Ferrante Imperato

Ferrante Imperato (1550 — 1625), an apothecary of Naples, published "Dell'Historia Naturale" (Naples 1599) [The full title: "Dell'historia naturale di Ferrante Imperato napolitano Libri XXVIII. Nella quale ordinatamente si tratta della diversa condition di miniere, e pietre. Con alcune historie di piante et animali; sin hora non date in luce.".] and illustrated it with his own cabinet of curiosities displayed at Palazzo Gravina in Naples; [The best sketch of his career, according to Donald Frederick Lach, "Asia in the Making of Europe" (University of Chicago Press) 1977:439 note 221, is still A. Neviani, "Ferrante Imperato speziale e naturalista napoletano", "Atti e memorie dell'Accademia di Storia dell'Arte Sanitaria" 2nd ser. 2.2 (1936)] the engraving ("illustration, right") became the first pictorial representation of a Renaissance humanist's displayed natural history research collection. The collection, which the published catalogue made as famous in the seventeenth century as that of that other famous apothecary and "virtuoso", Francesco Calceolari of Verona, [Calceolari's collection was published by Benedetto Ceruti and Andrea Chiocco, "Musaeum Francisi Calceolari" (Verona, 1622).] ranged widely; it embraced a herbarium, shells, birds, sea creatures, in addition to the fossils, clays, minerals and metallic ores, marble and gem species. It was maintained by his son Francesco, who assisted him in writing up his observations, and who may be seen in the engraving pointing out details of the specimens to two visitors as Ferrante looks on.

Ferrante Imperato, who ranged southern Italy making geological observations, took as his motto "In dies auctior." ["I improve from day by day." It appears on the [http://www.summagallicana.it/lessico/i/Imperato%20Ferrante.htm title page of his book] .] He was in correspondence with a network of scholars in Italy. He was among the first correctly to identify the processes through which fossils were formed, subjecting them to empirical tests. [Nicoletta Morello, "Steno, the fossils, the rocks and the calendar of the earth" in Gian Battista Vai and W. G. E. Caldwell eds., "The Origins of Geology in Italy" 2006:85.] His pupil, schooled in the collection, was the jurist Fabio Colonna (1567-1640) who carried further his work on fossils. Ferrante had a small garden and corresponded with botanists, but historians of botany discount his interest in plants as "curiosa". [For example, Lach 1977:439 and note 221]

The book was so sought after that a second edition was issued in Venice, 1672, edited by Giovanni Maria Ferro, who added new material and new illustrations to the concluding chapter. [ [http://www.antiquariaatjunk.com/php/detail.php3?bnr=6309 Imperato, F. "Historia Naturale"] ]

The catalogue is presented in twenty-eight books, which include nine books devoted to alchemy, a wholly reputable science at the time, which towards the end of the following century would give birth to chemistry. Other books are devoted to mining, animals and plant specimens.

Further reading

*Wilson, Wendell E , "Ferrante Imperato (1550-1625). (The History of Mineral Collecting: 1530-1799)" "The Mineralogical Record" November 1994.

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