot, .Medaifles et jetons de
Louis XIV d'apres le manuscrit de Londres. Add. 31-908, Paris, 1968, vol. I, p.
XCVII. Cf. also E. Spanheim, Relation de Ia Cour, pp. 93-4.
39 Cf. Medailles sur les Principaux Evenemens du Regne de Louis le Grand avec
Explication Historique, par l'Acadhnie Royale des Inscriptions et des
lvledailles, Paris, 1702.
40 Antoine Rascas, sieur de Bagarris, De la necessite de /'usage des .Medailles dans
les .Monnoyes, Paris, 1611, quoted in]. Jacquior, Medailles et jetons, vol. I, p.
XXXV.
11 B. de Montfaucon, Antiquite expliquee et representee en figures, prospectus,
Paris, 1717, p. 2.
12 M. Ph. Levesque de Gravelles, Recueil de pierres gravees antiques, Paris, 1732,
vol. I, pp. IV-V.
43 Encyclopedie ou Dictionnaire Raisomze des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers,
vol. X, article 'Medaille', p. 239.
44 Cay1us, Recueil d'antiquites egyptienneJ, etrusques, grecques et romaines, vol.
I, Paris, 1752, Preface.
45 Cf.]. Winckelmann, DescriptionJ des pierres gmvees du feu baron de Stosch,
Florence, 1760.
46 Encyclopedie . .. , vol. IV, p. 577.
47 Cf. Encyclopedie . .. , vol. I, article 'Amateur', p. 137.
48 Encyclopedie ... , vol. III, p. 898.
49 Comte de Caylus, Vies des Artistes du XVIIIe sii;c/e. DiJcours sHrla Peinture
et fa Sculpture, published by A. Fontaine, Paris, 1910, p. 121.
50 P.-J. Mariette, Traite des pierres gravees, Paris, 1750, vol. I, pp. 93-4.
51 Caylus, Vies des Artistes ... , p. 81. Cf. pp. 130-1 on genius and enthusiasm.
52 Ibid., p. 161.
300 Note.r to pp. 134-9
53 P.-J. Mariette, Traite des pierres gravies, vol. I, pp. 49-50.
54 Cf. Caylus and Majault, Mhnoire sur Ia peinture a !'encallftique et sur !a
peinture a eire, Geneva, 1755.
55 Comte de Caylus, Notweaux sujet.r de et de sculpture, Paris, 1755;
idem, Tableaux tires de l'lliade, de l'Odys.ree d'Homere et de l'Eneide de
Virgile; avec les observation.r generales mr le costume, Paris, 1757.
56 Idem, Vies des ArtiJtes ... , p. 123.
57 Ibid., pp. 123-4.
58 P.-J Mariette, Traite des pierres gravies, vol. I, p. 54.
59 M. Grimm, Correspondance litteraire, vol. V, p. 250.
60 D. Diderot, Sttr fa sculpture, Bouchardon, et Cay/us; CEttvres completes,
chronological edition, Paris, 1969-73, 15 vols; vol. V, p. 296.
61 M. Grimm, Correspondance litteraire, vol. III, p. 205.
62 Ibid, vol. IV, p. 315-16
63 Abbot ].-]. Barthelemy to P. Paciaudi, letter dated 31 Jan. 1764; Cor-
re.rpondance inedite du comte de Cay!tts, vol. II, p. 273.
64 D. Diderot, Salon de 1765; CEuvres completes, vol. VI, p 212.
65 Idem, Salon de 1767; ibid., vol. VII, p. 40.
66 Correspond,mce inedite d!t comte de Cay!ttS, vol. I, pp. 441-2, 190.
67 Ibid., p. 238 Cf. also vol. II, p. 330.
68 D. Diderot, Sur Ia .rctt!pture, Bouchardon. et Caylus, vol. V, p. 296.
69 Ibid.
70 M. Grimm, Correspondance littemire, vol. IV, p. 432.
71 D. Diderot, Salon de 1767; op. cit., vol. VII, pp. 31-2. Cf. also]. Seznec, Essais
Sitr Diderot et l'Antiquite, Oxford, 1957, especially pp. 79ff.
72 EnC)'clopedie, vol. II, article 'Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle'.
73 Ibid., vol. VIII, article 'Histoire Naturelle', p. 228.
74 Ibid., p. 229 and vol. II, article 'Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle'.
75 Ibid., vol. VIII, article 'Histoire Naturelle', p. 228.
CHAPTER 5 DEALERS, CONNOISSEURS AND ENTHUSJASTS JN
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PARIS
First published in Revue de /'art, 43 ( 1979), pp. 23-36.
On the sales catalogues, cf. A. Thibaudeau, Lettre sur Ia cMiosite et fes curieux,
inCh. Blanc, Le Tresor de Ia Cttriosite tire des catalogues de vente, Paris, 1857,
vol. L F. Boucher, 'Quelques exemples de Ia valeur documentaire des catalogues
de vente anciens', Bulletiu de fa Societe de !'histoire de !'art 1938, pp.
113-23; F. Lugt, Trouvailles er recherches dans les anciens catalogues de
ventes', ibid., pp. 123-6. The titles of the catalogues will be given here in their
abridged form: as the place of publication is always Paris, it will not be
mentioned. Each catalogue title will be followed by the number attributed to it
in F. Lugt, Repertoire des cata!ogttes de vente.r pttb!iques interessant !'art oN Ia
ct<riosite. Premiere periode: vers 1600-1825, The Hague, 1938.
Note.r to pp. 139-41 301
2 Cf. E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue raisonne ... du cabinet de feu M. Quentin de
Lorangere ... , 1744 (Lugt 590), pp. S-6.
3 Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Description sommaire des desseins des grands maistres
d'ltalie, de Pays-Bas et de France du Cabinet de Feu M. Crozat . .. , 1741 (Lugt
536). As for the prints, even if there is no set way of arranging them,
according to Gersaint, 'voici cependant !'usage le plus suivi et l'ordre 1e plus
nature!. Quand on tend a former un Cabinet complet, c'est d'en faire les
recueils par Ecoles, suivant les Peintres et leurs Eleves.' E.-F. Gersaint,
Catlogue Lorangere, pp. 46-7.
4 Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Cat/ague de tableaux et sculptures . .. dtt cabinet de feu M.le
President de Tugny et de celui de M. Crozat, 1751 (Lugt 762).
5 Cf. ].-F. Boileau, Catalogue des tableaux qtti composent le cabinet de
Monseigneur le due de Choiseul ... , 1772 (Lugt 2020). The Spanish school
was placed after the German one and represented by two paintings by
Velazquez and two by Murillo (nos. 115-18). Usually, however, if the Spanish
school was mentioned at all, it was associated either with the Genoese or the
Neapolitan ones. On the knowledge of Spanish painting in France in the
eighteenth century, cf. G. Rouches, 'Les premieres publications sur
Ia peinture espagnole', Bulletin de la Societe de !'histoire de !'art fram;ais, 1930,
pp. 35-48.
6 Cf. J.-B.-P. LeBrun, Catalogue de tableaux des ecoles hollandaise, flamande et
fran(oise . .. du cabinet de M. Gras, 1778 (Luge 2835). This has been re-edited:
E. Dacier, Catalogues de ventes et livrets de salons illustres par Gabriel de
Saint-Aubin, vol. IV, Paris, 1913.
7 J.-B.-P. LeBrun, Catalogue raisonne des tableaux . .. qui composent le cabinet
de feu M. Poullain, 1780 (Lugt 3106), p. III.
8 CF. P. Remy and J.-B. Glomy, Catalogue raisonne des tableaux ... qui
composent le cabinet de feu M. le due de Tallard, 1756 (Lugt 910).
9 Catalogue deJ' tableaux . .. compos am le Cabinet de Feu Monsieur Davaux . .. ,
1752 (Luge 789), no. 24.
10 Catalogue des tableaux de !a Comtesse de Verrue, 1737 (Lugt 470), nos. 24, 66,
99, resumption of sale no. 23. The only description with more detail is the
resumption of sale no. 65. This catalogue, which was not primed at that time,
is only known through copies. It was published in Ch. Blanc, Le Tresor de !a
Curiosite, vol. I, pp. 1-16.
11 LPoilly?J, Catalogue des tableaux du cabinet de feu ... Prince de Carignan,
1742 (Luge 559).
12 Catalogue de tableattx de cabinet o1iginaux, tres bien conditionnes, 1752 (Lugt
790), nos. 3, 12, 15. The spelling of the names of the minor painters remained
variable for a long time afterwards. Cf. F. Boucher, 'Quelques exemples', article
cited, pp. 114-15.
13 Catalogue des tableaux des pius grands maftres d'Ita!ie, Flandre et Hollande,
dtt cabinet de feu M. de !a Chataigneraye . .. , 1732 (Lugt 419), p. 12, paragraph
2.
14 P. Remy, Catalogue de tableaux . .. qui composent le cabinet de Monsieur de
Merva!, 1768 (Luge 1681), no. 13.
302 Notes to pp. 142-8
15 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue raisomui des tableaux . .. p1'0venant de Ia succession
de feu M. Charles Godefroy .. . , 1748 (Lugt 674), no. 13, pp. 11-13.
16 J.-B.-P. le Brun, Catalogue Poul!ain, no. 22.
17 F. Basan, Catalogue des tableaux du Cabinet de feu M. Louis Michel Vanloo,
1772 (Lugt 2086), no. 82. Handwritten comment on the copy in the Bib!. nat.
Est. Yd. 2090. J.-B.-P. LeBrun, Catalogue d'tme belle collection de tableaux de
t1'0is eco!es, 1780 (Lugt 3193), no. 198.
18 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue raisonne des difjerens effets ... contenus dans le
Cabinet de feu Af. Charles de La Roque, 1745 (Lugt 619), no. 64.
19 Cf. P. Remy, Catalogue raisonne des tableaux du cabinet de feu M. Peilhon,
1763 (Lugt 1295 ), no. 5. (Procaccini was not Camillo but Giulio Cesare.)
20 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue La Roque, pp. 26-7.
21 Ibid., p. 26.
22 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue raisonne des bijoux . .. provenans de fa succession de
M. Angran, vicomte de Fonspettt<is, 1747 (Lugt 677), p. 197.
23 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue La Roqt<e, p. 26.
24 This is the case for a Saint John in the Desert which '!a plus grande partie des
Connoisseurs attribue au Pesarez'. E.-F. Gersaint, Fompertuis, no.
433. It is with this attribution, and without the slightest reservation, that this
painting previously figured in: [Poilly' ], Catalogue Carignan, p. 19, paragraph
1, and afterwards in: P. Remy and J.-B. Glomy Catalogue Tallard, no. 74.
Similarly, Gersaint does not pronounce himself over a 'Christ descendu de !a
Croix accompagne de !a Vierge er de deux Anges' painted 'dans le gout de
Morillos [Murillol'; Catalogue Godefroy, no. 3.
25 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue Lotangere, p. VIII.
26 R. de Piles, Abrege de fa vie des peintres, Avec des reflexions Sf(1' !eMS
Otwrages, et un Traite du Peintre parfait; de Ia Connoissance des Des.reins; de
!'Uti!ite des Estampes, Paris, 1715, p. 96. On this work, cf. B. Teyssedre,
L'Hi.rtoire de l'art vue du Grand Siecle, Paris, 1964.
27 De Piles distinguishes between three different sorts of copies. 'And the third
sort, which is executed faithfully and with great ease, with a light and skilful
touch, and which, above all, dares from the same period as the original,
troubles even the greatest of connoisseurs, who often risk pronouncing in
favour of resemblance rather than truth' Abrege, p. 97. Having cited rhe
anecdote of Jules Romain, who failed to recognize his own work, de Piles
draws the following conclusion: 'This is how truth can sometimes hide itself
from even the most profound of sciences and how one can be mistaken about a
fact without necessarily being mistaken in one's judgement.' Ibid., p. 102.
28 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue Lorangete, p. 9.
29 Idem, Catalogue Fonspertuis, pp. 159-60.
30 Ibid., p. 173.
31 Cf. ].-B. Dubos, Ref!exions critiques sur Ia poesie et Ia peinture, Paris, 1733,
vol. II, pp. 383ff.
32 Le Catalogue des tableaux, des buste.r et autre.r ouvrages ... du cabinet de M. le
Comte de Pontchartrain, 1747 (Luge 678), also drawn up by Mariette, still
adheres to the old model; the pieces in it are not even numbered.
33 P.-J. Mariette, Catalogue Tugny et Crozat, no. 45.
Notes to pp. 148-52 303
34 Ibid., no. 62; the same arguments is used regarding a painting by Cantarini, no.
83.
35 Ibid., no. 163
36 P.-J. Mariette, Catalogue de tableaux . .. du cabinet de feu M. Coype! . .. , 1753
(Lugt 811), no. 16.
3 7 P. Remy, Cata!ogt<e de tableaux . .. du Cabinet de feu M. Pasquier, 1755 (Lugt
870), pp. 5-6. The catalogue bears no signature, but it figures in sundry Listes
des catalogues que P. Remy a faits seul ott en societe, pour les venteJ. For
example, in that which appears in P. Remy, Catalogue raisonne des tab!eattx
... qui composent !e Cabinet de feu M. Boucher, 1771 (Lugt 1895).
38 Idem, Catalogue Pasquier, nos. 8, 34, 23.
39 It is possible that while drawing up the Catalogue Tal!ard Remy and Glomy
were influenced by Mariette who is known to have participated in irs
preparation. Cf. Helle's comments written in the copy of the Catalogue
Ta!!ard, Bib!. nat. Est. Yd. 35.
40 P. Remy, Catalogue raisonne des tableaux ... qui composent differents
cabinets, 1757 (Luge 979). In particular, this volume contains the Catalogue
des tableaux qui composent le Cabinet de M. le ***, from which the quotation
is taken, p. 122.
41 P. Remy, Catalogtte raisonne des tableaux . .. qui composent le Cabinet de feu
.M. Gaignat, 1768 (Lugr 1724), p. VI.
42 J.-B.-P. le Brun, Catalogue d'une belle collection de tableaux . .. de trois eco!es,
1778 (Lugt 2923), p. 4.
43 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue Godefroy, p. 30.
44 P.-J. Mariette, Abecedario, published by Ph. de Chennevieres and A. de
Montaiglon, Paris, 1851-60, 6 vols; vol. II, p. 36. Corrections made to copy of
Catalogue Coypel, Bib!. nat. Est. Yd. 24.
45 P.-J. Mariette, Catalogue COJ'pel, preface. Reproduced in idem, Abecedario,
vol. II, p. 35.
46 This concerns six drawings, of which two (Catalogue Coype!, nos 228 and 229)
were bought by the king, one (no. 232) was bought by Joullain, and three (nos.
230, 231 and 233) by the Due de Tallard (cf. rhe copy at the Bib!. nat. Est. Yd.
24). The latter were attributed to Raphael in the Catalogue Tallard (cf. nos
209,210, 214) no doubts whatsoever being voiced as to this attribution, which
was also wholeheartedly accepted by the author of the notes on the copy at the
Bib!. nat. Est. Yd. 35.
47 Cf. M. Grimm, Correspondance litteraire, philosophique et critique, published
by M. Tourneux, Paris, 1877 onwards; vol. VII, pp. 238-9.
48 P. Remy, Catalogue Gaignat, p. IX. It is true that Remy says 'rien de positif de
sa part' about rhis painting. Here is the description: 'Raphael Sancio d'Urbin-
3 Saint Jean dans le Desert, peinr sur bois qui porte 14 pouces 6 !ignes de haut
sur 13 pouces de large. - Ce tableau, de puis plus de vingt annees, tienr place
dans ce Cabinet; il est considere pour etre le petit du grand qui est au Palais
Royal; on peut dire aussi qu'il fait !'admiration de beaucoup d'Amateurs er
d'Artistes. L'Estampe se trouve gravee par Chereau, dans l'CEuvre de
Crozat, n 19.' P. Remy, Catalogue raisonne des tableaux . .. apres le deces de
M. de Julienne ... , 1767 (Lugt 1603).
304 Notes to pp. 152-5
49 Mariette, while discussing a painting attributed by its owners to Raphael, and
which he believes to be by Fra Bartolomeo, comments that it is feared he
might be right, this causing the price of the work to drop; letter to Bottari,
dated 26 Oct. 1764. Cf. on the same picture, the letters to the same person
dated 16 Dec. 1764 and 5 Jan. 1765. Raccolta di lettere sulfa pittura, scultura ed
archittetura scritte dai piu celebri personaggi dei secoli XV, XVI e XVII,
publicata da M. Gio. Bottari e continuata fino ai nostri giorni da Stefano
Ticozzi, Milan, 1822, vol. V, pp. 406-7, 410ff. Elsewhere, Mariette mentions
certain counts of Canossa, who sought to pass a painting by Andrea Schiavone
off as a Raphael, in order to fetch a higher price; letter to Bottari, 1 Oct. 1757;
ibid., vol. III, p. 522.
50 P. Remy, Catalogue Gaignat, p. IX.
51 Cf. M.-J. Friedlander, De l'mt et du connaisseur, trans!., Paris, 1969, pp. 204ff.
52 'Personne n'a mieux entendu qui lui [Gersainr] !'art de conduire une Vente
d'effets curieux, en faisant l'avantage des Interesses; il avoit conserver Ia
confiance des Acquereurs, par Ia sincerite avec laquelle il exposoit chaque
Morceau, et quoiqu'il n'oubliat rien pour faire valoir les Pieces dignes de
remarques, comme il ne disoit rien que de vrai, on etoit oblige de convenir de
Ia perfection de ce dont il faisoit l'eloge.' P.-C.-A. Helle and J.-B. Glomy,
Catalogue raisonne de toutes les pieces qui forment l'CEuvre de Rembrandt,
Paris, 1751, p. VIII.
53 [La Curne de Saint-Palaye ], Catalogue des tableaux du cabinet de M. Crozat,
baron de Thiers, Paris, 1755.
54 Diderot, letter to R. Tronchin, 13 or 14 Aug. 1771; D. Diderot, Cor-
respondance, collected, established and annotated by G. Rorh, vol. XV, Paris,
1964, pp. 90-1.
55 F. Tronchin to General Betski, 9 Feb. 1772; D. Diderot, Correspondance, vol.
XVI, Paris, 1970, p. 81.
56 R. de Piles, Abrege de fa vie des peintres, p. 91.
57 Ibid., pp. 92-3.
58 Comte de Caylus, Vies des Artistes du XVII!e siecle, Discours sur Ia Peinture
et Ia Sculpture, published by A. Fontaine, Paris, 1910, p. 82.
59 Ibid., p. 123.
60 Mariette to Bottari, 26 Ocr. 1764: Raccolta di lettere sulfa pittttra, vol. V, p.
407.
61 Cf. H. Tronchin, Le Comeiller Franqois Tronchin et ses amis Voltaire,
Diderot, Grimm, etc., d'apres les documents inedits, Paris, 1895, pp. 248; De
Geneve a !'Hermitage. Les collections de Tronchin, exhibition
catalogue, Musee Rath, Geneva, 1974.
62 R. de Piles, Abrege, p. 94.
63 'On peut dire que ces ventes [les ventes Lorangere et de Ia Roque, faites par
Gersaint] ont forme de nouveaux Amateurs, et ont tire Ia curiosite des
Estampes de l'espece de letargie dans laquelle (qu'on nous permette dele dire)
elle sembloit plongee.' P.-C.-A. Helle and].-B. Glomy, Catalogue raisonne . ..
de l'CEuvre de Rembrandt, pp. IX-X. On the vogue for prints, cf. also Mariette
to Paciaudi, 8 Feb. 1765; Correspondance inedite du comte de Cay/us avec le
P. Paciaudi, theatin (1757-65), suivie de celles de !'abbe Barthelemy
Note.r to pp. 155-9 305
et de P. Mariette a11ec !e meme, published by Ch. Nisard, Paris, 1877, vol. II,
p. 324.
64 P. Remy, Catalogue raisonne de tablea11x . .. composent le cabinet de feu
M. A11ed, 1766 (Lugt 1563), p. VIII.
65 Cf. P. Portalis and H. Beraldi, Les grave!ln au dix-huitieme siecle, vol. II, Paris,
1881, pp. 474-97. Gilberte Emile-Male, 'Jean-Baptiste Pierre LeBrun (1748-
1813) - son role dans !'his to ire de Ia restauration des tableaux du Louvre',
Memoires de Ia Federation des Societes historiques de Paris et de l'Ile-de-
France, vol. VIII, 1956, pp. 371-417. Le Cabinet d'un Grand Amateut P.-].
i'vfcaiette, 1694-1774, exhibition catalogue, Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1967
(especially pp. 168ff.).
66 Cf. E. Dacier and A. Vuaflart, Jean de Julienne et les gra11e1trs de Wattea!t aft
XVIlle siecle, vol. I, Paris, 1929, pp. 106. and Catalogue des Desseins,
EstampeJ et Planche.> qui ont ete apportes d'Hollande et de FlandreJ par les
Sieurs Genaint et Jourdan, 1733 (Lugt 429).
67 Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux, marchand-bijoutier otdinaire du Roy 1748-
1758, published by L. Courajod, Paris, 187) (reprint: Paris, 1965), preface by
L. Courajod, vol. I, pp. C-CIII.
68 P. Remy, CatalogNe Gaignat, p. X.
69 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue Godefroy, Foreword.
70 P. Remy, Catalogue Gaignat, Foreword, pp. VI-VII. On Collins, cf. L.
Courajod, Li11re-joumal de Lazare Duvaux, vol, I, pp. LXXXVI-LXXXVIII.
71 P. Rem y, Catalogue de.r tableaJtx ... du cabinet de feu M. Rand on de Bois set,
1777 (Lugt 2652), preface by M. de Sireuil, p. X.
72 Encyclopedie au Dictionnaire Rttisonne des Sciences, des Art.r et de.r lvietier.r,
vol. III, article 'Connaisseur', p. 898 and regarding the controversy surround-
ing the notion of connoisseur, cf. 'Medals/Shells = Erudition/Philosophy',
above pp. 121-38.
73 E.-F. Gersaint, Cttta!ogue Godefroy, pp. 33-4.
74 Cited by A. Thibaudeau, Lettre sur Ia curiosite, pp. C-CI; he attributes these
comments to J.-B. Glomy.
75 Cf. an extract from the Chronique Jcandaleuse cited by L. Courajod, Livre-
journal de Lazare Duva!tx, vol. I, pp. XCVII-C. The campaign of denigration
in 1771, preceding the Conti sale, must not be forgotten. Cf. G. Capon and R.
Yve-Plessis, Vie privee d!t ptince de Conty de Bourbon (17J7-
1776j, Paris, 1907, pp. 333ff.
76 J.-B.-P. le Brun, Catalogue raisomu! d'une tres belle collection de tableaux . ..
provencmt dtt cabinet de M. f Lebeufl, 1783 (Lugt 3550), pp. 4-7.
77 F.-C. Joullain, fils, Reflexions st<r Ia peinture et Ia gravMe, accompc:gnee_r
cotate dissertation Jur le commerce de Ia curiosite et leJ 11entes en
general, Metz, 1786, p. 117.
78 'Etablir si tel tableau est reellement l'ceuvre de Rembrandt, en interrogeant
une autorite, un expert desimeresse et consciencieux, est une necessite
premiere. Mais 01\ trouver un connaisseur savant er honnete' Cest bien
difficile et c'est Ia tout le probleme.' M.-J. Friedlander, De L'art et du
connaisJeur, pp. 207-8.
79 P.-C.-A. Helle and J-B. Glomy, Catalogue raisonne des tableaux. deHins et
306 Note.r to pp. 160-1
estampes ... qui composent le cabi11et de feu M. Potier, 1757 (Lugt 944),
preface.
80 Cf. A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville, 'Lettre sur le choix et !'arrangement d'tm
cabinet curieux', iHercure de France, June 1727, pp. 1294-330.
81 The Prince de Carignan, Glucq de Saint-Port, the Marquis de Lassay and J.-B.
de Montulle figure in the will of the Comtesse de Verue, who leaves them her
paintings. Mireille Rambaud, ed., DocmnentJ' d11 lvlin11tier Celltral concernant
l'histoire de l'mt I 1700-1750), vol. II, 1971, pp. 888-9. On the relations
between the Comtesse de Verne and Angran de Fonspertuis, cf. E.-F. Gersaint,
Catalogue Fompertuis, no. 424. Uriget de Ia Faye was a friend of Glucq, while
Julienne advised the Comtesse de Verue on her purchases and was in contact
with the Prince de Carignan; cf. E. Dacier and A. Vuaflart, de ]tdienne,
vol. I, pp. 205 and 235.
82 Cf. Le Cabinet d'un Grand Amateur, p. 18 and Seroux d'Agincourr, quoted by
G. Previtali, La forttma dei primitit:i. Dal Vasari a! neoc!assici, Turin, 1964, p.
169, no. 1.
83 Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Description sommaire des de.rseins . .. du Cabinet de Feu AI.
Crozat, 1741, Preface, p. XI; d. idem, Abecedario, vol. II, p. 48.
84 L'Abecedctrio by Mariette shows that he had visited a great many Parisian
colleCtions. Cf. also J.-G. Wille, lvlhnoi?es et journal, published by G.
Duplessis, Paris, 1857, 2 vols, passim.
85 E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue Lorangere, pp. 2-3.
86 Cf. Marmontel, Memoires, published by M. Tourneux, Paris, I 891, vol. II, pp.
!OJ ff. ].-N. Dufort, Count of Cheverny, hlemoire.r mr le.r regnes de LouiJ XV
et de LouiJ XVI et sur Ia Revolution, published by R. de Crevecoeur, Paris,
1886, vol. I, p. 179. Le Cabinet d'm1 Grand Amatettr, p. 177, no. 308.
87 Sottvenirs de iHme Louise-Elisabeth Vigee Le Brtm, vol. I, Paris, 1835, pp. 87ff.
88 Calculations based on F. Lugt, Repertoire des catalogues de ventes.
89 The number of annotated sale catalogues, which tell us the names of those
who took part in sales, is too great for them all to be named here. Cf. also P.-J.
Mariette, Abecedario, paHim; ].-G. Wille, i'vfhnorie.r et journal, pa.rsirn; F.-C.
Joullain, fils, Rejlexions sur fa peiut!ae, pp. 124-6.
90 P.-M. Gault de Saint-Germain, Guide des amatellr.r de !a peintMe dans le.r
collections generale.r et pmtictt!iere.r, le.r m,tgasim et le.r vente.r, Paris, 1816, p.
30. It should be added that the dealers influenced the taste of the art lovers
through sale catalogues which were read and collected. Cf., for examples, ms.
Bib!. nat. n. acq. fr. 1681 (a catalogue of catalogues which belonged to Paignon
Dijonval) or the false anthologies, for example, ms. Bib!. nat. n. acq. fr. 4665 or
Bib!. nat. Est. Yd. 2174 or Yd. 2090.
91 Quoted from: E. Bonnaffe, DictiomMire de.r Amateurs ctu X Vlle
sir':cle, Paris, 1884, p. 75.
92 ].-B. Dubas, Reflexions critiques, vol. II, p. 152.
93 On the sales of paintings carried out by the Prince de Carignan, in 1729 and
1730, cf. Mireille Rambaud, Doc11ment.r du l'vfinlttier Central, vol. I, Paris,
1964, pp. 565-7 and 5 72. When one learns of the state of the prince's finances,
pursued as he was by creditors, one cannot avoid thinking that for him, the
paintings represented goods which could be profitably sold. Cf. on the finances
N oteJ to pp. 161-2 307
of the Prince de Carignan: E.-].-F. Barbier, journal hi.rtorique et cmecdotique de
regne de XV, published for the Societe de l'hisroire de France by A. de
Villegille, Paris, 1847, vol. I, pp. 442-3; vol. II, pp. 290-1 and Mhnoires du d11c
de mr Ia co11r de Loui.r XV ( 17 35-17 58), published by L. Dussieux and
E. Soulie, Paris, 1860, vol. III, pp. 365-6; vol. IX, pp. 498-9, 510-12; vol. XV,
p. 44.
94 Cf. P.-C.-A. Helle and ].-B. Glomy, Catalogue d'tm cabinet de diverses
cmiosites ... , 1772 (Lugt 798); handwritten comments on copy held in Bib!.
nat. Est. Yd. 23: 'II est vrai de dire que les morceaux du premier ordre lprints
are under discussion"] n'ont plus a present de prix fixe, attendu que tous les
amateurs les recherchent avec empressement.' P.-J. Mariette, Abecedario, vol.
IV, pp. 357-8 (note added after 1755); vol. V, pp. 109 and 139 (notes added
after Tallard sale). Mariette to Paciaudi, 9 Aug. 1767; Correspondance inedite
du comte de Cay/us, vol. II, pp. 349-50.
95 Cf. Correspondance inedite de Ia mttrquise Du Deffand, published by M. de
Lescure, Paris, 1865, vol. II, pp. 209 and 238 (letters to H. Walpole of 6 Jan.
and 14 Apr. 1772). M. Grimm, Correspondance litterai1e, vol. IX pp. 496-7.
Diderot to Falconer, 17 Apr. 1772; D. Diderot, Corre.rpondance, vol. XII, Paris,
1965, p. 50.
96 M. Grimm, Correspondance litteraire, vol. X, p. 118.
97 J.-B.-P. le Brun, Catalogue Poullain, p. XV.
98 C.-F. Joullain, fils, Reflexions .rttr fa peinture, pp. 114-5.
99 Among the paintings we are able to identify in the Catalogue Vente, are 108
Flemish ones and twenty-seven Italian; there were 132 Flemish works and 135
Italian at the home of the Prince de Carignan, according to the sale catalogue
and the number of paintings sold in 1729 and 1730. 'On trouvera dans cette
collection - says Gersaim, on the subject of Fonspertuis - de ces beaux
Morceaux dus au pinceau des Ma!tres pour lesquels il parolt qu'on a
aujourd'hui le plus de penchant, comme de Claude Lorrain, de Rubens, de
Berghem, de Brughel, de VanderVelde, de Teniers, de Wauvermans, de Paul
Bril, de Van Ostade, de Netscher, de Gerard Dow, de Chevalier Vander Verf,
de Metzu, de Rembrandt, de Vander Meulen, etc.' E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue
Fompertuis, pp. 156-7. At the time of the sale there were 95 Italian paintings
as opposed to 141 from northern schools in the Julienne collection. This backs
up Mariette's impressions, Abecedario, vol. III, pp. 15-16.
100 Cf. Margret Sruffmann, 'Les tableaux de Ia collection Pierre Crozat. Historique
et destinee d'un ensemble celebre etablis en partant d'un inventaire apres
deces inedit (1740)', Gazette de.r Beaux-ArtJ,]uly-Sept. 1968, pp. 5-114 and,
for the drawings, P.-J. Mariette, De.rcriptio11 .rommaire des desseins ... dtt
Cabinet de Pel/ M. CroZet! (Italian drawings 780 numbers; drawings from the
Low Countries 177 numbers). On Mariette, cf. Le Cabinet d'tm Grand
Amateur, p. 22 and letter to Temanza dated 12 Dec. 1769: 'On compte les
curieux qui, comme moi, donnenr Ia preference aux ouvrages des ma!tres
italiens sur ceux des peinrres qu'ont produits les Pays-Bas. Ceux-ci om pris un
tel credit qu'on se les arrache et qu'on y prodigue !'or et !'argent, tandis qu'tm
tableau ou un dessin d'ltalie n'est regarde qu'avec une sorre d'indifference. Cela
308 NoteJ to pp. 162-9
ne m'empeche pas de suivre mon gout.' E. Muntz, LeJ Archives des arts.
ReCIIei! de documents imfdits ou pe11 comzus, Paris, IS90, p. 13.3.
101 P. Remy and J.-B. G1omy, Catalogue Tallard, p. 3.
102 R. Remy, Catalog11e 1ai.romze de tableaux ... qui composent dijjerentJ
cabinets, p. 3.
103 In the case of the Due de Tallard, this is exact. Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Abecedario,
vol. V, p. 109. Moreover, nos 1 and IS in the Catalogue Araignon reappear in
the Catalogue Tallard as nos 14 and 23, where their attributions, to Raphael
and Titian respectively, are not contested.
104 We have used the Bib!. nat. Est. Yd 2147 copy, which contains a 'Copie des
annotations contemporaines d'un exemplaire du catalogue Araignon decouvert
en 1924 par M. Jean Schemit'.
I OS E.-F. Gersaint, Catalogue Godefroy, no. 34.
106 P. Remy andJ-B. Glomy, C;talogue Tallard, pp. 2-4.
I 07 J-B. Dubos, Reflexiom critiques, vol. I, p. 67.
!OS Ibid., vol. II, p. 381.
109 Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Abecedario, vol. II, pp. 60-1.
ItO A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville, Abrege de Ia 11ie des pl11s fameux jwintres avec
leurs portraits graves en tt1i!le douce, les indict1tio17J de leurs principaux
O!Wrages. Quelques Reflexiom Sltr cctractere et Ia maniere de connoftre les
de.rJeins de.1 grands mai'tres. Paris, 1745, pp. VIII-IX.
111 Cf. R. Vallet, L'histoire de !'art vue par tm amateur du XVIIIe siecle: Deztdlier
d'Argenllitle et son Abrege de fa vie des peintres (1745-1757). D.E.S. at the
Faculte des lettres et sciences humains, University of Clerrnont-Ferrand, 1967.
112 A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville, Abrege de !a vie des peintres, pp. XIX-XX.
113 Ibid., pp. XXXI and XL
114 Remy seems to have had links with Dezallier d'Argenville, whose catalogue he
compiled, with a lengthy preface in honour of the deceased. Cf. P. Remy,
raisonne deJ" ttibleartx . .. et autres cmiosites, apre.r !e dices de je11
AL Deza!ier d'A ';genvil!e, 1766 (Lugt 1509).
CHAPTER (i l\!AFFEI AND CA YLUS
First published in Nuovi st!idi maffeiani. Atti del convegno Scipione lvfajjei e
i! A-Ius eo Maffeiano, Verona, 19SS, pp. 1S7 -205.
One thing which makes Maffei and Caylus more alike is the absence of
worthwhile monographs devoted to either of them. Cf. however, G. Gasper-
oni, Scipione Maffei e Verona settecentesca, Verona, 1955 and G. Silvestri, Un
del Settecento: Scipio11e LHaffei, Treviso, 1954. On Caylus: S.
Rocheblave, Essai sur le comte de Cayl11s, Paris, 1S89.
2 One of Mariette's terms. Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Abecedario, eds Ph. de
Chennevieres and A. de Montaiglon, Paris, 1851-60; vol. I, p. 341.
3 Cf. G. B. Giuliari, La Capitola1e Biblioteca di Verona, Verona, 18SS. L.
NoteJ to pp. 170-5 309
Simeoni, 'Gli studi storici ed archeologici di Scipione Maffei', in collective
work, Studi Maffeiani, Turin, 1909, pp. 669-774.
4 Letter written by Maffei, cited by Caumont in his letter to Bouhier on 6 Apr.
1736, in Conespondance litteraire du President Bouhier, fasc. VI: Lettres du
marquis de Caumont (1732-1736), ed. H. Duranton, Saint-Etienne, 1979, no.
64, p. 122.
5 Correspondance inedite du comte de Caylus avec le Pere Paciaudi, theatin
(1757-1765), ed. Ch. Nisard, Paris, 1S77, vol. I, pp. 190 and 441-2.
6 Cf. F. Venturi, Settecento riformatore, voL I, De Muratori a Beccaria, Turin,
1969, pp. 120-35 and 375-7.
7 Cf. K. Pomian, 'Le carresianisme, les erudits et l'histoire', Archiwum Historii
Filozofii i Myfli Spolecznej, vol. XII ( 1966), pp. 175-204; idem, 'Dziejopisars-
two erudyt6w i kryzys historiozofii w drugiej polowie XVII wieku' (L'historio-
graphie erudite et Ia crise de Ia philosophie de l'histoire dans Ia deuxieme
moitie du XVIIe siecle'), ibid., vol. XVIII (1972), pp. 243-67).
S Voltaire, Remarques sur !'histoire (1742), in CEuvres historiques, ed. R.
Pomeau, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 196S, p. 43.
9 Idem Nouvelles considerations sur l'histoire ( 1744), ibid., p. 49.
10 Cf. the article by A. Momigliano which is still essential reading, 'Ancient
history and the antiquarian', Contributo a!la storia degli studi classici, Rome,
1955, pp. 67-106.
11 Cf. Voltaire, CEuvres historiques, p. 1695.
12 Quoted from [S. Maffei], La Merope. Tragedia con Annotazioni de!l'Autore, e
con fa sua Risposta alla Lettera de Sig. di Voltaire, Verona, 1745, pp. 172-4.
13 P. Rosenberg, Chardin, 1699-1779, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1979, nos 66
and 57, pp. 221-4.
14 Cf. P.-J. Mariette, Abecedario, vol. I, pp. 359-60 quoted in P. Rosenberg, p. Sl.
15 Cf. Correspondance litteraire, phi!osophique et critique par Grimm, Diderot,
Raynal, Meister, etc., ed. M. Tourneux, Paris, 1S77 onwards, vol. IV, p. 247 and
the passages attacking antiquaries vol. III, p. 205; vol. IV, pp. 140-2, 315-6;
vol. VIII, p. 307.
16 Cf. for all this J. Seznec, Essais sur Diderot et l'Antiquite, Oxford, 1957,
especially chapter V ('Le Singe antiquaire'), pp. 79ff.
17 Cf. 'Medals/Shells= Erudition/Philosophy', above, pp. 121-3S.
1S Cf. Comte de Caylus, Recueil d'Antiquites egyptiennes, etrusques, grecques et
romaines, Paris, 1752-64, 6 vols, For the 'noble simplicite' as an artistic ideal,
cf. ibid., vol. I, p. XI; vol. II, p. 126; vol. III, p. S2.
19 Cf. D. Diderot, Sur Ia sculpture, Bouchardon et Cay/us (1763), in CEuvres
completes, chronological edition, vol. V. pp. 2S9-97.
20 For this more nuanced position, cf. the letter from Diderot to
Tronchin of 18 Dec. 1776; Correspondance, ed. G. Roth and]. Varloot, voL
XV, pp. 3S-9.
21 Cf. Caylus, Recueil, vol. II, p. 59.
22 This only applies to the eighteenth century. For a more subtle analysis, cf.
above pp. 95, 20Sff., 24Sff.
23 Cf. S. Maffei, Notizia del nuovo Museo d'lscrizioni in Verona, col paragone fra
le Iscrizioni, e !e Medaglie, in Traduttori italiani o sia notizia de'volgar-
310 Notes to pp. 175-7
izzame11ti d'Antichi Scrittori Latini, e Greci, cbe sono in !uce, Venice, 1720, p.
176.
24 Cf. on this topic, G. Previtali, La fortuna dei primitivi. Da! Vasari ai neo-
classici, Turin, 1964, pp. 79-84.
25 Cf. N. Dacos, ed., II Tesoto di Lorenzo if Magnifico, vol. I, Le gemme,
exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1973, no. 43, pp. 69-72. In Museum veronense
... , Verona, 17 49, p. CCXLV, Maffei also published a cameo of rhe museum in
Vienna.
26 Cited in G. P. Marchini, 'II Museum Veronense nell'edizione del Maffei e nei
cataloghi successivi', Studi storici veronesi Luigi Simeoni, vol. XXII-XXIII
(1972-3), p. 274, no. 72.
27 Caylus, Recueil, vol. I, p. II.
28 Ibid., pp. VI-VII.
29 Cf. Caylus and Majaulr, Memoire sur Ia peinture a l'encaustique et sur Ia
peinture a eire, Geneva, 1755, For the experiments on other materials cf.
Caylus, Recueil, voL I, pp. 238ff. (copper), 297ff. (glass); vol. III, pp. 195ff.
(glass); voL IV, pp. 343ff. (casts); voL V. pp. 207ff. (glass).
30 Cf. Caylus, Memoire sur les fabliaux, in Histoire de l'Academie royale des
insoiptiom et bel!es-lettres, vol. XX, 1753, pp. 352-76.
31 Cf. idem, Premier rnemoire SU1' Guillaume de Machaut, ibid., pp. 399-414 and
Second memoire sur Guillaume de Machaut, ibid., pp. 415-39.
32 Cf. Histoi1e de l'Academie myale des inscriptions et belles-lett?'es, vol. XXI,
Paris, 1754, pp. 191 and 197.
33 Cf. Caylus, De l'ancienne chevalerie et des anciens romans, Paris, 1813. Irs
summary was published in Histoire de l'Acadernie ro;,ale des inscriptiom et
belles-lettres, voL XXIII, Paris, 1756, p. 236.
34 For Maffei's stay in Verona at the beginning of Dec. 1714, cf. S. Maffei,
Epistolario, ed., C. Garibotto, Verona, 1955, voL I, p. 208 (letter to Vallisnieri
dated 4 Dec. 1714). For Caylus, cf. Count de Caylus, Voyage en Italie, 1714-
1715, ed. A.-A. Pons, Paris, 1914, pp. 61-6.
35 Letter of 28 Feb. 1733, in M. Marais, ]oumal et Memoires smla Regence et le
regne de Louis XV (1715-1737), ed. Lescure, vol. IV, Paris, 1868, p. 468.
36 Letter of 22 Oct. 1733, ibid., p. 534.
37 Cf. Le Cabinet d'ztn grand amateur, P.-]. Mariette 1694-1774, exhibition
catalogue, Paris, 1967, nos 298-314, pp. 175ff.
38 All these people were addressees of letters written by Maffei and brought
together in S. Maffei, Galliae Antiqttitates quaedam. selectae atque in plures
epistolas distributae, Paris, 1733; he visited them all during his visit to Paris.
For the correspondence between Maffei and Bouhier, d. F. Weil,]ean Bouhier
et sa correspondance, I, Inventaire (1693-1746), Paris, 1975, nos 1463, 1522a,
1560, 1684a, 2137a, 2352, 2676.
39 For the relations between Saime-Palaye, Caumom and Bouhier, cf. Co?
respondance litteraire du President Bouhier, Ease. 7: Lettres dtt marquis de
Cattmont (1736-1745), ed. H. Duramon, Saim-Etienne, 1979, no. 88
(Caumont to Bouhier, 29 June 1737) and passim. In addition, Sainte-Palaye
sold his collection of antiquities to Caylus, cf. Cay1us, Reczteil, vol. II, p. 99. Cf.
Notes to pp. 177-8 311
also L. Gossman, Medievalism and the Ideologies of the Enlightenment. The
World and Work of La Curne de Sainte Palaye, Baltimore, Ma., 1968.
40 For the record, we should mention the work by A. Spagnolo, Scipione Maffei e
if mo vi,tggio a /'estero (1732-1736), Verona, 1903, out of date today. Cf. also
Correspondance !itteraire du President Bouhier, fasc. 6, nos 30, 34, 36, 3 7,
dating from 24 Sept. to 14 Nov. 1734. In letter no. 36, which bears no date,
Caumont writes: 'Tout ce qui concerne le marquis Maffei se nduit a de fausses
imputations eta des airs de hauteur qu'on !'accuse de prendre avec les autres
savants, defaut qui me parait bien eloigne de son caractere; on m'a mande aussi
qu'il n'avait pas rendu les visites aux membres de cette academie, avec Ia
regularite convenable.' Ibid., p. 69.
41 Cf. Correspondance litteraire dtt President Bouhier, fasc. 6, no. 48, Bouhier to
Caumont, 17 May 1735: 'Pouvez-vous me dire des nouvelles de M. Maffei? Il y
a un siecle que je n'en ai Est-il toujours a Paris ou non? Je n'emends pas
dire qu'il y ait fort reussi.' These complaints continue to be voiced in letters 49,
52, 56. Caumom replies 5 Ocr. 1735 (no. 57): 'II y a un siecle que je n'ai eu des
nouvelles du marquis Maffei.Je sais seulement qu'il est toujours a Paris, queM.
Seguier est avec lui, et qu'il s'occupe mysterieusemem de quelque ouvrage
important. C'est tout ce que je sais.' Ibid., pp. 91 and 117. Cf. also letter no. 62
from Caumom to Bouhier and in particular his long and important letter no.
64 dated 6 Apr. 1736, with lengthy quotations from a letter of Maffei's, ibid.,
pp. 121-2.
42 Bouhier to Caumom, no. 65; 17 Apr. 1736; ibid., p. 123.
43 S. Maffei, La religion de'gentili nel morire ricavata da un ba.rso ri/evo antico
che si conJwva in Parigi, Paris, 1736, p. 4.
44 Ibid., p. 5.
4 5 Ibid., Joe. cit.
46 This concerns the marble M.R. 1641, H : 0, 83-L : 2m., which, in the
inventory of the Louvre sculptures of 1692 (Arch. Nat. o' 1977', f
0
9b"-10) is
simply designated as 'un grand bas-relief. In the 1722 inventory (Arch. Nat. 0
1
1969b, fa 351 ), it is however designated as 'un grand bas-relief antique'. The
first person who expressed his doubts as to its authenticity was E. Q. Viscomi,
Notice des statues, bustes et bas-reliefs de Ia galerie des Antiques, ed. year XI,
p. 123; he saw in our marble 'une imitation de !'antique executee au
commencement du XVIe siecle'. This opinion was reiterated by F. De Clarac,
Musee de sculpture antique et modeme ou description hist01'ique et grapbique
du Lozwre et de toutes ses parties, vol. II, parr 1, Paris, 1841, no. 182, plate 154,
pp. 770-l.
47 In 1887 our marble was still among the antique sculptures in the Salle de
l'Empereur. Cf. A. Courajod, Alexandre Lenoir. son jottrnal et le musee des
Monuments j?-anrais, Paris, 1887, vol. III, pp. 102-3. E. Cuq, article 'Funus', in
Ch. Daremberg and E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiqttitti.r grecqttes et ,omaines,
voL II, part 2, Paris, 1896, p. 1387, notes that the marble 'est aujourd'hui place
parmi les ceuvres de Ia Renaissance'. It is still there today. A. Venturi, Storia
dell'arte italiana, vol. X, p. 434, fig. 331, amibuted this marble to Zuan Maria
Padovano, known as 'il Mosco'. Attribution accepted by L. Planiscig, Venezia-
nische Bildhauer der Renainance, Vienna, 1921, p. 262, fig. 212.
312 Notes to pp. 178-85
48 S. Maffei, La religion de'genti!i, p. 6.
49 Cf. ibid., pp. 8-9.
50 Ibid., pp. 11-12.
51 Ibid.,pp. 12-13.
52 Correspondance !itteraire dtt President Botthier, fasc. 6, no. 70, 5 Sepr. 1736, p.
131.
53 Cf.]. Martin, Explication de divers monttmens singtt!iers, qui ant rapport a Ia
religion des plu.r anciens pettp!es, avec J'examen de Ia derniere Edition des
Ottvrages de S. Jerome, et ttn Traite mr I'Astrologie judiciaire, Paris, 1739, pp.
1-54.
54 Ibid., pp. 53-4.
55 Cf. ibid., pp. 374-426.
56 Cf. Correspondance litteraire dtt President Bottbie1, fasc. 7, no. 119, 29 Sept.
1739, p. 210.
57 Ibid., no. 121, 16 Nov. 1739, p. 212.
58 S. Maffei, Epistolario, vol. II, p. 963 (letter of 17 July 1740) and cf. also letter
no. 865 ro Annibale Olivieri, 8 Aug. 1740, p. 973.
59 Correspondance inedite dtt comte de Cay/us avec !e Pere Paciattdi, vol. I, p. 15
(letter dated 27 Sept. 1758).
60 Caylus, Rectteil, vol. III, p. 267. The monument is reproduced ibid., plate
LXXIII.
61 Cf. ibid., pp. 267-70.
62 Ibid., pp. 270-1.
63 Ibid., p. 271.
64 Cf. Fr. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antiqtte. The Lure of Classical
Scttlpture 1500-1900, New Haven-London, 1981, pp. 8 and 62ff.
65 Cf. L. Magagnato, La pittttra veronese del Settecento e Scipione Maffei, in coiL,
Arte e Cttttura in Verona net Settecento, Verona, 1981, pp. 67-72; L. Franzoni,
Topera di Scipione Maffei e di Alessandro Pompei per il Museo Pubblico
Veronese', Attie Memorie dell'Accademia di Agricottura Scienze e Lettere di
Verona, vol. XXVII (1975-6), pp. 193-218.
66 Cf. the comments scattered throughout the Recttei! and in Caylus, Vies
d'artistes dtt XVIIIe siecle, ed. A. Fontaine, Paris, 1910.
67 Caylus, Rectteil, vol. I, p. XIII.
CHAPTER 7 COLLECTORS, NATURALISTS AND ANTIQUARIANS
IN THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
First published in G. Arnaldi and M. Pastore Stocchi, eds, Storia della cttltttra
veneta, Vicenza, Neri Pozza, 1986, vol. 5/II, pp. 1-70.
R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe di Giovanni da Ponte detto it Bassano in idem, Studi
nell'archivio degli Inqttisitori di Stato, Venice, 1868, pp. 79-119, especially p.
93, n. I, and L Oliva to, Provvedimenti della Repttbblica Veneta per Ia
Notes to pp. 185-9 313
salvagua1dia del patrimonio artistico 11ei secoli XVII e XVIll, Venice, 1974,
pp. 19ff. '
2 R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe, pp. 85ff., and L. Olivato, Pmvvedimenti, p. 50.
3 R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe, pp. 90-1, 114-19.
4 Cf. M. Perry, The Statuario Publico of the Venetian Republic', Saggi e
Memorie di Storia deli'Arte, 8 (1972), pp. 89ff.
5 Cited in R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe, pp. 93-6.
6 Ibid., pp. 98ff. (in the note) and L. Olivato, Provvedimenti, pp. 55ff.
7 R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe, pp. 99-101, and L Olivato, Provvedimenti, pp. 59ff.
8 R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe, pp. 105-6, note (for the circular of the Inquisitori di
Stato) and p. !04 note (for Zanetti's proposals).
9 A. de Nicolo Salmazo, 'La catalogazione del patrimonio artisrico nel XVIII
secolo, 1793-1795: Giovanni de Lazara e l'elenco delle pubbliche pitture della
provincia di Padova', Bolletino del Museo Civico di Padova, LXII (1973), pp.
29-103
10 A. Rigamonti, Descrizione delle pilt insigni singolare e cospicue pitture cbe
sono state ritmvate o 1iviste in molte ville e luogbi di questa 110stro tenitorio
di Treviso. Rapporto agli lnqttisitol'i di Stato 2 Aprile 1777, G. Netto, ed.,
Treviso, 1977, no. 1.
11 A. de Nicoll) Salmazo, La catalogazione, p. 33, n. 6.
12 S. Dalla Rosa, Catastico delle PittUI'e e Scoltttre esistenti nelle Chie.re e luogbi
pubblici di Verona, 1803-4, Biblioteca Civica di Verona (from now on B. C.
Ver), MS 1008. I have used the typewritten transcript belonging to the
Castelvecchio museum. On S. dalla Rosa, cf. lastly M. Locquaniti, Saverio
Dalla Rosa e /e vicende della vagabonda veronese pinacoteca, in L
Magagnato, ed., Progetto per ttn mttseo secondo. Dipinti restaurati delle
collezioni del Comttne di Verona esposti alta Gran Gua?'dia, Verona, 1979,
pp. 119-32.
13 Cf. Le Vite de'Pittori, de Gti Scultori ed Arcbitetti VeroneJi Raccolte de 11arii
Atttori stampati, e manoscritti, e de a!tri particolari memo1ie. Con/a na1rativa
delle Pitture, e Sculture, che s'attrovano nelle Cbiese, case et altri fuoghi p!tblici
e privati di Verona e mo teritorio. dal Signor Fr. Bartolomeo Co. Dal Pozzo
... , Verona, 1718. lG. B. Lanceni], Ric1eazione pittorica asia Notizia
Universale delle Pittttre nelle Chiese, e Luoghi Pttblici di Verona, Verona,
1720.
14 Cf. M. Boschini, I gioiel!i pitto1eschi. Virtuoso omamemo della citt,/ di
Vicenza, cioe f'Endice di tutte !e pittu1e publicbe della .rteJsa citta, Vicenza,
1677.
15 Cf. G. A. Averoldi, Le sce!te pitture di Brescia additate a/ forestiere, Brescia,
1700.
16 G. B. Verci, Notizia intomo alia vita e atle opere de'Pittori SCJtltori ed
Intagliatori della Citta di Bassano, Venice, 1785, pp. 83-4.
17 S. Maffei, Verona i!lttstrata. Parte terza contiene notizie delle co.re in questa
citta pill osservabili, Verona, 1732, pp. 175-6.
18 A. Pasta, Le pitture notabili di Be1gamo che sono esposte alia vista del
Pttbb/ico, Bergamo, 1775, pp. 9-10, 11, 13-14, 66-7, 123.
19 L. Olivato, 'Per la sroria del restauro e della conservazione delle opere d'arte a
314
Notes to pp. 189-93
Venezia nel '700', Attie Memorie dell'Accademia Patavina di Scienze Lettere
ed Arti, LXXXII, part 2 (1969-70), pp. 53-62, document 1, p. 61.
20 A. de Nicolo Salmazo, 'Richieste e segnalazioni di restauri delle "Pubbliche
Pitture" di Padova nelle relazioni degli ispettori della Repubblica di Venezia',
Arte Veneta, XXXII (1978), pp. 448-52.
21 Idem, La catalogazione, pp. 61-2.
22 L. Olivato, Pmvvedimenti, pp. 30ff. and A. Conti, Storia del restauro e della
conservazione delle opere d'arte, s.l., n.d. [but Milan, 1973], pp. 145ff.
23 L. Olivato, Provvedimenti, pp. 73ff. and A. Conti, Storia del restauro, pp.
150.
24 L. Olivato, Provvedimenti, document 52, p. 159 and, on this document, ibid.,
pp. 71-3.
25 Ibid., document 54, pp. 168-9.
26 Ibid., p. 163 and document 53, p. 165ff.
27 L. Polacca, 'II museo di scienze archeologiche e d'arte dell'Universita de
Padova', Atti de!l'Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, CXXV (1966-7),
p. 428.
28 V. Giormani, 'Fra'Ange1o Ziliani e il museo ornitologico dell'Universita di
Padova a! Santo', It Santo, XXI (1981), pp. 82-103.
29 First mentioned in G. B. Rossetti, II Fora.rtiere illuminato per !e pitture,
scu!tttre ed architetture della citta di Padova, ovvero descrizione delle case piu
rare della stessa citta con a!tre curiose notizie, Padua, s.d. [but I 7861, p. 272. Cf.
also P. Brandolese, Pitture Sculture Atchitetture ed alt1e case notabi!i di
Padova nuovamente descritte, Padua, 1795, p. 191.
30 'Venezia non teme forse per questa caso [di dipinte tele de maestri ecce!enti}
di avere citta, che fa s01passi, e forse pochissime se ne ritrovano, che Ia
pareggino .. .', G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratura venezi,ma del secolo XVIII
fino a'nostri giorni, Venice, 1806, vol. II, p. 104. F. Haskell, Patrons and
Painters. A Stud; of the Relations Between Italian Art and Society in the Age
of the Baroqtte, new edition, New Haven-London, 1980, pp. 245ff. Idem,
'Some Collectors of Venetian Art at the End of the Eighteenth Century. Della
Lena's "Esposizione istorica dello Spoglio, che di tempo in tempo si fece di
Pitture in Venezia", in collective work, Studies in Renaissance and Baroqt-te
Art presented to Anthony Blunt, London-New York, 1967, pp. 173-8.
31 To the collections memioned by S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, we add some others
he neglected, such as that owned by Betterle. Cf. G. P. Marchini, 'La pinacoteca
Betterle aS. Elena', Vita vetonese, XXX (1977), pp. 252-5.
32 Cf. G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione delle pittttre, .rcufture, ed architetture di Padova
con alcune osservazioni intorno ad es.re ed altre curiose notizie, Padua, 1765,
pp. 310ff. and 2nd edn, 1776, pp. 322ff. The 1786 posthumous edition does not
make any mention of private collections.
. '13 G. A. Averoldi, Le sce!te pitture, pp. 243ff. and G. B. Carboni, Le pitture e
scuftme di Btescia che sono esposte a! pubblico. Con appendice di alczme private
Gafle1ie, Brescia, 1760, pp. 145ff. Cf. also B. Passamani, Per una storia della
pittura e del gusto a Brescia nel Settecento, in collective work, BreJcia pittorica
1700-1760: l'immagine del sacra, exhibition catalogue, Brescia, 198 I, pp. 7-25.
34 M. Boschini, I gioie!fi pittoreschi, and P. Baldurini, E. Arnaldi, 0. Vecchia, L.
Notes to pp. 193-5 315
Buffetti, Descrizione delle architetture, pitture e scolture in Vicenza con alcune
o.rservazioni, Vicenza, 1779, pp. 46.
35 F. Bartoli, Le pitture sculture ed architetture della citta di Roz
1
igo, Venice,
1793, pp. 173.
.
36 F. M. Tassis, Vite de'Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Bergamascht, Bergamo,
1793, vol. I, pp. 42 and 208; vol. II, p. 72.
37 D. M. Federici, Memorie Trevigiane delle Opere di disegno. Dal mille e cento
al mille ottocento per servire alia storia delle belle arti in Italia, Venice, 1803,
vol. II, pp. 223ff.
38 Cf. for Bassano, G. B. Verci, Notizia intomo alia vita ... di Ba.rsano, pp. 3 7,
86-7, 192, 260, 269; for the Treviso province (Oderno, Conegliano, Caste1-
franco, Crespano): D. M. Federici, Memorie Trevigiane, pp. 224-5; for
Chioggia: Catalogo di quadri esistenti in casa il Signor Dn Giovanm. Dr
Vianelli, canonico della cattedrale di Chioggia, Venice, 1790; it cites a collector
of paintings in Adria.
39 G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratura veneziana, vol. II, pp. 80, 95, 100, 102.
40 Idem, Guida per Ia citta di Padova a/!'amico delle belle arti, Venice, 1817, ?P
175-6 and 183, and A. Meneghelli, Delconte Giovanni de Lazara ca1;aftere
geroso!imitano e de'suoi stud}, Padua, 1833, p. 9. However, unlike 1776, there
is no mention of the print collection belonging to the Dottons. Ib1d., p. 12.
41 S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, W 352, 354, 355, 359, 364.
42 Cf. collective work, Di Bassano e dei Bassanesi il!ustri, Bassano, 1847, pp. 151-
2.
43 D. M. Federici, Memorie Trevigiane, vol. II, p. 224.
44 For Verona, cf. S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, W 355 and 365; for Venice, cf. G. A.
Moschini, Della !etteratura veneziana, vol. II, pp. 105-6 and Fr. Haskell,
Patrons and Painters, pp. 322ff.
45 Cf. 'Dealers, Connoisseurs and Enthusiasts in Eighteenth-century Paris', above
pp. 139-68.
46 Cf. L. Ferrari, 'Gli acquisti dell'Aigarotti pel Regio Museo di Dresda', L'Arte,
Ill (1900), pp. 150-4.
.
47 Cf. L. Rizzoli, 'Alcune lettere di Antonio Canova al Marchese Tomasso degl1
Obizzi e Ia Musa Melpomene del R. Museo Archeologico di Venezia', Atti del
R. [stituto Veneto de Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, LXXXII (1922-3), pp. 401-12,
especially letters, I, II and IV from 1795.
48 Fr. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, pp. 373.
49 G. della Lena, E.rposizione storica della Spogfio, cbe di tempo in tempo .ri fece
di Pittu.re in Venezia, in Fr. Haskell, Some Collectors, p. 178. On Sasso, cf. L.
Olivato, 'Gli affari sono affari: Giovan Maria Sasso tratta con Tomasso degli
Obizzi', Arte veneta, XXXVIII ( 1974), pp. 298-304.
50 R. Fulin, L'Arca di Noe, p. 104n.
51 G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione, 1765 edn, p. 310; 1776 edn, p. 322 .
52 L. Magagnato, 'Saggio bio-bib1iografico e indice analitico ragionaro'_ in B .. Dal
Pozzo, Le Vite de'pittori, Verona, 1967, p. XXIII and entry entitled Col-
lezioni', pp. 109-16.
53 Cf. G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione, !765 and 1776 edn, cited above, n. 32, and G. A.
Moschini, Guida, pp. 17lff.
316
Note.r to pp. 195-9
51 Cf. G. M. Pilo, 'II legato Silvestri e le pubbliche guadrerie rodigine:
l'Accademia dei Concordi e Ia Pinacoteca del Seminario', Ateneo Veneto; new
series, V (1967), pp. 180-5. A. Romagnolo, ed., La Pinacoteca del Accademia
dei Concordi, Rovigo, 1981.
55 Cf. A. Pinelli, II co11te G. Carrara e Ia s11a Galleria sewndo i! Catalog a del 1796,
Bergamo, 1922.
56 Cf. E. Cicogna, S<1ggio di bib!iografia veneziana, Venice, 1847, nos. 5087, 5093,
5094, 5105,5122,5143,5169,5175, 5193,5197,5210,5218.
All these publications deal with collections already or about to be dispersed in
the 1840s.
57 Fr. Haskell, Patrons <1nd Painters, pp. 299ff.
58 G. della Lena, Esposizione, paras. II-VI, VIII, XI-XVI; pp. 174-6.
59 Lord Bute, for example, cf. ibid., para. IX, and P.-J. Mariette, cf. Le Cabinet
d'tm Grand Amatem P.-]. lvfariette, 1694-1774. De.rsin.r dt< XVe at< XVIIle
siede, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1967, pp. 180-2.
60 N. Ivanoff, 'Alcune lettere inedite di Tomasso Temanza a Pierre-Jean
Mariette', Atti dell'Jstitttto veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, LXVIII (1959-
60), pp. 93-124, especially letters II, V, VII, X.
61 'Delle Stampe ora si fa ricerca grande a prezzi incredibili', S. Dalla Rosa,
Catastico, f
0
364; cf. also G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratttra, vol. II, p. 100.
62 Fr. Haskell, PatmnJ and Painters, pp. 276ff.
63 Ibid., pp. 261-2.
64 R. Gallo, 'Una famiglia patrizia. I Pisani ed i palazzi diS. Stefano e di Stra',
Archivio J;eJzeto, XXIV-XXV (1944), pp. 65-228, especially doc. I, pp. 204-
17, doc. II, pp. 218-20, doc. V, pp. 225-8.
65 Fr. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, pp. 265-7.
66 Calculations based on F. Vivian, 11 console Smitb mercante e col!ezionista,
Vicenza, 1971, appendix A, pp. 173ff.
67 Ibid., pp. 19ff., especially p. 39. Fr. Haskell, Patron.r and Pai11ters, pp. 229ff.
68 F. Vivian, 1! console Smith, appendix B, pp. 198ff.
69 Fr. Haskell, Patron.r and Painters, pp. 310ff. A. Binion, 'From Schulenburg's
Gallery and Records', Burlington Magazine, 1970, pp. 297-303. E. Antoniazzi
Rossi, 'Ulteriori considerazioni sull'inventario della collezione del Maresciallo
von Schulenburg', Arte zemta, XXXI (1977), pp. 126-34.
70 Fr. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, pp. ) 15ff. E. Schleier, 'Sigismund Streit', in
A. Bettagno, ed., Canaletto, DiJegni - Dipiuti - Incisioni, Vicenza, 1983, pp.
79ff.
71 Fr. Haskell, Patron.r and Painters, pp. 34lff. A. Bettagno, 'Introduction', in
Caricatttre di Anton iVfaria Zanetti, Vicenza, 1969, pp. 11-26.
72 Idem, 'Prechazioni .ru Anton Zanetti it Vecchio e SebMtiano e Marco
Ricci', in collective work, Atti del Congre.r.ro Internaziona!e di Studi s11
Seba.rtiano Ricci e if mo tempo, Udine, 1975, pp. 85-95
7) G. Lorenzetti, Un dilettante incisore veneziano del XVIII seco!o: Anton Maria
Zanetti di Gerolamo, Venice, 1917, pp. 73-7 (= R. Deputazione veneta di
Storia Patria. Miscellanea di storia veneta, series III, vol, XII).
74 Fr. Haskell, Patrons and pp. 347ff., and L Ferrari, 'Gli acquisti
dell'Algarotti', op. cit., above, no. 46.
Notes to pp. 199-204 317
75 [C. A. Selva], Catalogo dei qt<adri dei disegni e dei libri che trattano de!l'arte
de! di.regno della galleria de! fu Sig. Conte A!garotti in Venezia, s.J., n.d. [but
Venice after 1766].
76 Cf. Bib!iotheca Maphaei Pine!ti veneti magna jam studio co!tecta a Jacobo
More!!io deJcripta et annotationibus Venice, 1787, 6 vols.
77 All this according to lJ. Morelli], Cata!ogo dei quadri 1'acco!ti da! Jt< .riguor
Matteo Pinelli. Ed ora po.rti in vendita in Venezi<l 1785, s.J., n.d. [but Venice,
1785].
78 A. Bettagno, ed., Disegni di tma col!ezione veneziana del Settecento, Vicenza,
1966, Bettagno's introduction, especially p. 17.
79 G. B. Carboni, Le pitture di Brescia, pp. 145ff., especially 164-85.
80 Ibid., pp. 182-5.
81 Ibid., p. XVI: 'e.rsendo Jtato gemi!mente graziato de'rispettiz;j Cata!oghi dei
Pezzi di Pittura che !e compongono imieme coi nomi deg!i At<tori, rni sono
determinato a pubb!icarli tali quali gli ho ricevuti'.
82 G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione; the 1776 edition differs from rhe 1765 one because
it is a revised version; it does not mention collections that disappeared during
that interval, and includes those which have since been formed.
83 Ibid., 1765 edn, pp. 340-1.
84 Ibid., 1765 edn, pp. 325 and 331; 1776 edn, pp. 336 and 339.
85 Ibid., 1765 edn, p. 312.
86 Ibid, 1765 edn, pp. 314-15; 1776 edn, pp. 326-7.
87 Ibid., 1765 edn, p. 318; 1776 edn, p. 320
88 Ibid., 1765 edn, p. 337.
89 Cf. L. Grossato, ed., It civico di Padova. Dipinti e swlt11re da! XIV ,tf
XIX seco/o, Venice, 1967, nos. 198 (p. 126), 187, 202, 189, 190 (pp. 146-9).
90 G. M. Pilo, ed., Alarco Ricci, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1963, nos. 9 (p. 20),
10 (p. 22), 12 and 13 (p. 24) and in particular 14 and 15 (p. 26), 23 (p. 36) and
24 (p. 38).
91 U. Ruggieri, 'Le collezioni pittoriche rodigine', in collective work, L'Accademia
dei Concordi di Rovigo, Vicenza, 1972, p. 29 onwards, and especially T.
Romagnolo, 'I primi dipinti della Pinacoteca dei Concordi', poleJani, 3
(1978), pp. 5-12.
92 F. Bartoli, Le pitture ... di Rovigo, pp. 198-200,203-4, 206-12, 262-4.
93 Ibid., p. 186 and T. Romagnolo, 'I primi dipinti', p. 9.
94 Cf. Col!ezione dei qtladri eJistenti nella famiglia CaJi!ini a! Duomo di Rovigo,
Rovigo, 1824.
95 F. Bartoli, Le pitture ... di Rovigo, pp. 179-89.
96 Ibid., pp. 216-20.
97 Ibid., pp. 2 36-59.
98 Calculations based on Cata!ogo di qu,tdri e.ri.rtenti in cttSa ... Vianet!i, op. cit.
99 B. dal Pozzo, Le z;ite de'pittori veroneJi, pp. 286 and 296. S. Marinelli, 'Gregorio
Lazarini' and 'Angelo Trevisani', in L. Magagnato, ed., La pittura a Veron<! tra
Sei e Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Verona, 1978, pp. 126 and 191.
l 00 S. Marinelli, 'Sebastiano Ricci' and 'Giambattista Pittoni', ibid., pp. 127 and
226. S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, f
0
116.
I 01 S. Maffei, Verona i!!uJtrata, pp. 215ff. and on the Bevilacqua collection L.
318
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
11-1
115
116
117
118
Notes to pp. 204-6
Franzoni, Per una storia del collezionismo, Verona: fa galleria Bevilacqua,
Milan, 1970.
S. Marinelli, 'Giambattista Tiepolo', in L. Magagnaro, ed., La pittura a Verona,
pp. 217-20.
S. Marinelli, 'Federico Bencovich', ibid., p. 215. For Piazzetta, S. Dalla Rosa,
Catastico, f
0
180. Cf. also F. Dal Forno, Case e palazzi di Verona, Verona, 1973
(where on pp. 171-2 only Tiepolo is mentioned for the frescoes in the Canossa
palace). G. F. Viviani, ed., La villa nel Veronese, Verona, 1975 (mention is
made only of Rosalba Carriera's pastels in the Villa Serego, p. 428). F. Flores
d'Arcais, 'La pittura nelle chiese e monasteri di Verona', in G. Borelli, ed.,
Chiese e monasteri di Verona, Verona, 1980 (on pp. 526-7 mentions S. Ricci,
A. Pellegrini and the Pittoni painting). G. Borelli, ed., Chiese e monasteri del
territorio veronese, Verona, 1981, p. 570 (one painting of the school of
Tiepolo, one by Pittoni).
A. Avena, 'La quadreria di A. M. Lorgna' in collective work, Anton Maria
Lor-gna, Verona, 1936; the inventory on pp. 9-11, has fifty numbers.
A. AL vena?], 'La galleria Canossa nel 1781', Madonna Verona, VII (1913 ), pp.
98-108. The Ricci painting figures in the 'Camera prima della Galleria verso
I'Adige', no. 54.
A. Avena, L'Istituzione del Museo Civico di Verona. Cronistoria artistica degli
anni 1797-1865, Verona, 1907, p. 6 of the separate publication.
S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, f
0
3 56.
G. P. Marchini, 'II collezionismo d'arte a Verona nel Settecemo: Ia pinacoteca
Mosconi', Studi storici veronesi Luigi Simeoni, XXX-XXXI (1980-1), pp.
222-49, doc. I, pp. 237-42.
P. Caliari, La pinacoteca Albarelli, F. dal Forno, ed., Verona, 1975.
S. Marinelli, 'Giambattista Pittoni', p. 226.
A. Avena, L'lstituzione, appendix III, pp. 75-7 of separate publication, nos,
27-8, 35-6, 41.
Ibid., appendix IV, pp. 78-87, nos 29(2), 55, 63(2), 71, 80(2), 98(2), 99, Ill,
131 ('Paesaggio istoriato con Rebecca dipinto di Marco Ricci ed attribuito
erroneamente a Salvator Rosa'), 140(2), 147, 177, 186(2), 187.
Cf. F. dal Forno, 'Pinacoteca Tanara gia Conti Balzi Salvioni e gia Come
Ignazio Bevilacqua Lazise', Atti e Memo1ie dell'Accademia di Agricoltura,
Scienze e Lettere di Verona, XXIV (1972-3), pp. 261-79.
Cf. A. Avena, 'Catalogo della Pinacoteca Monga', Madonna Verona, VIII
(1914), pp. 117-39. Descrizione dei dipinti raccolti dal Dr Cesare Bernasconi
nella sua casa di Verona, Verona, 1851.
Cf. I.. Magagnato, 'II percorso critico', in idem, ed., La pittura a Verona, pp. 13-
30, especially p. 25 onwards and Idem, 'La pittura veronese del Settecento e
Scipione Maffei', in Atti del Com;egno Arte e Cultura in Verona net
Settecento, Verona, 1981, pp. 67-72.
S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, W 340, 341, 343, 344, 346, 360, 366 (quadri antichi),
348, 356 (modemi), 364, 366 (antichi e modemi).
Ibid., f
0
360.
We thus find fifteen Veronese paintings from the eighteenth century out of
the 354 in the Canossa gallery, one out of the seventy-five in the collection
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
111
1-12
143
144
Notes to pp. 207-12 319
owned by Alessandro Pompei and three out of the 247 in the Giulio Pompei
collection. Cf. A. A[ vena? J, 'La Galleria Canossa', and idem, L'lstituzione,
appendices III and IV.
S. dalla Rosa, Catastico, ffO 344, 356, 362, 364-5.
F. M. Tassi, Vite de Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Bergamaschi, F. Mazzini, ed.,
Milan, 1970, vol. II, pp. 136ff., 364, 374, 379.
P. Baldarini eta!., Desctizione ... di Vicenza, pp. 51, 114.
0. Bertotti-Scamozzi, II Forestiere istmito nelle case piu rare di architettura. E
di alcune Pitture della citta di Vicenza, Vicenza, 1761, pp. 26, 39, 102; we
should add Balestra and S. Ricci (p. 102) and Cignaroli (p. 117). L. Puppi, 'I
Tie polo a Vicenza e le statue dei "Nani" di villa Valmarana aS. Bastiano', Atti
dell'Istituto veneto di Scienze. Lettere ed Arti, CXXVI (1967-8), pp. 227-8.
Catalog a dei doni fatti al Civico .Mus eo di Vicenza . .. , Vicenza, 1866, p. 3 and
F. Barbieri, If Museo Civico di Vicenza. Dipinti e Sculture dal XVI al XVIII
secolo, Venice, 1962, pp. 184, 186, 217,219.
Cf. A. Sartori, Documenti per !a storia dell'arte a Padova, Vicenza, 1976,
passim.
F. Vivian, I! console Smith, pp. 95ff.
V. Giormani, 'Fra'Angelo Ziliani', appendix I, p. 94.
A. Memmo, Elementi di a1chitettura Lodoliana o sia l'arte del fabbricare con
solidita scientifica e con eleganza non capricciosa, Rome, 1786, p. 56 and cf. E.
Kaufmann, jun., 'Memmo's Lodoli', Art Bulletin, XLVI (1964), pp. 169-75.
A. Memmo, JJ!ementi, p. 59.
Ibid., pp 56-8.
Ibid., pp. 59-60.
G. Previtali, La fortuna dei primitiz;i. Dal Vasmi ai neoclassici, Turin, 196-1,
pp. 79ff. and 220-1.
A. Memmo, Elementi, p. 56.
F. Vivian, Il console Smith, pp. 76, 99, 105.
P. J. Grosley, Observations on Italy and on the Italians. London, 177-1, vol. II,
p. 164; cf. G. Previtali, La fortuna dei primitivi, pp. 218-20.
Cf. L. Vemuri, II g;1sto dei primitivi (1926), Turin, 1972, pp. 102ff. . .
A. M. Zanetti, Della Pittura Veneziana e delle Opere Pubbliche de'Veneztam
.Maestri libri V, Venice, 1771, p. VIII.
Ibid., pp. 89ff
Ibid., pp. 299ff., 323.
Ibid., pp. 19, 35 and cf. G. Previtali, La fortuna dei primitivt, p. 93. .
Cf. N. Ivanoff, 'Anton Maria Zanetti, critico d'arte', Atti de/l'Istztuto teneto dt
Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, CXI (1952-3), pp. 29-48.
Cf. A. M. Zanetti, Delle antiche statue gteche e romane che nell'antisa!a della
!ibreria di San Marco e in altri luogbi pubblici di Venezia si trovano, Venice,
1740-3
G. Lorenzetti, Un dilettante, pp. 66ff., and on the inventory of the Marciana
statues by A. M. Zanetti the Younger: M. Perry, 'The Statuario Publico', pp.
90ff.
A. M. Zanetti, Della PittMa, p. XII.
Fr. Haskell, Patrons a11d Painters, pp. 362ff.
320
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
Notes to pp. 212-15
Cf. 'Collections in Venetia in the Heyday of Curiosity', above, pp. 81-112.
A. M. Zanetti, Della Pittura, p. 487.
Ibid., p. 488.
Cf.]. W. Goethe, Viaggio in ltalia, Florence, 1955, p. 123.
Cf. N. Lastesio, De Musaeo Philippi FMsetti Patricii Veneti Epistola ad
c!ariJSirnam Co1'tonensem Academiam, Venice, 1764. P. A. Paravia, Def!e lodi
de!FA.b. Filippo Fa1'Setti Patrizio Veneziano Orazione, Venice, 1829.
Museo della casa eccelentissima Farsetti in Venezia, s.l., n.d.
Statues mentioned by P. A. Paravia, Delle lodi .. . , pp. 15-17.
'Catalogo de'quadri esistenti nella Galleria della casa eccelentissima Farsetti in
Venezia', in ivluseo della casa . .. Farsetti, pp. 31ff.
Cf. G. Dandolo, La caduta della Repubb!ica di Venezia, Venice, 1855, pp. 115-
16 (Daniele Farsetti), 119 (Anton Francesco Farsetti).
E. Bassi, ed., Venezia nell'eta di Canova 1780-1830, exhibition catalogue,
Venice, 1978, no. 8, pp. 16-17.
Ibid., no. 9, p. 17 and nos 73-4, p. 58. P. A. Paravia, Delle lodi . .. , p. 18.
Cf. 'Maffei and Caylus', above, pp. 169-84.
G. della Lena, Esposizione, para. VIII, p. J 75.
Ibid., para. XII, Joe. cit.
C. A. Moschini, Della letteratura venezimza, vol. II, p. 107.
G. Previrali, La fortuna dei primitivi, pp. 153ff.
Ibid., pp. 156ff. and 243. G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione ... di Padova, 1765 edn,
p. 318; 1776 edn, p. 320.
F. Barbieri, I! Museo Civico di Vicenza. Dipinti e .rcu!ture da! XIV a! XV
seco!o, Vicenza, 1962, pp. 161, 196-7, 21.'>, 218 (Paolina Porto Godi) and pp.
22, 140, 151, 180, 184, 195,222, 227 (Carlo Vicentini dal Giglio).
F. Bartoli, Le pitture di Rovigo, pp. 181-3. A. Romagnolo, ed., La pinacoteca
. . . dei Concordi, p. 24.
Al vena
1
], 'La galleria Canossa', and G. B. da Persico, Descrizione di Verona e
della .rua provincia, Verona, 1820, vol. I, pp. 79, 130-l.
G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratttra veneziana, vol. II., p. 95ff. I. Favaretto, 'G.
Zulian e Ia sua collezione de vasi italioti ed etruschi nel Museo Archeologico di
Venezia', Atti dell'lstituto veneto di Scienze, Lett ere ed Arti, CXXIII ( 1964-5 ),
pp. 26ff.
R. Bratti, 'Antonio Canova nella sua vita arristica privata (da un carteggio
inedito)', Nuovo Arcbivio Veneto, 33 (1917), pp. 281-90.
Cf. The Age of Neoclassicism, exhibition catalogue, London, 1972, nos 307
(pp. 199-200) and 314 (pp. 202-3).
L. Rizzoli, 'II castello di Catajo nel Padovano e il testamento del Marchese
Tommaso degli Obizzi (3 giugno 1803)', Archit;io Veneto-Tridentino, IV
(1923), pp. 127-46.
By, for instance, G. Fiocco, 'Le pitture venete del Castello di Konopiste', Arte
veneta, II (1918), pp. 7-29.
Cf. L. Olivato Puppi, 'Alle origini del museo moderno. Museo privato come
funzione pubblica nella corrispondenza inedita di collezionisti veneti fra'700
e'SOO' in Fr. Haskell, ed., Sa!oni, Gal!erie, Musei e Ia foro infbrenza ml!o
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
Notes to pp. 215-18 321
svi!uppo deli'arte dei seco!i XIX e XX (= Atti del XXIV Congresso
Internazionale di Scoria dell'Arte), Bologna, 1979, pp. 29-36.
P. Paulino a San Bartholomaeo, Mt<miograpbia MttJei Obiciani, Padua, 1789,
p. 14.
C. Cavedoni, Indicazione dei principali monttmenti antichi del rea/e museo
estense del Catajo, Modena, 1842, p. 8.
Cf. L. Olivato, 'Gli affari sono affari', p. 300.
C. Cavedoni, Indicazione, pp. 6-7.
Cf. the inventory drawn up of the collection of Tomasso degli Obizzi on 28
June 1803 after his death; Biblioteca Civica di Padova, MS B.P. 1386 IV.
On this point, I agree with L. Oliva to Puppi, 'Aile origini del museo moderno',
p. 33. For the distinctive features of the Kunst- und Wunderkammem, cf. 'The
Age of Curiosity', above, pp. 45-64.
MS B.P. 1386 IV, fED 3-52 (description of numismatic collection).
Cf. M. Meiss, 'Italian Primitives at Konopisre', The Art Bulletin, March 1946,
pp. 1-16. G. Previtali, La fortuna dei primitivi, p. 244.
Cf. F. A. Visconti, 'Catalogo', in Documenti inediti per servire alia .rtoria dei
Musei d'Italia, vol. II, Rome, 1879, pp. 235-65; vol. III, Rome, 1880, pp. 28-80.
L. Rizzoli, 'II castello del Catajo', document IV, pp. 145-6.
L. Olivato, 'Gli affari sono affari', document III, p. 304.
Cf. C. A. Levi, Le Col!ezioni veneziane d'a1te e d'antichita del seco!o XVI ai
nost1i giorni, Venice, 1900, vol. I, p. XCIII.
L. Rizzoli, 'Alcune lettere di Canova', p. 403 and letters I and II, p. 408.
J.-Fr. Seguier, Plantae Veronenses seu Stirpium quae in agro veronense
reperiuntur Methodica synopsis . .. , Verona, 1745, vol. I, pp. XXIIIff.
Cited in T. Metterle, 'II ventennio arzignanese de Alberto Fortis ( 1778-1798)
e Ia comunita di Arzignano alia caduta della Repubblica di Venezia', in
collective work, Valle del Chiampo, Antologia 1975, p. 124 .
J.-Fr. Seguier, Plantae Veronenses, vol. I, p. XXXV. Idem, Plantarum quae in
Agro veronense reperiuntur supplementum seu vo!umen tertium, Verona,
1745, pp. X and XIV.
A. de Tuoni, 'Volfango Goethe a Vicenza e !a sua visita a! dottor Antonio
Turra', Ateneo Veneto, 128 (1941), p. 247.
A. Fortis, Delle oJJa d'e!efanti e d'altre cMiosita naturali de'monti di
Romagnano nel Veronese, Vicenza, 1786, pp. 6-7.
B. Brunelli Bonetti, 'Padova, Vicenza e Verona nelle note di viaggio di un
francese del Settecento', Attie Memorie della R. Accademia di Scienze, Lettere
ed A 1ti in Pad ova, LVII (1940-1), p. 110.
Cf. C. Goldoni, La villegiatura.
John Strange rhus formed a mineral collection during a stay at the Abbano spa in
the summer of 1771. Cf. 'Lettera geologica di Sua Eccelenza il Sig. Gio. Strange
Residente per S. M. Brittanica presso Ia Sereniss. Repubblica di Venezia scritta al
Dot tor Gio. Targioni Tozzetti', in collective work, Dei Volcani o monti ignivomi
piit noti, e distintamente del Vesuvio osservazioni fisiche e Notizie lstoriche de
Uomini Insigni di varj tempi, raccolte con diligenza, Leghorn, 1779, vol. II, p. 38.
Cf. also A. Fortis, Delle ossa d'elefanti, pp. 5-6.
322
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
N oteJ to pp. 218-22
A lerrer from G. Arduino to Girolamo Silvestri dared November 1758 refers to
these discussions: B. C. Ver., Fondo Arduino, file 757.
A. C. Dondi Orologio, P1odromo in /orrna di lettera del!'lstoria Naturale
de'Monti Euganei, Padua, 1780, and dated: 'Dalla mia viltegiatura della Giara,
it 12 Maggio 1780'.
Cf. F. Venturi, Venezia ne! .recondo Settece11to, Turin, 1980, pp. 49ff., 109ff.
and passim.
A. C. Dondi Orologio, Prodromo, pp. 7 and I 0.
Ibid., pp. 11-12, 19-21, 28-9, 32-44. For Strange's collection, donated to the
Natural History Museum at the University of Padua in 1772-cf. V.
Giormani, 'Fra'Angelo Ziliani', appendix I, p. 94 - there is a catalogue:
'Catalogo Ragionato di varie Produzioni Naturali del Regno Lapideo, reccolte
in un viaggio peri Colli Euganei nel Mese di Luglio 1771 da Sua Eccellenza il
Sig. Giovanni Strange', in collective work, Dei Volcani, vol. II, pp. 59-98.
Cf. A C. Dondi Orologio, 'Saggio di littologia euganea osia distribuzione
metodica, e ragionata delle produzioni fossili di Monti Euganei', Saggi
scientifici e letterarii dell'Accademia di Padova, vol. II, Padua, 1789, pp. 164-
84.
B. Terzi, hiemoria intomo alle prodm:ioni forsili di Monti Euganei, Padua,
1791.
B. Terzi, Rirpo.rta di ... al!'articolo inserito ne! foglio di Cesena contm la
Memoria intomo aile produzioni natm'clii dei Monti Euganei, Padua, 1791.
Lett era del nu1rchese Antonio Carlo Dondi Orologio diretta a! Reuerendis.rimo
Padre Abbate D. BaJile Terzi ... sopra !a di lui Memoria intomo alle
produzioni fos.ri!i de'Monti Euganei, Padua, 1791.
Cf. Prima risposta di RJSi!e Terzi ... alia lettera del Signor Marche.re
Antonio Dondi Omlogio ... wpra !a Memoria intomo all produzi011i fossi!i
de '1\Ionti Euga;zei. Padua, 1791. The eight letters begun with this one
extended from 24 July to 20 Nov. 1791. In September of the same year, the
work written by A. Fortis appeared, Tre !ettere al Signo1 Conte Nicolo da
Rio sopra le sei !ettne sinora Mcite del P. D. BaJilio Terzi . .. a! Marchese
Antonio Dondi Orologio intomo aile produzioni fo.rsili de'Monti Eugcmei,
Cesena, 1791.
Cono di Storia naturale, e chimica proposto a fetterario trattenimento di 40
Nobili, e Cittadini di Veronct dal Sig. Professore Canonico Don Giovanni
Serafino Voitel. Per l'anno 1790, s.l., n.d., B. C. Ver. 153.4.
Ibid., nos I, VII, XIV, XVIII, XXIV, XXXIII.
Cf. G. S. Volta, Prospetto del Museo Belfisoniano. C!assificato e com-
pendiosamente descritto, Pavia, 1787.
Cf. E. Vio, La villa Far.retti a Santa Ma1ia di Sa/a, Venice, 1967.
Expression used by A. F. Farsetti, Elenco botanico del giardino di Sa/,, j>er
/'Amzo AIDCCXVI, s.I., n.d., in the dedication. It was the second catalogue. The
first was: Catalogo delle piante che eshtono nef gimdino del nobil ttomo
A 11fo1zio Francesco Far.retti nella me< villa di Sa/a, Venice, 1793.
A. Turra, Fc<rsetia Novum Gen11s. Accedunt A11imadversiones quaedam
hotcmicae, Venice, 1765, p. -1.
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
Notes to pp. 222-3 323
P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in ltalia. Materiali per fa storia di questa scienza, part
2, Venice, 1901 (= Memorie del R. Istituto veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Ani,
vol. XXVI, no. 5), p. 76.
G. A Moschini, Della letteratura veneziana, vol. II, p. 110.
Cf. R. Pampanini, 'II viaggio del botanico fiorentino Pier Antonio Micheli a
Verona ed a Monte Baldo nel autunno del 1736', Madonna Verona, XVIII
(1924), pp. 14-16.
].-Fr. Seguier, Plantae veronenses, vol. I, pp. XL VII-XL VIII. .
On Cornaro, cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in Italia, Venice, 1895 (= Memone del
R. Isrituto veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, vol. XXV, no. 4), p. 56, and on
his contacts with Turra, A. de Tuoni, 'Volfango Goethe', p. 246.
Cf.}. W. Goethe cited by A. de Tuoni, ibid., p. 235. B. Tecchi, Goethe in ltalia
(e particolarmente a Vicenza) con le giornale del soggtorno vtcentmo
Vicenza, 1967. .
Nomenclatura plantarum horti Thienaei Vicetiae 1794 tempo1e autunnalr:,
s.l., n.d. and Series plantarum quae studio et diligentia in horto botan;co nobtft.l'
Comitis vicentini Antonii Mariae Thienaei modo coluntur anno MDCCCII, s.L,
n.d. The two works are attributed to Turra by S. Rumor, G!i rcrittori vicentini
del seco!o decimoottavo e decimonono, vol. III, Venice, 1908, pp. 256-8.
Cf. P. A Saccardo, Botanica in Italia, part 2, p. 22 and I. Tiozzo, I No.rtri. Note
biografiche intorno a Cbioggioti degni di ricordo, Chioggia, 1928, pp. 148-9.
Cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in Italia, part 2, p. 149.
Cf. G. A. Moschini, Guida per Ia citta di Padova, p. 190.
Cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in ltalia, part I, pp. 207-8.
Cf. M. Minio, "Arcani delle pianre di Monte Baldo" '. Codice erbario veronese
del sec. XVIII', Atti del Accademia defl'Agricoltut'cl, Scienze e Lettere dt
Verona, CVI (1930), pp. 9-26.
Cf. S. Chiesa and G. G. Lorenzoni, 'Erbario e collezioni dell'Istituto di Botanica
e Fisiologia vegetale', in collective work, Cotlezioni scientifiche dei mttSei ed
Orto Botanico, Padua, 1970, p. 23.
Istoria delle piante cbe nascono ne'lidi intorno a Venezia. Opem po.1tuma de
Gian-Giro!amo Zannichelli accresciuta da G'ian.Jacopo figliuolo dello stesso
... , Venice, 1735.
Cf. J.-Fr. Seguier, Plc<ntae ueronense.r. . .
Cf. collective work, Storia di Brescia, vol. III: Itt dommaztone veneta ( 1596-
1797), Brescia, 1964, p. 1003.
Cf. Iosephi Agosti s.i . ... de Re Botanica T1'clctatuJ in quo praeter genera/em
methodum. et hystoria plantarum, eae stirpes peculiariter recensuntur. quae m
agro Bel!unensi et Fidentino vel sponte cre.rcu-nt vel arte excoluntur ... ,
Belluno, 1770. Quoted from A. Buzzati, Bibliografia betlunese, Belluno, 1890,
no. 411.
Cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in ltafia, part 1, pp. 36-70. I. Tiozzo, I Nostri, pp.
148-9.
Cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in ltalia, part 2, p. 110.
Cf. P. A Saccardo, Della .rtoria e letteraturc< della Flora veneta, Milan, 1869._
As is the case for J.-Fr. Seguier, Catalogus plantamm quae in agro z;eronenSI
reperiuntur, Verona, 17 45.
324
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
Notes to pp. 224-6
Cf. G.-G. Zannichelli, Istoria delle piante, preface.
From 1730 onwards, L. Patarol planted his botanical garden in accordance
with Tournefort's system of classification; among his unpublished works are
two botanical ones which follow Tournefon's ideas. Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Delle
Iscrizioni Veneziane, vol. V, Venice, 1842, pp. 113, 116-17, C. Martinelli
(1653-1734), Venetian patrician and amateur botanist, corresponded with
Tournefort. Cf. P. A. Saccardo, Botanica in Italia, part 1, p. 105.
].-Fr. Seguier, Plantae vero1wuer, vol. I, pp. Liff.
This is the case of an anonymous herbarium from Belluno. Cf. P. A. Saccardo,
Botanica in ltalia, part 2, p. 46.
Cf. A. de Tuoni, 'Volfango Goethe', p. 247.
A. Turra, Florae italicae prodromur, Vicenza, 1780. The dedication is dated
Jan. 1768.
Thus, for Goethe, Turra is first and foremost a botanist and the author of the
Florae italicae prodromus. Cf. A. de Tuoni, 'Volfango Goethe', p. 235 and B.
Tecchi, Goethe in ltalia, pp. 31-7 (Reise) and 43-5 (Tagebiicher).
This concerns copies at the Bertolliana Library in Vicenza: Gonz. 9.6.20 and
Gonz. 9.6.21.
Cf. L. Zoppi, Principii di istoria naturale, 6 vols; B. C. Ver. MS 757.
Cf. H. Daudin, De Linne a Lamarck. Methodes de c!a.rsification et idee de serie
en botanique et en zoo!ogie (1740-1790), Paris, 1926, pp. 32ff.
G. Olivi, Zoologia Adriatica ossia catalogo ragionato degli Animali del Golfo e
delle Lagune di Venezia; preceduto da una dissertazione sulfa Storia Fisica e
Naturale del Golfo; e accompagnato da iHemorie ed Osservttzioni di Fisica
Storia Naturale ed Economica, Bassano, 1792, p. 50.
A. Turra, Florae italicae prodromus; Insecta vicentina, pp. 3-16 (separate
pagination).
Cf. B. da Persico, Descrizione di Verona, vol. I, p. 186.
Cf. B. Brunelli Bonetti, 'Padova, Vicenza e Verona', p. 112.
Cf. S. Chiesa and G. G. Lorenzoni, 'Erbario', p. 24.
Cf. G. S. Volta, Memoria suite farfalle in cui si contengono alcune nozioni
generali sulfa storia naturale delle medesime, sul metoda di raccogliede e
distribuirle in ordine sistematico ... e sulfa maniera di conservarle, Milan,
1782.
V. Giormani, 'Fra' Angelo Ziliani', p. 88, no. 32.
Cf. H. Daudin, De Linne a Lama1'Ck, pp. 48ff.
V. Donati, Della Storia Naturale marina dell'Adriatico, Venice, 1750.
Here is its title: Descrizione d e ~ Crostacei dei Testacei e dei Pesci che abitano
le Lagune del Golfo Veneto. rappre.rantati in figure a chiaroscuro ed in colori,
divisa in tre pa1ti, 1. de' Crostacei, o.r.riano Granchi, Aste1ie ed Echini, 2. de'
Testacei, ossiano Concbig!ie, 3. de' Pesci. Quoted in I. Tiozzo, I Nostri, pp.
153-5 .
G. Olivi, Zoologia Adriatica, introductory essay and pp. 53-5, 88, 121-2.
Cf. G. Poleni, 'Catalogus machinarum quae philosophicis experimentis
inserviunt', in]. Facciolati, Fasti Gymnasii Patavini, Padua, 1757, p. 413ff.
Cf. G. B. Rossetti, It Forastiere illuminato, pp. 267, 271-2 and P. Brandolese,
Pitture ... di Padova, p. 143.
Notes to pp. 226-8 325
252 Cf. A. Ferretti Torricelli, Catalogo degli strumenti scientifici delle collezioni
dei Civici Musei di storia e arte e dell'Ateneo di Brescia, in collective wurk,
Aspetti della Jocieta bresciana nel Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Brescia,
1981, pp. 199ff
253 Cf. S. dalla Rosa, Cata.rtiw, f
0
346.
254 G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratura veneziana, vol. II, pp. 111-12.
255 Cf. L. Sorbini, I foJ'Sili di Bolca, Verona, 1981. Idem, La collezione Baja di pe.rci
e piallte fossili di Bo!ca, Verona, 1983.
256 On Vallisnieri, see above, pp. 103-5.
257 Letters from Maffei to Vallisnieri dated 9 and 20 June 1708 in S. Maffei,
Epistolario, C. Garibotto, ed., Milan, 1955, vol. I, p. 39.
258 Rotari's letter 'Descrizione di varj Crostacei, e produzioni di Mare, che si
rrovano su' Monti di Verona. E segnatamente de' Pesci Marini, Erbe, e lnsetti
che dal Monte detto di Bolca, infra pietra in !amine divisibili schiacciati, e come
a seco imbalsamati si cavano', 20 Nov. 1716 in A. Vallisnieri, De' carpi marini
che SJ.t' manti .ri trovano, della foro origine e de!lo stato del mondo davanti il
Di!uvio. nel Di!ut;io e dopo if Di!Jwio lettere criticbe, Venice, 1721, pp. 1-IJ..
259 L. Pawrol to G. D. Bertoli, 8 July 1724 cited in E. A. Cicogna, Delle Iscrizioni
veneziane, op. cit., vol. V, p. 119.
260 Cf. P. Rossi, I segni del tempo. Storia della terrae storia dell nazioni da Hooke
a Vico, Milan, 1979.
261 A. Vallisnieri, De' carpi marini.
262 Cf. V. Giormani, 'Fra'Angelo Ziliani', appendix I, p. 94.
263 Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Delle lscrizioni Veneziane, vol. V, p. 120.
264 Cf. L. Sorbini, 'Scipione Maffei ed i fossili di Bolca', in Nuovi studi muffeicmi,
Verona, 1985, pp. 87-96. I am indebted to Professor Sorbini, who provided me
with a typewritten version of his article.
265 Cf. G. B. da Persico, De.rcrizione di Verona, vol. I, p. 81.
266 [G. S. Volta], Ittio!itologia z;eronese del Museo Bozziano ora anesso a que!lo
del Conte Giovambattista Gazola e di altri gabinetti di fos sili verone.ri, Verona,
1796, part 2, pp. II-IV (each part has its own pagination).
267 G. G. Spada, Di.rsertazione Ot'e si proua, cbe li Petrificati Carpi A!ari11i, che nei
1Honti adiacenti a Verona si trovano, non .rono Scherzi di Natuta, ne Di!uviani;
ma Antedeluviani, Verona, 1737.
268 Cata!ogu.r Lapidum VeronensiNm 'low{J.oec/>w ldest propria forma praeditztm
qui apud loannem Iacoburn Spadanz Gretianae Archipresbyterum AsservantM,
Verona, 1739.
269 Co1pormn Lapidefactorum agri veronensis CatalogttS quae c1pud Joan. ]acobum
Spadam C,:retianae Archipresb)'terum asservantltf. Editio altera multo a11ctio1,
Clli accedunt A Jlnotatione.r. et i\1armortnn quae in eadem agro reperiuntm
Elencbm, Verona, 17 44.
270 A.-L. Moro, De Cro.rtacei e degli altri marini carpi che si trovano su'mo11ti libri
due, Venice, 1740, pp. 1-2.
271 Cf. P. Rossi, I .reg ni del tempo, pp. l 04ff.
272 A.-L. Moro, De Crostt1cei, p. 231.
273 Della fonnazione de'fu!rnini trattclto del Sig. !Vfarchese Scipione Maffei
raccolto de varie .rue Lettere. In a!cune delle quali .ri tratta anche deg!'Imetti
326 Notes to pp. 228-31
rigenerantisi e de'Pesci di ma1e su i manti, e piit a fungo de!l'Elettricitta,
Verona, 1747, pp. 118ff., 124-5.
274 G. G. Spada, Corporttm !apidefactorum ... Catalogm. G. Arduino's original
draft, which lies in the Biblioteca Civica in Verona, was published by G.
Stegagno, II veronese Giovanni Arduino e if suo contributo a! progre.r.ro della
scienza geologica, Verona, 1929, table V. Cf. also l. Sorbini, I fossili di Bolca,
figs. 10 and 11, pp. 29-30.
275 Cf. M. Gliozzi, 'Arduino', in Dizionario Biografico degli ltaliani, vol. III, pp.
64-6.
276 G. A. Moschini, Della lette1'atura veneziana, vol, II, pp. 80, 108-9. On
G. Morosini, cf. G. Arduino, Afemoria epistolare sopra varie produzioni
tJttlcaniche. minerali e fos.rili. Tratta del Nuovo Giomale d'lta!ia, Venice,
1782, p. 6. On the relationship between Fortis, Guido Vio and]. Strange, cf.
T. Metterle, Dal conte Azzolino ad Alberto Fortis: cinque .recoli di storia a!
monastero di San Pietro a! C01to. Precisazioni biog1'afiche sulfa giovinezza
del Fortis dal 1741 a! 1778, in collective work, Valle del Chiampo. Amologia
1974, p. 234. T. Metterle, If ventennio arzignanese di . .. Fo1tis, p. 145, n. 37.
G. Strange 'Lettera geologica', p. 39.
277 G. B. Rossetti, Dese1izione . .. di Padova, pp. 185-7, 333.
278 G. Arduino, Memoria epi.rtolare, pp. 9 and 15. G. Strange, 'Lettera geologica',
p. 39. T. Metterle, If ventemzio arzignanese, pp. 127 and 145, n. 38.
279 G. A. Moschini, Guida per fa citta di Padova, p. 187.
280 Fortis sent him minerals. Cf. T. Metterle, Dal conte Azzolino ad Alberto
Fortis, p. 231.
281 F. Bartoli, Le pitture ... di Rovigo, p. 215.
282 Cf. E. Zerbinatti, 'Interessi per l'epigrafia amica e testimonianze archeologiche
in due inediti di Girolamo Silvestri', Padusa. Bolletino di Centro Polesano di
Studi Storici Archeologici ed Etnografici, XIV (1978), pp. 67ff. and 69, n. 27 in
particular.
283 Cf.]. Odoardi, De'corpi marini che nel Fe/trese distretto si t1ovano, Venice,
1767 (= NtiOtJa Raccolta Calogeriana, vol. VIII, pp. 103-96). Quoted from
Buzzatti, Bibliografia belftmese, no. 367.
284 Cf. M. Brusatin, Venezia nel Settecento: stato, architettura, territorio, Turin,
1980, pp. 140ff., 314ff.
285 Cf. M. Mamese, Memorie storiche della chiesa vicelltina, vol. V (1700-1866)
Da! prima Settecento a! amzessio11e del Veneto al Regno d'ltalia, Vicenza,
1982, pp. 815, 832-3, 837-9. R. Fabiani, 'La Sezione di Scoria Naturale del
Museo Civico di Vicenza', Bo!letino del MMeo Civiw di Vicenza, fasc. III and
IV (1910), pp. 3-5.
286 lndice delle Prod11zioni naturali alia Terra, non cbe Orgcmico-Marine
petrefatte e concbig!ie, le q11ali si ritrovano l'aCcolte e metodicamente disposte
appresso don Giuliano Serpe in Arzignano, Vicentino Distretto, Vicenza,
1788.
287 All these people feature in G. S. Volta, lttio!itologia t;erone.re, with the
exception of Tommaselli and Venturi. For these two, cf. G. P. Marchini.
Antiquari e collezionisti dell'Ottocento veronese, Verona, 1972, p. 67, n. 25
and document 3A, p. 20 l.
Notes to pp. 231-40
288 G. S. Volta, Ittiolitologia veroneJe, part 2, pp. III-IV.
289 Ibid., p. CCLXXVIII.
290 Ibid, pp. VIII-IX.
327
291 'Extrait d\me lettre de M. !'Abbe Fortis de Veronne Lsic] 24 septembre
1785 aM. le Comte de Cassini ... sur les differentes petrifications', journal de
Ph)'Sique, 28 (1786), p. 162.
292 Reproduced by L. Sorbini, I foSJili di Bolca, pp. 34-5, figs. 12 and 13. Idem, La
collezione Baja, pp. 12-13, figs 3 and 4.
293 G. S. Volta, lttiolitologia veronese, pp. LVIII-LXI.
294 Cf. 'Collections in Venetia in the Heyday of Curiosity', above, pp. 74-8.
295 G. Olivi, Zoologia Adriatica, p. 134.
296 Cf. V. Bozza, De!l'universale rivoluzione sofferta dal globo terracqueo. Lettera
a! D. Orazio Rota, Verona, 1788.
297 Degl'impietrimenti del territ01'io veronese ed in particolare dei pesci foSJili del
celebre monte Bolca per servire di continuazione all'argomento delle
rivoluzioni tenacquee. Lettera del signor canonico Don Gio. Serafino Volta a!
Signor Vince1no Bozza, s.l., n.d., but dated Mantua, 27 Oct. 1789, pp. 18
(quotation), 20-4 (reply to Plutonists).
298 Cf. the first letter from D. Testa in G. B. Gazola, Lette1e recentemente
pubblicate .rui pe.rci foJsili veronesi con annotazioni inedite agli estratti delle
medesime, Verona, 1794, pp. 5, 33ff., 45ff., and [A. Fortis J, Tre lettere Jli i
pe.rci fos.rili di Bolca, Venice, 1793, especially pp. 16ff., 29, 34ff.
299 Cf. L. Sorbini, l fos sili di Bolca, p. 31.
300 Letter from Testa, in G. B. Gazo1a, Lettere, p. Slff.[A. Fortis), Tre lettere, pp.
83-4.
301 D. Testa, Terza lett era .rtt i pesci foSJi!i del .Monte Bolca, s.l., n.d., but dated 25
Nov. 1793, p. XLIV.
302 Cf. G. Cuvier, Discours sur les r<f.volutiom de Ia JUtjace du globe et les
changements qu'el!es ont produits dam !e regne cmimal, Paris, 1812. Cuvier
was a member of the agricultural academy in Verona. Cf. L. Sorbini, I fossili di
Bolca, p. 43, n. 36.
303 Testa to Fortis in LA. Fortis l, Tre lettere, pp. 61-2.
304 Ibid., p. 68 and Fonis' reply, pp. 84ff.
305 G. Arduino, Memoria epistolare, p. 12.
306 Letter of 7 July 1760 published by G. Stegagno, I! veronese Giovanni Arduino,
pp. 12-13 and the facsimile reproduction, table II.
307 B. C. Ver., Fondo Arduino, file 759.
308 Ibid., Joe. cit.
309 Cf. 'Collections in Venetia', above, pp. 81-99.
310 Cf. CIL Vj1 pp. 80-1 (Aquileia), 172 (Zuglio), 186 (Oderzo), 201 (Treviso),
205 (Altino), 220 (Adria), 267 (Padua), 305-6 (Vicenza), 326-7 (Verona),
437-8 (Brescia).
311 G. D. Bartoli, Antichita d'Aquileia profane e sacre ... Venice, 1739.
312 G. T. Faccioli, Lapidarium Vicentinum, Vicenza, 1776-1804, 3 vols.
313 Cf. Musei Theupoli antiqua numismata olim collecta a joanne Dominica
Theupolo aucta et edita a Lat11'entio equite et D. Ma1ci procuratore et Federico
32tl Notes to pp. 240-2
Senatore fratribus Theupolis, Venice, 1736.
314 Cf. Nurnismata quaedam cujurc111nque et metalli Murei Honorii
Arrigonii veneti u.rum juventutis rei 1/Itrlmldriae Treviso, 1711-5,
3 vols.
315 A. Mazzo1eni, In numirmata ae1ea maximi moduli e i\-!ti.reo Pisano
olim Corrario commentarii, Bergamo, 1710. Idem, In mtmismata ae1ea sectiora
maximi module e iVIuseo Pisano o!im Corrario Animadteniones, Bergamo,
1711-4.
316 Cf. L. Simeoni, 'Gli smdi srorici ed archeologici di Scipione Maffei', in
collective work, Studi maffeiani, Turin, 1909, pp. 742-3 and L. Magagnato,
'Nota introduttiva', in S. Maffei, Verona illust1ata, reprint, vol. II, Verona,
1975, p. VIII.
317 Letter to G. Vincio1i dared 28 Sept. 1719 inS. Maffei, Epirtolario, vol. I, p. 318.
318 Cf. S. Maffei, Traduttori italiano o sia notizia de'11olgarizzamenti d'Antichi
Scrittori Latini, e Greci, cbe .rono in luce. Aggizmto if volgarizamento d'alcune
insigni l.rcrizioni Creche: E Ia Notizia del 1liiOVO Museo d'Iscrizioni in
Verona, col Paragone fr !e lscrizioni, e le Medaglie, Venice, 1720, pp.
165-213.
319 Cf. L Franzoni, 'Origine e storia del Museo Lapidario Maffeiano', in collective
work, II L'vlu.reo iVIaffeiano riaperto a/ pubb!ico, Verona, 1982, p. 39.
320 S. Maffei, La religion de'gentili ne/ morire ricavata da 1m ba.r.ro rilievo cmtico
che J'i conserva in Prigi, Paris, 17.36.
321 S. Maffei, ed., Osservaziom Letterarie cbe po.r.rono Jervir di continuazione a!
de 'Letterti d'Ita!ia, vol. II, Venice, 1739, p. 339 (Tazza Faroese
publication).
322 Cf. L. Franzoni, 'Origine e sroria', p. 52.
)23 Ibid., pp. 44ff. M. Brusarin, Venezia ne! Settece11to, pp. 295ff.
324 S. Maffei, i'vfuse11m veronen.re, boc est Antiqliamm imcriptionum atque
anglyphorum col/ectio, mi taurinensis adjungitur et vindobonensis; accedunt
monumenta id gen11s p!urima nondum tmlgatcl et ubiwmque co!!ecta, Verona,
1749, and cf. G. P. Marchini, 'II Museum veronense nell'edizione del Maffei e
nei cataloghi successivi', St11di .rtorici 11eronni Luigi Simeoni, XXII-XXIII
(1972-3), pp. 257-321.
325 Cf. A. Sandrini, 'II Lapidarium Veronense e le origini dell'archirerrura
museale', Studi storici 11eronesi Luigi Simeoni, XXXII ( 1982), pp. 153-60.
326 Cf. G. M. Canova, 'II Museo Maffeiano nella sroria della museologia', Attie
Memorie de!l'Accademia di Agrico!tura. Scienze e Lettere di Verona, CLII
( 1975-6), pp. 177-91. Cf. also collective work, Nuovi studi maffeiani.
327 Gemmae antiquae /lntonii Mariae Zanetti. Hieroll)'mi fi!im. Ant. Fmnciscus
Goriu.r notis latinis it!ustravit. ltalice ea.r nota.r reddit Hieronymus Franci.rcliJ
Zanettius, Alexandri fiiiltS . .. , Venice, 1750.
328 Cf. G. Lorenzetti, Un dilettante inci.rore veneziano, pp. 78ff.
329 Cf. Prodomus lconiettJ sw!pti/imn gemmamm, Basi!idiani. Amulectici, atque
Tli.Pnni generis, de Mmaeo Antonii Capello senatoris t/eneti, Venice, 1702.
530 Cf. Dactyliotheca Smitbim;a, Venice, 1767, 2 vols, and F. Vivian, II console
Smith, pp. 89-91.
Notes to pp. 242-5 329
331 Cf. the inventory of Antonio II Capello dated 27 Sept. 1747 in C. A. Levi, Le
Collezioni veneziane, voL II, pp. 199-219.
332 G. A. Moschini, Della letteratura veneziana, vol. II, pp. 93-4. Venezia nell'eta
di Canova, p. 67 and nos. 84-101, pp. 68ff.
333 [F. Driuzzo ], Collezione di tutte !e antichita che si comervano nel Mus eo
Naniano di Venezia divisa per c!assi in due parti aggiuntevi le classi di tutte !e
medaglie, Venice, 1815. It is possible to see the layout of the objects thanks to
the engravings brought together in Indice e tavole dei marmi anticbi scritti e
figurati componenti if Museo Nani, s.L, n.d. ll791).
334 G. A. Moschini, Della letteratttra veneziana, vol. II, p. 92 and E. A. Cicogna,
Saggio di bibfiografia veneziana, nos 5149-69. Cf. also a mock anthology,
Disegni e rami d'alcune antichita del Museo Naniano, Marciana Library,
Venice, 119.D.132-3 with a subject index and a list of the Opere, opusculi e
notizie stampate sui Museo e dov'e citato.
335 F. Driuzzo, Museo Naniano, no. 181, p. 22.
336 Cf. H. Honour, Chinoiserie. The Vision of Cathay, London, 1973, pp. 119ff.
33 7 Cf. a letter dated April 1783 cited by M. Petrocchi, Il tram onto della
Repubblica di Venezia e l'assolutismo i!luminato, Venice, 1950, p. 46.
338 Cf. L. Puppi, 'Tiepolo a Vicenza', pp. 235ff.
339 S. Maffei, ivfuseum veronense, p. CLXXXVII.
340 Idem, Verona i!lustrata, p. 252.
341 G. B. Rossetti, Desc1izione .. . di Padova, 1765 edn, p. 187.
342 Cf. L Polacco, 'Il Mus eo ... dell'U niversira' di Padova', p. 428.
343 P. Paulino da San Bartolomeo, iVfonumenti Indici del MIISeo Naniano
i!lustrati, Padua, 1799.
344 S. Assemani, Mus eo cufico Naniano illustrato, Padua, 1787-8.
345 Cf. idem, Catalogo de'Codici Manuscritti Orientali della Biblioteca Naniana,
vol. I, Padua, 1787; vol. II, Padua, 1792.]. Morelli, Biblioteca Maphaei Pinelli,
nos 7859-94.
3-16 D. M. Federici, Memorie Trevigia,ze, vol. II, pp. 223ff.
347 Cf. C. Stella, 'Il Quirini erudiro e collezionisra antiquario', in collective work,
lconografia e immagini queriniane, exhibition catalogue, Brescia, 1980, pp.
135-6.
348 Cf. the letter from A. Zeno toP. A. Serassi of 26 Ocr. 1743 in A. Zeno, Lettere,
Venice, 1785, vol. IV, p. 223.
349 Cf. E. Zerbinatti, 'lnteressi per l'epigrafia anrica', p. 63, nos 9 and 10.
350 Cf. E. Zerbinarti, Il museo rodigino dei Silvestri in una raccolta de disegni
inediti del Settecento, Rovigo, 1982
351 Cf. rhe text published by E. Zerbinatti, 'Interessi per l'epigrafia antica', part 2,
Padusa, XV (1979), pp. 186-7.
352 G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione ... di Padova, 1765 edn, pp. 185-7 and 333.
3 53 II Mus eo Tomieri illustrato ( dalla Cronaca manuscritta del Conte A rna!di
Arnalda I" Tomieri che Ji conserve alla Berto!iana), G. Bonaccioli, ed.,
Vicenza, 1902, pp. 78 (medal inventory) and 15, 17ff., 27ff., 42-3 and passim
(the inscriptions).
354 Cf. G. P. Marchini, Antiquari e collezioni archeologiche, pp. 119ff. (Muselli),
73ff. and 203ff. (Verira), 47ff., and 195-7 (Fontana), 6lff. and 201 (Venturi).
330 Notes to 245-8
355 Antiquitatis reliqttiae Marchione Jacobo lviusellio co!!ectae Tabu/is incisae et
brevis explicationibus illustratae, Verona, 1756, preface.
356 Cf. S. Rotta, 'Bianchini' article in Dizionario Biografico degli Ita!iani and
Bianchini's will in G. B. Giulliari, La Capita/are Bib!ioteca di Verona, Verona,
1888, document XX, pp. XXIVff.
3'57 J. 1\iuselli, Antiquitatis reliquiae.
3'58 Cf. G. P. Marchini, Antiquari e co!lezioni archeologiche, pp. 49ff.
359 Cf. G. P. Marchini, Teatro Romano di Berga. Uno scavo di cento fa a
Vicenza, Verona, s.d. L 1979l
360 A. Tornieri, II Museo Tomieri illustmto, pp. 16, 27-8, 56.
361 Cf. a good overview of this movement in the collective work, L'lrn.magine
dell'antico fra Settecento e Ottocento, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, 1983.
362 Cf. S. Maffei, De gli Anfiteatri e J'ingolarmente del veronese, librt due, de'qua!i
si Hatta quanta appartiene all'istoria e quanta all'architettu1a, Verona, 1728.
363 Cf. 0. Bocchi, Orse1vazioni sopra un antico teatro scoperto in Adria, Venice,
1739.
364 Cf. F. Bianchini, Del Palazzo de Cesari opera posthuma, Verona, 1738.
365 Cf. Utriusque thesami antiquitatum romanorum IJ. G. Graevio <#!Clore]
graecammque {]. G'ronovio auctore} nova sttpplementa congesta ab Joanne
Po!eno, Venice, 1737, 5 vols. Exercitationes Vitruvianae primae hoc est
Joannis Po!eni commenttuius critictts de M. Vitrmii Po!lionir ... librorum
editionibus necnon de eonmdem editoribus atque de aliis qui Vitnwittm ...
explicamnt et i!lustrarunt ... , Padua and Venice, 1739-41.
366 A. Tornieri, If .Museo Tornieri i!lustrato, p. 55.
367 C. Gallo, Una famiglia patrizia. I Pismzi, p. 116.
368 Cf. V. Lazari, 'Della raccolta numismatica della Imp. Reg. Libreria di San
Marco', Sitzzmgsberichte der philos.-historischen C!aSJe der Kais. Akademie
der Wi.r.renschaften, XXVI (1856), p. 309.
369 G. A. Moschini, Della letteratMa veneziana, vol. II, p. 89.
370 ]. Morelli, Bibliotheca Maphaei Pinelli, vol. V, pp. 350ff., 356ff.
3 71 Cf. the inventory drawn up after the death of Tomasso degli Obizzi, Bib1ioteca
Civica di Padova, MS B.P. 1386 IV, W 17, 22ff., 35ff., 45.
3 72 A. Tornieri, I! Mus eo Tomieri illztJtrato, p. 78.
3 73 Cf. Nurnismata antiqua a Jacobo Musellio co!lecta, Verona, 1750, 4 vols. ].
Muselli, Vite de varii uorneni illustri ed iscrizioni delle !oro medaglie ne!
hiMeo Mttselliano comervate, B. C. Ver., MS 873,2 vols. Idem, Index ge11eralis
numismatum omnium i!lustrium virorttm quae in Museo Muse!liano
asservantur. In prima parte alfabetico ordine. In a!tera chronologico dis-
posittts. Anno MDCCLXIII, B. C. Ver., MS 955. Idem, Indice alfabetico
cronologico degli Uomini i!!ustri e fatti memorabili ne! mondo avvenuti, B. C.
Ver., MS 899-900.
374 Cf. F. Negri, Vita di Aposto!o Zeno, Venice, 1826, pp. 98, 325-6, 354.
375 lYlmettm lYiazzuche!liam11n, seu numismata virorum doctrina prae.rtantium,
qttae apud ]o. Mariam Comitem Mazzucbe!lum Brixiae servantur . .. , Venice,
1761-3; citation from vol. I, p. 35.
376 Cf. Sigilli JHonete e Medag!ie d'Uomini 1/!ustri Padovani del Mu.reo del Co.
Gio. de Lazara Cat'. di San Stefano della stesso fatte incidere in rame ed
Notes to pp. 249-52 331
i!lurtrate con annotazioni circa !'anna 1680, Biblioteca Civica di Padova, MS
B.P. 1474/1-XV, fasc. VI.
377 L. Rizzoli, jun., 1 Sigilli del ivfuseo Bottacin di Padova, Padua, 1903, p. 31, no.
XX.
378 G. A. Moschini, Della letteratlt1a veneziana, vol. II, p. 77.
379 Cf. V. Lazari, 'Delle raccolta numismatica', p. 309.
380 Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Saggio di bibliografia IJeneziana, nos. 5171-3.
381 Cf. F. Negri, Vita eli Aposto!o Zeno, pp. 327ff.
382 Cf. LL. Murarori], Antiquitates italicae Medii Aevi sive dissertationes de
moribus, ritibus, re!igione, regimine, rnagistratibus, legibu.1, studiis leterarum,
artibus, lingua, militia, principibus, libertate, servitute, foederibu.r
aliisque faciem et mores italici populi referentibus post declinationem Romani
Imperii ad annum 11sque MD ... , Milan, 17 38-42, 6 vols. Cf. vol. II, essays
XXVII and XXVIII.
383 Joannis Brunatii, De Re Nummaria Patavinomm, Venice, 1744.
384 Ibid., pp. 71, 87, 89, 92, 110, 131.
385 Cf. M. Zorato, 'Brunacci, Giovanni', in Dizionario Biografico deg!i Italiani, vol.
XIV, pp. 518-23.
386 G. B. Rossetti, Descrizione ... di Padova, 176'5 edn, pp. 315-16.
387 Cf. Sigilli, 1\>fonete e Medaglie, MS B.P. 1474, fasc. I which dates from after
1744; w 13, 19, 26.
388 Cf. F. di Maurano, Cenni biografici dei letterati ed artisti friu!ani del .recolo
XIV af XIX, Udine, 1884, pp. 114-15.
389 G. G. Liruti, Della moneta propria, e forastiera ch 'ebbe co no nel ducat a di
Friuli dalla decadenza dell'Imperio Romano sine a! secolo XV dissertazione
... Nella quala .ri da un saggio della Primiti11a Moneta Veneziana, Venice,
1749, p. 62. Liruti's coins are reproduced plates I-X.
390 Cf. E. A. Cicogna, Saggio di bibliografia veneziana, nos 519'5-7.
391 G. Zanetti, Del!'origine e della antichita della moneta veneziana ragio-
namento, Venice, 1750, p. 46.
392 Cf. C. Gallo, Una famig!ia patrizia, pp. I 1 '5-16.
393 Cf. G. Dandolo, l..<t wduta della Repubblica, pp. 98-9.
394 Ibid., pp. 158-9 and V. Lazari, 'Della raccolta numismarica', pp. 309-10.
395 G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratura veueziana, vol. II, pp. 81, 88-90.
396 Cf. ibid., p. 81 and the letter from B. Vaerini to Tomasso degli Obizzi dared II
Dec. 1802 in L Rizzoli, jun., 'Perla storia della numismarica. Alcune lettere
dirette a! marchese Tommaso degli Obizzi (1750-1803 )', Bolletino italiano di
Numisrnatica, 1908, pp. 109-12.
397 J. Morelli, Bibliotheca Maphaei Pinelli, vol. V, pp. 34lff., 348ff., 355, 356ff.
398 Cf. inventory drawn up after the death of Tomasso degli Obizzi, MS B.P. 1386
IV, ffO 58ff., I 04, 11 '5ff.
399 Monetae, Bullae, Sigi!la a Marchione Jacobo Muse!!io co!lectae et ab eadem
breviter descriptae, Veronae anna MDCCLVI, B. C. Ver., MS 983.
400 Cf. G. G. Dionisi, De!l'origi11e e dei progreSJi della zecca in Verona, ave si
spiegano a!cune lettre imp res sc sulfa stta antica moneta non intese da! sig.
Muratori, Verona, 1776. Idem, Della zecca di Verona e det!e sue antiche
monete, Bologna, 1785. Ed. Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, Parma,
332
401
402
403
404
105
406
407
408
409
410
111
412
413
411
415
416
417
418
419
Notes to pp. 252-6
1795, 3 vols. Dionisi also collected fossils; in 1789 his collection was added to
the collection owned by G. B. Gazola; cf. l G. S. Volta], Ittio!itologia veronese,
parr 2, p. LVIII. Dionisi's collection of antiquities was still extant in 1820. Cf.
G. B. da Persico, Desnizione di Verona, vol. I, p. 200.
Cf. G. P. Marchini, /lntiquari e collezioni archeo!ogiche, pp. 17-18, 56-7.
Cf. De moneti.r Ita!iae variorum il!J<Jtrum 11irorum dinertationes quarurn pttrs
nunc primtmt in !ucem prodit Philtppus Arge!atus . .. col!egit, recenmit auxit,
necnon indicibus !owpletissimis exornauit, Milan, 1750-9, 6 vols. G. A.
Zanetti, Nuova racco!ta delle monete e zecche d'Ita!ia, Bologna, 1775-89, 5
vols.
F. G. Bacchi, Dinertazione .ropra 1111 a11tica moneta in argenta di.rotterata in
Ad1iane! !ermine del Jeco!o XVI ... , Adria, 1809, p. 10. It will be noticed that,
since the sixteenth century, this piece must have been in one collection or
another.
G. G. Liruti, Della moneta, p. 137.
G. Zanetti, A S. E. Signor Alarchese Satorgnan ... , s.l., n.d. [Venice, 1767l
G. A. Moschini, Della !etteratura veneziana, vol. II, p. 77.
Cf. Fr. Haskell, Patron.r and Painten, pp. 368ff. (Querini), 381ff. (Correr). B.
Brunelli Bonetti, 'Un riformatore mancato. Angelo Querini', Arc/;ivio Veneto,
XLVIII-XLIX (195 I), pp. 185-200.
[G. Wynne, Countess of Rosenberg l, A!ticchiero, Padua, 1787, p. 5.
Ibid., p. 65.
Ibid., pp. 20-1.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid, p. 20.
Ibid, p. 18.
Cf. M. Ericani, 'La scoria e !'utopia nel giardino del senatore Querini ad
Alricchiero', in collective work, Firemen' e fa cuftura G!i antecedcmti
e if contesto, Rome, 1983, pp. 171-85 + 28 ill.
lG. Wynne], A!ticchie1'0, p. 40.
Ibid., pp. 51-2.
Ibid., p. 52. The presence of all the ingredients of the theme of melancholy
will not have escaped notice. Cf. R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, F. Sax!, Satllm and
i'Yleianchol)'. St11die.r in the Hi.rtory of Nattmd Philosoph)', Religion and Art,
London, 19G4.
[G. Wynne[, A!ticchiero, p 55.
Ibid, p. 56.
120 Testamento di Teodo1'0 CorTer I gennaro 1830, Venice, 1879, p. 6.
421 V. Lazari, Notizia delle opere d'Mte e d'antichita delia Racco!ta Correr di
Venezia, Venice, 1859, p. V.
422 G. A. Moschini, Delta !etterdtura t;eneziana, vol. II, p. 88.
12) Cf. Fr. Haskell, Patrons ,md Painten, p. )83
424 Cf. V. Lazari, Noti:::iu, pp. V-VI and also G. Dandulo, La caduta della
Repubblica, pp. 97-8.
Notes to pp. 258-75 333
CHAPTER 8 PRIVATE COLLECTIONS. PUBLIC i\lUSEUMS
First published in Ateneo veneto, CLXXI (=XXII, new series), vol. 22, nos. 1-
2, 1984, pp 17-36.
In drafting this article, I particularly drew on the following publications:
R. Alai, A'fttsei ArchitettHra Tecnic,t, Milan, 1962. E. Bassi, ed., eta!, Venezia
neli'et,) di Canova, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1978. Le ricche miniere delta
pittma veneziana. Compendiosa infonnazione di JV!ctrco Boschini. Non JO!o
delle Pitture pubbliche di Venezia ma del!'iwle ancora circonvicine, Venice,
1674. A. Conti, Storia del restamo e della conservazione delle opere d'arte, s.l.,
n.d. Testame11to I gennaro 1830 di Teodoro Coner, Venice, 1879. L. Franzoni,
'Origine e storia del Musco Lapidario Maffeiano', in II lv!uwo i\Iaffeiano
riaperto a! pubblico, Verona, 1982. Fr. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the
Antique. The Llt1'e of Classical Sculptttre 1500-1900, New Haven-London,
1982. G. Lorenzetti, Venezia e it suo estuario, Trieste, 1974. S. Marconi
Moschini, Gailerie del!'Accademia di Venezia. Opere d'a1te dei .reco/i XIV e
XV, Rome, 1955 (lntroduzione. Forrnazione e vicende delle Gal/erie
de!!'Accademia). M. Perry, 'The Statuario Publico of the Venetian Republic',
Saggi e AiemOJ'ie di stori,t de!!'arte, vol. VIII, 1972. L. Polacca, 'Il museo di
scienze archeologiche e d'arre dell'universita di Padova', Atti del!'lstituto
Veneto di SS.LL.AA., vol. CXXV, 1966-7. G. Previtali, La fortuna dei
primitivi. Dal VaJ'ari aineoclassici, Turin, 1964. F. Sansovino, Venetia citta
nobi!iJsima e .ringo/are, Venice, 1581 (and the 1601 and 1663 editions). P.
Veyne, Le Pain et fe cirque, Paris, 1976. A.M. Zanetti, Della Pittztra veneziana
e delle Opere Pubb!icbe de'Veneziaui !v1aest1i !ibri V, Venice, 1771.
Index
Aborigines 25
Adria 193, 244
Agincourt, Seroux d' 160
Agosti, Giuseppe 223
Albani, Francesco 108, 116
Albani gallery 97
Albarelli, Giovanni 205
Alembert,]. le Rand d' 173
Alexandria, Museum of 13
Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples 92
Algarorri, Francesco 194, 198-9, 208,
209
allegory and personification 50-3, 72,
73,85
Alvarez, Monsieur 109
amateur defined 53-4, 56
Amsterdam 40, 69, 193, 194
Angelico, Angelo 74
Angiolgabriello di Santa Maria (Paolo
Calvi) 230
Angran de Fonspertuis 160
antiquaries 80-1, 97-8, 131
antiquities 34-6, 131-2
collections in Venetia 78-99, 239-57
inscriptions 81, 85-90, 91-4, 95-6,
97-8
numismatic 81-5, 9!J-5, 97
statues and sculptures 66-7,
79-81, 96
oriental curiosities 242-6
return ro classicism 240-2
.ree also epigraphy; inscriptions
Antwerp 48-9
Aquinas, St Thomas 59-60
Araignon, M. 163-5
archaeology 266
and Venetian collections 242-6
archives 42
Arcy-sur-Cure, Grotre de l'Hyene 28-9
Arduino, Giovanni 218, 228, 229,
237-9, 244
Riposta allegorico-romanzesca di
Vouiangi Rid:t"1W ... 238-9
Arduino, P. 215
Arrigoni, Onorio 82, 240, 249-50
art collections, see paintings, drawings
and engravings
art historians 3, 41, 98
an market
dealers 194
development of 39-40
public auctions 39-40, 160-1, 193-6
sale catalogues 3, 39-40, 139-59,
163-4, 193
artists, role of 36-7
Arundel, Earl of 86, I 09
Ashmole, Elias 42
Attalids of Pergamum 18
attribution of works 145-56
and aesthetic appreciation 158-9,
164-6, 168
auction sales 39-40, 160-1, 193-6
sale catalogues 3, 39-40, 139-59,
163-4, 193
Index 335
attributions 143-56
dealers' obligations 145-7
Aumont, Due d' 128
Aved, M. 155
Averoldi, Giulantonio 86, 90, 94, 106,
193
A vogadris collection 200, 201
Baeilleur, Cornelis de
Rubens' Studio 49
Bagarris, M. de 130
Balbi, Nicolo 246
Balzi Salvioni collection 205, 207
Bambara 25
Barbaroussa, Frederick 17
Barbizuni collection 200
Barcelona 9
Bardi, Henri de Bourbon-Parme, Count
of 266, 273
Barettoni, Girolamo 230
Barthelemy, Abbot J.-J 135
Barroli, F. 193, 203, 214
Bassano, Alessandro Maggi de 88
Bassano 188, 193, 229
Bastie, de La 126
Baudelot de Dairval, Ch.-C
De l'tttilite deJ voyages 121
Bellunese 189
Belluno 88, 223
Belvedere Laocoon 81
Belvedere Tono 81
Bembo, Gian Mateo 96
Bergamo
botanical gardens 223
Carrara Gallery 195
collections in 106, 188, 207, 244
Bergonzi,Giorgio 117,118,119
Bergonzi collection 115, 117, 118, 119
Beringhem 159
Bernasconi, Cesare 206
Bertoli, G. D. 240
Berzi family 201
Bevilacqua, Count Mario 79, 80
Bevilacqua collection 204, 241
Bianchini, Francesco 245, 246
Biblioteca Marciana 246
Bimard de La Bastie 177, 181
Bizor, P. 121
Blegny, N. de 121
Blonde! de Gagny sale 142
Bocchi, Francesco Girolamo 244, 252
Bocchi, Ottavio 244, 246
Bolca fossilized fish 226, 228, 231, 232,
235-8
Bologna
numismatic collections 269
school of 113, 116
Bonafede, Francesco 67
Bonaparre, Joseph 264
Bonhier 180, 181
Bonifacio, Giovanni 89
Bonnet, Charles
ObJervations .ru1 quelques auteurs
d'bistoire uaturelle 123
Bonnier de Ia Mosson collection 123
Bordoni family 231
Bordoni, Caspar 218
Bordoni, Gaspare 231
Borel, Pierre 45-8, 59
Amiquitez, Raretez, Plantes,
Miueraux . .. 45, 61
Borgognone, Ambrogio 118
Borromeo, Bishop Federico 41
Boschini, Marco 65, 66, 70, 79, 81, 82,
106, 107, 109, 111-13, 114, 116, 118,
193, 212, 269
Boston 9
botanical gardens, see gardens
Bottari, Bartolomeo 223
Bouhier,]. 176, 177
Bozza, Vincenzo 231, 231-2,235
Brescia
collections in 86, 96, 106, 107
<lntiquities 78, 244
botanical gardens 223
inscriptions 86
paintings 193, 200-4, 207
scientific instruments 226
histories of 94
1\Jemorie Bre.rciane 95
state protection of works of an 188
Bret, Le 177
Brigo, Giorgio 201
Bril, Paul liS
Brueghel,] an 'Velvet' 115
Fiw Senses 50, 51, 52
The Allegory of Fire (Musee des
Beaux-Arts, Lyons) 51, 53
336 Index
The Allegory of Fire (Pinacoteca
Ambrosiana, Milan) 51
The Four Elernent.r 51
Brun, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre le 150, 156,
158, 160
Catalogue Poullain 161-2
Brunacci, Abbot Giovanni 249-50
Brusasorzi 1 OS
Burchelato, Bartolomeo 88
history of Treviso 94
Burri, Count Alessandro 231
cabinets 59
(adore 189
Cairo, Cavalier 108
Caldagno, Pietro 207
Ca!dana, Francesco 214
Callot 145
Calvi, Paolo 230
Calza 118
Calzolari, Francesco, the Elder 100,
101-2
Calzolari, Francesco, the Younger 75,
102
Campanari collection 203-4
Campo, Benedetto da 225
Campo, Canon Ludovico 202-3
Campo, Nicolo 203
Canossa, Marquis Ottavio di 119, 2.'>1
Canossa collection 108, 115, 16, 119,
204-5, 214
Canova, Antonio 188, 194, 213, 215,
217,243
Capello, Antonio 242-3
Capodi1ista, Count 201-2
Capodilista collection 214
Carboni, G. B. 193, 200, 201
Cardan 46
Carignan, Prince de 141, 149, 156, !60,
161, 163
Carnia 189
Carracci I 16
Carrar, Count Giovanni 207
Carrara, Don Girolamo Biscaccia 203
Casilini al Duomo collection 203
Casilini in Santa Trinitit collection 202
Castelfranco 193, 229
Castellini, Luigi 230
Castellini, Silvestro
Annali di Vicenza 87, 94
Castiglioni, Giovanni Battista 108, 119
<;:atal Hi.iyi.ik 11-12
Catherine II, Tsarina of Russia 153,
155, 161
Caumont 177, 180, 181
Cavazzini, Antonio 218
Caylus, Anne-Claude-Philippe de
Tubieres-Grimoard de Peste! de
Levis, Comte de :io5, 12i-f]jo,
133, 134-5, 136, 154-5, 157, 169-84,
213,242
attacked by (hardin 173
De l'anciemze chevalerie et des
anciens romans 17 6
and Diderot 173-4
Memoire sur le.r /abliattx 176
proposed museum of antiquities in
Paris 182-4
Recueil d'antiqttites 175, 176, 182,
184
religious views 170
visit to Verona 176, 177
Cerchiari, Gian 87, 90, 91
Cerchini, Gio 110-11
Ceruti, Benedetto
JVfusaeurn Calceolaritun 8')
Ceruti, Federico 87
Cerutto, Benedetto 1 02
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Tbe Inqui.ritil!e Alcm 55
Chardin, Jean Baptiste Simeon
Le Singe antiquaire 172-.3
Charles I, King of England 148, 161
Charles V, King of France 18, 19, 23
Charles VI, King of France 18
Charles VII, King of France 19
Chataignera ye, M. de Ia 164
Chechel, Gasparo 115, 117
Chiavenna, Giacomo-Antonio 101
Chiereghin, Abbot Stefano 225
China
funeral objects 12, 20
public museums 264
Chiocco, Andrea 102
i\,lusaeum Cctlceo!arium 89
Chioggia 199, 223, 234
Choiseul sale 161
Christianity
Index 337
Christian thinking on curiosite
59-61
collections in churches 41
relics and sacred objects 16-17, 22,
37
Christina, Queen of Sweden 79
Cicogna, Emmanuele 259
Cicognara 188
Civetra 119
Clairambault 159
classification
attributions 143-56, 159, 164-5, 168
sale catalogues 39-43, 139-43,
158-9, 193
trois ecoles 139-40
typology 92
Clement VI, Pope 18
Cleves, P.-D. de 122
coins, collections of, see under
numismatic collections
Colberr, Jean Baptiste 129
collections
as anthropological event 6
antiquities 34-6
attribution of value 31, 40, 271-2
booty 14-IG
defined 9-10, 259-61
funeral objects ll-13, 20, 21, 23,
27-8, 32-3
gifts and bequests 14-16, 66-7
historical dimension 5-G, 84-5, 94-9
inventories and written descriptions
2-3
and patriotism 94-9
primitive societies 25
private
and cultural innovation 273-5
and public collections 267-73
semi-public 68
public 2, 267-73
.ree alro public museums
purpose of objects in 7-8, 30-3
relics and sacred objects JG-17, 37
religious offerings 13-14, 20-2, 23
royal treasures 18-20
as semiophores 4-5, 30-40
and sociableness 159-62
and social hierarchy 32-3, 38-9
symbolic nature of objects in 20-14
and taste 4, 33
usefulness and meaning in objects
30-3
visible and invisible linked by 5,
20-33, 34, 43
collectors
cultural role 2
and dealers 156-9
Collins 158
Colombo, Elisabem. Milesi 223
Concbyliologie nottvel!e et portative
123
Conegliano 188
connoisseurs
attributions by 15 3-6
dealers
as connoisseurs 156, 159
relationship with 15 5
defined 132-3, 154
of painting 167-8
'vrais connaisseurs' 167
Contarini family 265
Contarini, Procurator Alessandro 68
Contarini, Domenico 96
Contarini, Federigo 66, 70, 79, 80, 271
Contarini, Giacomo 66, 70, 267
Contarini, Giorgio 88, 90
Contarini, Girolamo 263
Contarini, Nicolo 100
copies 146
Cornaro, Marco Giuseppe 218, 222-3
Corradini, Luigi 90
Correggio family I 04
Correggio, Antonio Allegri 110, 115
Corrcr family 240
Currer, Teodoro 215, 216, 254, 256-7,
267
Correr Museum 258, 265, 273
Correspolld,mce literaire 123
Coulanges, Marquis de 161
Coypel, M. 148, 151
Crema 188
Cremonese 118
Crespani family 244
Crozat, Pierre 160, 162, 177, 198
Croz<lt collection 109, 147
defined 54-7, 132
simples curieux' 166, 167-8
338 Index
wriosite, 45-64
attacks upon 59-62
Christian thinking on 59-61
defined 57-9
Kumt- und Wt.mderkarnmer 48-9,
64
and modern science 60-4
Curne de Sainte Palaye, La 177
Curtoni collection 107, 109, 115,
116-17
Cuvier, G. 236
Dal Corno, Antonio 88
Dal Pozzo, B. 66, 106, 109, 110, 113,
114, 116-17, 193,204,206
Dandolo, Lauro de Giovanni 250
Daubenton
Liste des !ivres d'histoire natitre!le
123
De Thou 41
dealers 3, 144-59, 194
attributions by 144-56
and collectors 156-9
connoisseurs' relationship with
155-6
and sale catalogues 115-7
Dempster, T.
De Etruria rega!is 246
Descartes, Rene 47, 62
Discottrs de Ia lvfethode 62
Recherche de Ia verite par la !ttmiere
n a t ~ ~ r e ! ! e 62-3
Dezallier d'Argenville, A.-J. 121, 123,
159-60, 1 66-7
Diderot, Denis 132-8, 135, 136, 153-4,
155, 173
and Caylus 173-4
Correspondance litteraire 173
Diedo, Marcantonio 82
dilettantes 131-8, 166
defined 155
Dionisi, Gian Giacomo 231, 252
Dionisii, Jacopo 232
Dolfin, Daniele 108, 117-18, 119
Donati, Antonio 101
Donati, Vitaliano 225
Dondi Orologio, Antonio Carlo
219-21, 221, 225, 229
Saggio de !itto!ogia eugenea 220
Dorigny, Abbor 225
Dossi, Dosso Giovanni Luteri 108
Dresden Gallery 194, 199
Dubos, J.-B. 127, 147, 149, 161, 165-7
Durazzo, Count 214
Durazzo collection 202
Diirer, Albrecht 108, 115
Dyck, Sir Anthony Van 115
Edwards, Pierro 190-1, 196
Emilei family 207
Emilei, Count Giovanni 204
Encyclopedie 132-8, 157
engravings, .ree paintings, drawings
and engravings
Ennery, Michelet de 122
epigraphy
and history 239
and patriotism 94-9
Este, d', court 35
Estrees, M. le Marechal d' 164
Evelyn,John 71, 74, 79, 261
Fabris, Giuseppe 223, 225
Facciolati, Abbot Jacopo 210-1 1, 250,
272
Faccioli, J. T. 240
Fappani, Francesco
Elenco dei j'vfuJei delle Pinacotecbe
... 259
Farsetti, Anton Francesco 2 1 3
Farsetti, Daniele 213
Farsetti, Abbot Filippo 212-13, 222,
263
Farsetti, Tomasso Giuseppe 246
Farsetti collection 271, 274
Faucher, Claude 35
Feltre 78, 88, 96
Tomitano's annals of 94
Ferrara, Duke of 96
Ferrecio, Giovanni Battista 91
Festari, Girolamo 229, 254
Feti. Domenico 141
Ficherri, Giovanni Battista 89
Florence 269
Uffizi Gallery 191, 263
Fontana, Giovanni 245
Forabosco I 08
forgeries
Index 339
dealers and sale catalogues 145-6
natural curiosities 104-5
paintings 110-11
state protection of works of art 186
Furtis, Alberto 215,218,220,225,228,
229, 2)0, 2.12, 235, 236, 237, 239
Foscarini, Marco 250, 259
France 1-2, 36, 47-8
Archives Nationales 42
see also Paris
Franchetti Gallery 265
Francken, Frans, II
An Art Lover'.r Gallery 49
UlJ'He.r recognizing Acbil!es 53
Franzoni, L. 79, 87
Friuli 189
funeral objects 11-13, 20, 21, 23, 27-8,
32-3
Furetiere, Antoine
Dictionnaire Uni1'er.rel 53-5, 57-8,
59, 61
Gaidon, Antonio 229
Gaifani collection 200
Gaignat 156-7
Galileo 73
gardens
botanical67, 99-100, 101, 222, 255
Padua 67, 191, 192, 262
Venice 191
farsetti garden 222
Giusti gardens 86
grottoes 1 00
Querini garden 254-6
Venetian 99-101, 191
Gault de Saint-Germain, P.-M. 161
Gazola family 205
Gazola, Andrea 227
Gazola, Count Giovanni Battista 218,
226, 231' 232
Gazola Museum 232-1, 235, 236
gemstones 22-3, 85
Geneva 9
Genoa 269
Geoffrin, Mme 160
Germain, M. 87
Gersaint, E.-F. 139, 111, 142, 144,
145-7, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156,
157, 158, 160, 165
Catalogite raisonne des coqttil!es
122-3
Giglio, Carlo Vicentini dal 214
Giovanelli family 197
Giusti, Count Agostino 86
Giusti, Count Gio. Giacomo 87
Giusti gardens 86, 100
Glomy, J.-B. 152, 156, 165
Glucq de Saint-Port 160
Godefroy 156
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 212,
222-3
Goldini, C. 218
Goltzius, Hubert 35, 269
Gradenigo family 250
Graevius,]. G. 246
Greeks
relics and sacred objects 16
religious offerings 13-14
Grimani, Cardinal Domenico 66, 265
Grimani, Patriarch Giovanni 66, 70,
96, 265
Grimani Calergi, Giovanni 117
Grimani Calergi, Vincenzo 117, 119
Grim ani Calergi collection 117, 118
Grimm, M. 122, 123, 135, 137, 161,
173
Griselini
Giomale d'ltalia spettante aile
J cienz e naturali . . . 218
Gronovius, J. 246
Grosley, P. J. 210-11
Grotto, Luigi Andrea 244
Grotto collection 202
Gualdo 89
Gualdo, Emilio 72
Gualdo, Girolamo, the Elder 72
Gualdo, Girolamo, the Younger 72, 74,
78, 87, 103
Gualdo, Giuseppe 72
Gualdo collection 72, 73-4, 78
Gudius, Marquardus 93
Guercino 108, 113, ll6
Haecht, Willem van
Apel!es' Atelier 52-3
The Galler)' of Carne/is van der
GeeJt 49
Hainz, Johannes Georg
340
Index
Museum of Curiositie.r 51
Haller, Albert 254
Hamilron, Gavin 216-17
Haskell, Francis 196, 197, 207, 208
Helle, P. CA. 151, 152, 156
Henschenius 87
herbaria 100-1, 223-4
Herculaneum, discovery of 246
Hercules Famese 81
Herodotus 21, 22
Hohenstaufen family 19
Holbein, Hans 115
Holland 39-40
India, Francesco 87
inscriptions
anthologies of 95
collections in Venetia 81, 85-90,
91-4, 95-6, 97-8
Santa Giustina Cloister (Padua) 92-4
universal and local history 252
Verona's lapidary museum 240-1
Isidore of Seville 59
Italy 2, 40, 97-9
Janssens, Hieronymus
Picture Galler)' viJited bJ Dilettanti
49
Joubert, Pere
Science des medail!eJ 126
Joullain !56
Joullain, F.-C., fils 158, 162
Julienne, M. I 50, I 52
J ullienne 160
Kessel, Jan van, the Elder
America 50
Kessel, Jan van
The Four Elements 51
The Toilet of Venus 53
Kircher, Father Athanasius 91
Kunst- und \f/zmderkammer 48-9 64
80 . ,
Gualdo collection 72, 73-4, 78
Moscardo collection 75-8
natural curiosities 45-7, 99-5
Ruzzini collection 70-2, 79
Venetia 69-78, 99
Kwakiurl people I6
La Bruyere, J de 54
Caracteres 61-2
La Faye, Leriget de 156, 160
La Giudecca botanical gardens 100
lambioi, J 225
Lamy, Bernard 63-4
Lanceni, G. V. 66
language as source of the invisible
26-7
Lanzi, l. 187, 215
Lascaux wall-paintings 29
Lassay, Marquis de 160
Lauthier 160
Lavater, Johann Kaspar 254
Lazara, Giovanni de, the Elder 88-9,
90, 248-9
Lazara, Giovanni de, the Younger
187-8, 214, 250
lebeuf 177
Leibnirz, G. W. von I 70
Lena, Abbot della 214, 215
leningrad, Hermitage 9, 263
Leonardo da Vinci 116
Leonessa, Francesco 229, 245
Leroi-Gourhan, Andre 28-9
libraries 9-10, I 3, 11
liruti, Giangiuseppe 250, 252-3
Live de Jully, Ia 160
Livy, monument attributed to 92-4
Lodoli, Fra Carlo 209, 250, 272
loge 160
Lollino, Bishop Luigi 88, 89
London 40, 193, 194
British Museum 42, 266
see also United Kingdom
Lorangere catalogue I 56
Lorgna, Anton Maria 204
Louis XIV, King of France
medals struck by 129-30
Lucas van Leyden 108
Lunel- Vie!, Mas des Caves 28
Mabillon, J. 75, 87
Madrid 9, 264
Maffei, Francesco Scipione, Marchese
65, 68, 69, 90, 98-9, 104, 169-84,
188, 204, 208, 2IO, 2.13, 23 I, 242
Accademia Filarmonica 87, 90
art collecrion 200
Index 341
Arte magica annicbilata 170
botanical garden 222
Degli anfiteatri 177, 246
Delf'impiego del danaro 170
Istoria teologica 170, 177
La religion de 'gent iii nel morire 175,
177-8
Lapidary Museum 244, 265
letter to Countess Adela'ide de
Seefeld 97-8
medievalism 240, 272
i\'luseo zmit,ersale e publico 240- I
1'1-fuseum veroneme 175, 241
museums of antiquities in Verona
and Turin 179,183
natural history collection 226, 227,
228
Notizia di 111101!0 mmeo d'iscrizioni
a Verona 240
OJJervcr:::ioni letterarie 175
proposed museum of antiquities in
Paris I 78-84
religious views I 70
Scienza cbiamata cavalleresca 170
universalist ambitions 241
Verona 74, 94-5, 175, 176,
I83, 204, 206, 240-I
visit to Paris I 76, 177-8
Malebranche, Nicolas 63
M;!linmvski, B. 25
Manfredinis a porta San Giovanni 202
Manfredinis presso San Rocco 202
Manfrin, Girolamo 214
Manrova Benavides, Andrea 80, 90,
103
Mantova Benavides, Gasparo 104
1fantova Benavides, Irene 90
Mantova Benavides, Marco SO
Mantova Benavides collection 107
Mantua, Duke of 70, 79
manuscripts 38
Marais, Mathieu I 76-7
Marangoni collection 202
Maraschini 230
Mariette, Pierre-Jean 133, 134, I 39,
141, 147-8, ISO, IS!, 152, 154, 156,
160, IG6, 173, 177, 198
Marmontel, J. F. I 73
Marrin, Dom Jacques 180-1, 182
Martinelli 89
Ilritratto ovz;ero Ie cOJ"e piit notabili
di Venezia ... 261
Martinengo de Barco family 226
Martinoni,G. 70-1,106,107,113,269
Mastini, Antonio 230
Matilda, Queen of England 17
Matthias I Corvinus, King of Hungary
35
Mazarin, Cardinal 4I
Mazaugues, Thomassin de 1 77
Mazzuchelli, Count Gian Maria 247-8
medals
collections of, Jee numismatic
collections
used for political ends 129-30
Medici court 35
Medici, Anne-Marie-Louise de' 42
Medici, Leopolda de' l 09
Medici Venus 81
medieval objects
collections in Paris 126
collections in Venetia 78
numismatic collections 246-53
rediscovery of interest in 3 7-8, 40,
272
Melka Kontoure habitations 27
Memmo, Andrea 209-10
Micheli, Pier Antonio 222
Michie!, Marcantonio 70, 78
Milan 41, 263, 264, 269
Milanovitch, Lieutenant-Colonel 229
Milesi 202
Milizia 272
Mirandola, Prince della 109
Mocenigo, Zuanne 66
Mocenigo brothers 250-1
Molin, Girolamo Ascanio 89, 228, 250,
26.), 265
Molino, Bishop 200
Mommsen, T.
Corpus Inscriptiommt Lath;amm 86
Monconys 109
Monga, Andrea 206
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de 61
Montarsis, de 160
Montfaucon, B. De 71, 75, 79, 261
Montulle,J-B. de !GO
Morelli,J.188,215
342 Index
Moreni family 231
Moreni, Giulio Cesare 218, 227, 231
Mora, Abbot Anton-Lazar 227-8
Moro, Gasparo 250
Morosini, Giacomo 222, 228
Morosini, Giovanni Francesco 100, 222
Morosini, Senator Pietro 67, 83, 262,
265, 271
Moscardo, Lodovico 74-5, 84, 87, 90-1,
99, 107, 193, 234
Historia di Verona 87, 94, 96
Moscardo collection 68, 74-8
Moschini, Giannantonio 193, 194, 229,
253,259
Mosconi, Rafaelle 205
Munich 263
Muselli, Gian Francesco 245
Muse IIi, Jacopo 245, 246-7, 251-2
Muselli collection 107, 109, 115,
116-17
Muttoni collection 203-4
Nani, Senator Bernardo 243, 244
Nani, Giovanni Battista 100
Nani, Jacopo 243, 244
Naples 269
Napoleon I, Emperor 264
natural history collections 36, 271
Bolca fossilized fish 226, 228, 231,
232, 235-8
commonplace and native objects 234,
271-2
fossils 226-9, 234-8
gardens, see gardens
herbaria 100-1, 223-4
Kunst- tmd Wunderkammer 45-7,
99-5
Linnean classification system 222,
224, 225
minerals 226-9, 239
Paris 121-5, 131, 138
plants 217-18, 222-6
Tournefort's classification system
222, 224
Venetia 99-105, 191, 192, 217-39
zoological 225
naturalists, profession of 221
New York 9, 42, 266
Nichesola, Cesare 86-7, 89, 96, 99-100
Nis, Daniel 109
Nogent, Guiberr de
De pignoribttS sanctomm 22
North American Indians 16, 25
numismatic collections 36, 269
history and numismatics 125-8, 239,
246-9, 252
medieval coins and medals 246-53
Paris 121-31
Racco!ta delle monete e zeccbe
d'Italia 252
Venetia 81-5, 94-5, 97
Obizzi, Tomasso degli 194, 215-17,
227,229,245,246,251,256
objets curieux 57
Odoardi, Jacopo 229
Oldavai habitations 27
Olivi, Abbot Giuseppe
Zoologia Adriatica 225, 235
Olivi, Giovanni Battista 102
oriental curiosities 242-6
Orleans, Duke of 109
Orsato, Sertorio 87, 89, 90, 91, 91, 98,
249
i\Jonumenta Patavina 93-4, 95, 96
Orti family 207
Orti Manara, Count Giovanni
Girolamo 205, 231
Oxford 11, 42,265
Paciaudi, Father 121-2, 182
Padua I 06, 107
bones of Livy 92
collections in
antiquities 78, 245
Benavides collection 80, 103
botanical gardens 67, 100, 191,
192, 223, 262
inscriptions 88-9
natural history 229, 234
numismatic 269
ornithological 191
paintings 19), 200-4,207,214
Pignoria collection 80-1
public collections 194
scientific instruments 226
Lateran canons 244, 245
Mon11menta Patuvma 93-4, 95, 96
Natural History Museum 191,265
Santa Giustina Cloister, inscription
92-4
state protection of works of art
187-8
tomb of Antenor 95
University of 262, 272
Vallisnieri Museum 103-5
Paglia, F. 106
paintings, drawings and engravings
131, 132, 133
allegory and personification 50-3,
72, 73, 85
artists' role 36-7
attribution of works 145-56
and aesthetic appreciation 158-9,
164-6, 168
auetion room sales 39-40, 160-1,
193-6
sale catalogues 3, 39-40, 139-59,
163-4, 193
collections depicted in 48, 49-5 3
connoisseurs 167-8
contemporary works 197, 203
dealers 143-50
relationship with collectors 158
decorative and representative roles
lOG
Dutch and Flemish works !62-3
market in, see art market
'minor genres' 199, 201, 202
old masters 197, 203
owners and collectors 106, 118
Paris, collections in 123
'primitives' 209,211, 212-17,250,
272
status of 36-7
Venetia, collections in, see Venetia
Palermo, Policarpo 87
Palfer, Giovanni Giorgio 89
Palma the Elder 108
Papafava collection 249
Papebroch 87
Paris 7, 40
art market 193, 194
Cognacg-Jay Museum 9
collecting population 124-5
Grand Palais 8
Jacquemart-Andre Museum 9
Index
Louvre 264
natural history collections 121-5,
131, 138
Nissim de Camondo Museum 9
numismatic collections 121-31
proposed museum of antiquities
178-84
343
Parmigiano, Francesco Mazzola 115
Pascal, Blaise 61
Pasguali, G. B. 208
Pasqualigo, Domenico di Vincenzo 67,
78, 249, 253
Patarol, Lorenzo 101, 105, 222, 226-7,
271
Imtitutiones rei herbariae ... 101
Series Augttstorum, Augmtarum,
Caesarum et Tyrannor11m ... 84
Patin, Charles 67, 81, 83, 87, 90, 91
patriotism 94-9
Pausanias 13, 22
Pedoni, Gaetano 230
Peiresc, N. C. F. de 90
Pellerin, J. 122
Perande, Sante 108
Persico, Pietro 251
Peverelli, Count Girolamo 231
Philip IV, King of Spain 161
Pietra, Michele 117, 119
Pigalle 137
Pignoria, Lorenzo 74, 80-1, 85, 87,
89-90, 91, 94
Piles, R. de 145-6, 147, 154, 155, 160
Pinelli, Matteo 74, 199, 246, 251
Pinelli library 244
Pisani family 196
medal collection 240, 246, 250
Pliny the Elder 15-16,22,46-7
Pocco, Bishop Angelo 41
Poleni, Abbot 201
Poleni, Giovanni 201, 208, 226, 246
Polignac, Cardinal de 177, 178, 179-81
Pompei, Alessandro 205, 241
Pompei, Giulio 205, 206
Pompei collection 205, 206
Pompeii, discovery of 246
Porto Godi, Paolina de 207, 214
Potier 159
primitive societies, collections in 25
Priuli, Abbot Matteo 103
344
Index
public museums 41
churches as 261
formation of 261-7
politics and
benefaction as political
phenomenon 267
distribution of works 264
private collections left as 264-6
public and private collections 267-73
in teaching establishments 262
Pyrrhonists 91
Querini, Angelo 244, 254-6
Querini-Stampalia Art Gallery 265
Randon de Boisset sale 142, 157
Raphael I07, 108, 110, I I6
relics and sacred objects I 6- I 7, 3 7
bones of Livy 92
Gualdo collection 74
religious offerings I 3-14, 20-2, 23
Remy,P. 144,148-9,150,152,155,
156-7, 162-3, 165, I67
Reni, Guido I08, 110, 113, 116, ISO
Renieri, Nicolo I 10
Reynst brothers 69. I 09
Ribeira, Jose 108
Ricati family 229
Riche, le 160
Ridolfi, C. 106, 113
Life of Veronese 148
lvfaraviglie de!f'arte I09
Rigamonti, Don Ambrogio 188
Descrizione delle pitt ure ... di
Treviso 188
Rio, Nicolo de 225, 229
Rizzo, Count Sebastiano 222
Rizzo, Francesco 222
Rollin 171
Romano, Don Girolamo 22), 224
Romans
as collectors 15-16, 22
relics and sacred objects 16
Rome
Angelica Library 41
Museo Capirolino 12
numismatic collections 269
Pio Clememino Museum 183
Vatican Museums 263
Roncalli, Francesco 223
Ronconi, Count Ignazio 231
Ronconi collection 232
Rondelet, Guillaume 46-7
Rosa, Salvator I 18
Rosa, Saverio dalla 188, 193, 194, 201,
206
Rosenberg, Giustiniana \XIynne,
Countess of 254
Rossetti, G. B. 193, 195, 20I, 229, 250
Rossi, Ottavio 86, 91, 94
Rotari, Sebastiana 223, 226, 227, 231
Rotari family 231
Rovigo 107
Accademia dei Concordi 194, 202
collections in
antiquities 78, 241i-5
inscriptions 88
natural history collections 229
paintings 193, 200-4, 207, 208, 214
state protection of works of art 188
Rovigo, Fra Fortunato da 101
Rubens, Sir Peter Paull08, 115, 141-2
Pit;e Sen.res 50
Orpheus in the Underworld 149
The AllegorJ' of Hearing 52
Venus and Adoni.r 149
Ruskin, John
The Stones of Venice 272
Ruzzini, Carlo 70-2
Ruzzini collection 70-2, 79, 81, 82
Sabanti museum 97
sacred objects, .ree relics and sacred
objects
Sagredo, Zaccaria 197
Sansovino, F. 66, 89, l 06, 269
Santo family 207
Sasso, Giovan Maria 194, 214, 2 I 5, 2 I 6
Saussure, Horace de 254
Savorgnan, Alessandro 106-7
Savorgnan, Giovanni de 250
Scamozzi, Ottavio Berrorti 245 27'\
Schlosser, J. Von 69 ' .
Schulenberg, Marshal 197-8
sciences cttrieJtses 57, 59, 6!
scientific instruments collections of ) 7
225-6 ' . '
Scortegagna, Francesco Orazio 230
Index 345
Scotti family 229, 244
Scythians 12
Seefeld, Countess Adela'ide de 97-8
217-18,222,
223, 224, 227, 231
Selva, Gianantonio 243, 263
Sera, Paolo de Ia 109, 115
Serpe, Giuliano 230-1, 235
Serpini collection 205, 207
Silvestri, Count Camillo 88, 90, 91, 96,
99, 244
Histotia agraria de Pole.rine 94
Silvestri, Carlo 90, 244
Silvestri, Canon Girolamo 229, 244
Silvestri, Rinaldo 203, 244
Silvestri collection 107, 203-4, 205
Sloane, Sir Hans 42, 266
Smith, Joseph 197, 198, 201, 208, 210,
214, 242
social hierarchy 32-3, 38-9
Soderini, Giannantonio 82
Spada, Giacomo 218, 227, 228, 231
specialization 90-4
typology 92
Spolverini family 207
Span,]. 68, 7I, 75, 79, 82, 87, 121
Steiner, Franz 31
Sroskopf, Sebastian
The Great Vanit)' 51
Strange, John 213-I4, 219, 228, 229
Streit, Sigismond 198, 208
Surugue fils 172
symbolic interpretation 90-2
Tallard, Due de I63
Tallard sale catalogues I40, 143, 149
Tanara, Antonio 205
Tempesta, Antonio 118
Terzi, Abbot Basile 220, 229
Testa, Abbot Domenico 236-7, 239
Thiene, Count Antonio Maria 223
Thiers, Baron Crozat de, collection
catalogue 15 3-4
Thiery, L.-V. 122, 123
Tiepolo, G. B. 194
illustrations to Vemna illust1'ata 204,
241
lvfuseo Tiepolo 83
numismatic collection 240, 250
Tiepolo, Giandomenico 82
Villa Valmarana frescoes 243-4
Timoretto, Jacopo Robusti 108, 109, 113
Tirabosco, Giovanni Pietro 110, 117
Titian 113
Assunta 65
Tomasini, Giovanni Filippo 90
Tomitano, Daniele 88
annals of Feltre 94
Tommaselli, Abbot Giuseppe 231
Tong-T'Ai, Princess, tomb of 12
Torey 159
Tornieri, Count Arnaldi Arnaldo I 230,
245, 246
Torra, Carlo 82, 90
travel, influence of 36
Traversi, Abbot Antonio 226, 228
Trevisani, Bernardo 79, 80, 89
Trevisani, Francesco 79, 80
Treviso 107, 187
Burchelato's history of 94
collections in 193
antiquities 78, 244
botanical gardens 223
herbaria 101
inscriptions 88
natural history 229
public 194
Descrizione delle pitture piu celebri
... di Treviso 188
state protection of works of an 188
Trobriand Islanders 25
Tronchin, 153-4, 155
Tugny sale catalogue 147
Tupi Indians 32
Turchi, Alessandro (l'Orbetto) 108,
110-11, 113
Turin 179, 183
Turra, Antonio 218, 222, 223, 225, 230
Florae italicae prodromus 224
Vegetabilia Italiae indigena metbodo
Linnaeano disposta ... 224
typology 92
Udine 188
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 264
United Kingdom
Crown collections 263
Society of Antiquaries 35
346 Index
see a!Jo London
United States of America 2, 265-6
usefulness and meaning in objects 30-3
Vaillant,]. 121
vain sciences 57
Valeriano, Pierio 88
Hieroglyphica 69
Vallarsi, Domenico 244
Valle, Giambanista della 226, 227
Vallisnieri, Anronio 103-5, 226-7, 244,
262, 271
Vallisnieri, Antonio, the Younger 191,
208, 237
Vallisnieri collection 219
Valmarana, Benedetto 246
Valmarana family 100
Valois, Philippe de 18
value, attribution of 31, 40, 271-2
Vasari, Giorgio 83, Ill
Vecchia, Angelo 207
Vecchia, Pietro 110
Vedova, Francesco 90
Vegliano 223
Vendramin, Andrea 69-70, 84, 109
Vendramin, Gabrielle 70
Venetia 65-120
art market 193-6, 194
Benavides collection 80, I 03
Biblioteca Marciana 186
collections in
antiquities 78-99
Belluno 88
Brescia 78, 86
changing attitude towards 97-8
epigraphy and patriotism 94-9
Feltre 78, 88
historical monuments 239-5 7
inscriptions 81, 85-90, 91, 92-4,
95-6, 97-8
numismatic collections 81-5
oriental curiosities 242-6
Padua 78, 88-9
return to classicism 240-2
Rovigo 78, 88
specialization 90-4
statues and sculptures 66-7,
79-81, 96
Treviso 78, 88
Venice 78, 89-90
Verona 78, 86-7
V icenza 78, 87
archaeological 242-6
botanical gardens 67, 99-100, I 01,
255
dispersal of 194-5
foreign collectors 197-8, 208,
213-14
natural history 67, 99-105, 192,
217-39
natural history, gardens 99-101
minerals and fossils 226-9, 239
Padua 229
plants 222-6
Verona 221, 229-33, 236-9
Vicenza 229-33
zoological collections 22 5
numismatic 67, 94-5, 97, 246-53
paintings 106-20, 192-217
Bergamo 207
Brescia 200-4, 207
contemporary works 203
foreign painters 111-16
forgeries 110-11
hierarchy of genres 116-20
historical collections 208-12
inherited collections 196
market in pictures 107-11
'minor genres' 199, 20 I, 202
old masters Ill, 203
Padua 200-4, 207, 214
patriotism 96, 114
'primitives' 209, 2ll, 212-17,
250, 272
Rovigo 200-4, 207, 208, 214
state protection of works of art
186-92
subject matter 112-14, 116-20
Venice 196-200
Verona 107-20, 204-8, 214
Vicenza 207, 214
private 65-6. 68, 192-217
public 66-9, 191-2, 194
scientific instruments 225-6, 226
eighteenth-century collectors
185-257
epigraphy and patriotism 94-9
foreign collectors 197-8
Index 347
Gualdo collection 72, 73-4, 78
herbaria I 00-1
Kmz.rt- zmd Wttnderkammer 69-78,
99
Moscardo collection 68, 78, 84, 87
MttSeo Tiepolo 83
natural history museum 191
Pignoria collection 80-1, 85
private gifts and bequests 66-7
Ruzzini collection 70-2, 79, 81, 82
St Mark, cult of 66
St Mark's 67-8
specialization 90-4
state protection of works of art 185,
186-92
picture restoration 190, I 92
symbolic interpretation 90-2
Vallisnieri Museum 103-5
Vendramin collection 69-70, 84
Zeno collection 82
Venezze collection 202
Venice 106, 258-61
Academy (of Fine Arts) 258, 262,
263-4, 265, 268-9, 271
Archaeological Museum 258, 264-5,
273
benefaction as political phenomenon
267
Capello Museum 85
collections in
botanical gardens 100, 191, 223
dispersal of 194-5
inscriptions 89-90
numismatic 94, 269
paintings I 07-20, 196-200
private 192, 193, 269
Collegio dei Pittori 190
Correr Museum 258, 265, 267, 273
Francherri Gallery 258, 265
Gallery of Modern Art 258, 266
Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali 272
Museum of Eighteenth-century
Venice 258
Museum of Glass and Glass-making
258
Natural Science Museum 258
Oriental Museum 258, 266
Peggy Guggenheim Collection 9,
258, 265, 273
Pinacoteca Manfrediniana 258
Pinacoteca Querini-Stampalia 258,
265
proposed public collection of
paintings 190-1
Risorgimento Museum 258
St Mark's 258, 261, 262-3, 265, 270
antiqttario publico 66
Sale d'Armi dei Consiglio di Dieci
258, 262, 265
Santo Cataneo gardens 100
Venturi, Abbot Giuseppe 231, 245
Venturi, F. 170
Verci 193
Verita, Counr Jacopo 245
Verona 98-9, 106
Accademia Filarmonica 67, 86-7, 90,
96, 222, 240-1, 265
arenas 65
Canossa Palace 204
collections in
antiquities 78, 79, 245
botanical gardens 222-3
inscriptions 86-7
natural history 221, 227, 229-33,
234, 236-9
paintings 107-20, 204-8, 214
private 192, 193
public 194
scientific instruments 226
Giusti gardens 86, 100
medievalism 251-2
Moscardo collection 68, 74-8
Moscardo's history of 94, 96
Museo Archeologico di Teatro
Romano 245
Museo Lapidario 222, 240-1, 244,
265
museum of antiquities 179, 183
Scaligers' romb 95
srate protection of works of art J 88
Verona il!ttstrata 71, 94-5, 175, 176,
183, 204, 206, 240-1
Verona, Fra Petronio da 103
Veronese (Paolo Caliari) 65, 1 08,
113, 194
Last Supper 96, I 07
iHarriage of St Catherine 149
Venus I 09
348 Index
Wedding at Cana 109
Verue, Comtesse de 140-1, 156, 160,
162-3
Vianelli collection 205
Vianelli, Giovanni 204
Vianelli, Giuseppe 223
Vicenza 100, 106, 107
Castellani's annals of 94
collections in
antiquities 78
botanical gardens 223
inscriptions 87
natural history 229-33, 234
paintings 207, 214
private 193
inscriptions listed 240
state protection of works of art 188
Vio, Father Guido 228
Visconti, Filippo Aurelio 216
Vitruvius 15, 246
Volpato, Gian Battista 110
Volta, Giovanni Serafino 221, 225, 231,
235-6
lttiolitologia veronese 232-3
Volraire, F. M.A. de 173
La Merope fram;aise 170-2
Washington D.C. 265-6
Wheler, G. 82
:JC
' _.
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim/242
Witte!, Gaspard van 118
Wortley Montagu, Edward 215
Zago, Count Octavia 245
Zanetti, Anton Maria 194-5, 253, 272
Zanetti, Amon Maria, the Elder 198,
208, 211, 214, 215, 269
Delle antiche Jfattte greche et
romane ... 211-12, 241
Zanetti, Amon Maria, the Younger
186, 189, 208, 211, 213, 261, 269
Della pittura veneziana ... 186-7
Delle antiche statue greche et
romane . .. 211-12, 241
Zanetti, Girolamo 250
Zanetti collection 242
Zannichelli 271
Zannichelli, Gian-Giacomo 223-4
Zannichelli, Gian-Girolamo 223
Zannichelli, Giovanni Girolamo 101
Zeno, Apostolo 82, 90, 97, 99, 104,
247, 249, 250
Zettelle, Melchior 101
Ziliani, Fra Angelo 191, 225
zoological collections 225
Zoppi, Luigi 224
Zulian, Girolamo 214-15
Zurla, Father Placido 228
Index by Ann Barrett