OPTIMA Newsletter 38

Publications
Among the treasures of the library of
the Botanic Garden in Padua is a book in
large folio size with 345 plates of original
paintings, all but 4 anonymous. They were
commissioned by Antonio Giuseppe Bonato,
professor of botany and prefect of the Padua
Garden (1794-1836), and were bound together
under the title “Piante del R. Orto di
Padova” by Visiani his successor. The first
set of 117 plates were made for teaching
purposes and served Bonato to illustrate his
lectures. The fortunate fact that they were
durable and durably preserved (as is certainly
less likely to happen with modern
power-point presentations) provides us with
historically valuable insights into the methods
and contents of university teaching in
the early 19 th century. Interestingly, no less
that 24 of the tables served to demonstrate
and compare the systems of classification of
Tournefort, Linnaeus, and the then brandnew
natural one of Jussieu.
The remaining 228 paintings feature
plants then growing in the Padua garden.
They are of high artistic quality, botanically
faithful, obviously the work of a skilled and
talented artist. Thanks to the experience of
Lucia Tongiorgi Tommasi, who wrote the
central chapter of this book, he could now be
reliably identified. His name was Balthasar
Cattrani (or Baldassarre Catrani), and although
little of him is known he was a very
productive and highly valued painter in his
time. The existence of well over 2000 sheets
of his is documented, most of which have
now been dispersed through the antiquarian
trade. He must have worked regularly at the
Padua Garden, but also for a time in the
services of Empress Josephine in Malmaison,
as at the sale of her son Eugène de
Beauharnais’ library, in 1935, no less than
1600 of his works, bound in 24 volumes,
were auctioned.
Preceded by introductory, general chapters,
among which the architectural history
of the Padua Garden, by Margherita Azzi
Vicentini, is of note, this sumptuous volume
brings faithful facsimiles, in about half the
original size, of 57 of the paintings ascribed
to Cattrani, plus for comparison 10 Cattrani
plates from the holdings of libraries in the
United States of America. For each plate,
there is a full page of explanatory and descriptive
botanical text by Luigino Curti and
Fernanda Menegalle.
The second part of the book is devoted
to 18 th -19 th century university teaching, a
subject introduced competently and with a
wealth of interesting details by Elsa Maria
Cappelletti and Arturo Paganelli. This part is
illustrated with facsimiles of 60 of the 117
didactic plates of the Padua Codex, including
the complete set of those illustrating the
Tournefort system.
W.G.
130. 129BLaura SETTESOLDI, Marcello TAR-
DELLI & Mauro RAFFAELLI – Esploratori
italiani nell’Africa orientale fra
il 1870 ed il 1930. Missioni scientifiche
con raccolte botaniche, rilievi geografici
ed etnografici. – Centro Studi Erbario
Tropicale, Università degli Studi di
Firenze [Pubblicazione No. 104],
Firenze, 2005. [2] + 142 pages, illustrations
(photographs, facsimiles, maps)
mostly in colour; hard cover.
The Royal Colonial Herbarium was
founded in Rome in 1904 by Pirotta then
transferred to Florence in 1914, to become
spatially linked with the Central Italian Herbarium
(FI). For obvious reasons it lost one
after the other its two epithets, to become the
“Erbario Tropicale”, since 2004 a “Centro
Studi” of Florence University. It is particularly
rich in plants of Tropical East Africa,
Somalia and Ethiopia (including Eritrea) in
the first place. Its most valuable historical
stock, including many type specimens, is
due to the exploration of these countries by
Italian naturalists between 1870 and 1930.
To them the present volume is devoted.
A biographical note is devoted to each of
16 protagonists of 11 botanical expeditions of
that period. There are well known botanists
(68) OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 2009