Article ID: CBB561990879

Marble Busts and Fish Fossils: The Catalog of the Museum of naturalia and artificialia at the University of Padua (1797) (2016)

unapi

The historical catalogs of the museum collections contain a wealth of information for historians seeking to reconstruct their contents, how they were displayed and the ways in which they were used. This paper will present the complete transcription of a draft catalog that was prepared in 1797 for the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities of the University of Padua. Conserved in the university’s Museum of Geology and Paleontology, the catalog was the first to be compiled of the museum, which was established in 1733 thanks to the donation by Antonio Vallisneri Jr. of his father Antonio Vallisneri Sr.’s collection of antiquities and natural history. The catalog was compiled by the custodian of the museum, the herbalist and amateur naturalist Bartolomeo Fabris. It is of great interest because it provides a record of the number and nature of the pieces conserved in the museum at a time when natural history and archeology collections were still undivided. It also provides indications as to how such collections were arranged for display in the public halls of a university at the end of the eighteenth century. Based on this catalog, with additional information drawn from other manuscript and published sources and museum catalogs from the 1830s conserved in various institutes at the University of Padua, it is possible to reconstruct the contents and layout of a significant late 18th-century natural history collection.

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Authors & Contributors
Varotto, Mauro
Gregory P. Dietl
Ballarin, Loriano
Mark D. Tomasko
Bruce S. Lieberman
Florence Fearrington
Concepts
Museums
Collections
Natural history
Paleontology
Fossils
Science and culture
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
21st century
17th century
20th century
Places
Italy
Europe
Padua (Italy)
Great Britain
Hamburg (Germany)
Lisbon (Portugal)
Institutions
University of Padua
Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
British Museum. Natural History
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