Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa, March 1664

Abstract

This paper uses approaches derived from historical ecology to show how knowledge can be gained about the historical and cultural value of neglected urban landscapes. We study the area around Genoa’s lighthouse and consider the long-term survival of individual plant species and some implications for landscape conservation. We examine topographical representations over the last 500 years to establish the landscape context of the lighthouse. We then analyse the records of plants collected by two English naturalists of the seventeenth century, John Ray and Francis Willughby, and demonstrate how the plants were identified and documented. We survey the current vegetation to establish whether any species identified in 1664 still grow at the site. This exploration of botanical ancestry at a local scale makes it possible to demonstrate cultural–historical values of the lighthouse rocks and their vegetation which should be considered as part of the cultural heritage of the city of Genoa.

Keywords:

• Urban biodiversity
• John Ray
• Francis Willughby
• Genoa
• landscape change

Acknowledgements

This research was funded under FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship Programme. We would like to thank the following people for help and assistance: Christopher Preston; Dorothy Johnston; Linda Shaw, Charlie Jarvis, Liz Thornton, Elaine Charwat, Giuliano Doria, Giuseppina Barberis, Enrico Isola, Patrizia Borghi, Paola Caiffi, Maria Di Santo and the two anonymous referees.

Notes

1. M. C. Galassi (2014) argues that the landscape in the background may have been by Anton van den Wyngaerde, who in 1553 executed a large etching with a view of Genoa and its surroundings (View of Genoa, 1553. Stockholm, National Library of Sweden Maps and Pictures De la Gardie 64).

2. Or Franesco Scoto or Franz Schott from Antwerp. There are two editions in the British Library (London) which include different views of Genoa. In the edition published in Vicenza (1615), the view is simpler and rougher than the one published in Padova (1659). This is similar to an etching dated 1572–1576 by Franz Hogenberg, Genua Ligurum Domina […] (Collezione Topografica e Cartografica del Comune di Genova, inv. 1956), part of the Civitates orbis terrarium (1572–1618).

3. Archivio Storico del Comune di Genova, Padri del Comune, filza 231–96.

4. L. Garibbo, Veduta del sobborgo di Sampiardarena al ponente della città di Genova presa dallo scoglio della Lanterna, 470 × 642 mm, etching, and watercolour (Collezione Topografica e Cartografica, Genoa, n.inv. 1404). For details on Garibbo’s paintings see the catalogue of the exhibition (Papone & Serra, 2011).

5. Passports from Whitehall on 10 April 1663, in the Nottingham University Library (NUL) Mi 4/149/2/1–3//1.

6. We find the same quote in Fynes Moryson’s travel account in Lytton Sells (1964, p. 154).

7. This ancient tradition still takes place and all the Genoese confraternities participate. According to Black (2003, pp. 39–40), one of the reasons tourists chose certain routes was the wish to attend to specific religious ceremonies around Easter.

8. Hortus Siccus Rayanus, voll. 9, Sloane Collection, Natural History Museum—London (NHML).

9. NUL (Mi LM 17–21). Mary Welch provides a detailed description of all the materials held at the Manuscripts and Special Collection, NUL (Welch, 1972) and so does Christopher Preston in the Appendix in Greengrass et al. (2016), discussing in detail the plant specimens in the Middleton Collection (NUL). The cited documents are: birds drawings and engravings (Mi LM 24), fishes drawings, paintings and engravings (Mi LM 25), a collection of different kind of botanical iconographies later made into a volume (Mi LM 22), a volume of dried specimens from the Padua Botanical Garden (Mi LM 23) and the dried specimens collected both in Great Britain and during the European Travel at least by Francis Willughby, John Ray, Philip Skippon and also from other hands (Mi LM 17–21).

10. The Hortus Siccus Rayanus is first described by Trimen (1870), pp. 82–84 and Dandy (1958), pp. 189–190. Ray’s herbarium after his death went to his friend Samuel Dale in Essex, and then to the Chelsea Physic Garden, onto the British Museum and finally the Sloane Collection at the Natural History Museum today.

11. See Dandy (1958), p. 190 who notes that the mutilation of the sheets is explained in Kalm’s Account of his Visit to England: Kalm saw the collection in 1748 at the Chelsea Physic Garden and he states that Dr Sherard borrowed the collection from Samuel Dale, cutting out any rare or interesting plant.

12. The notebook was first discovered by Daisy Hildyard and it is first mentioned in Greengrass et al. (2016).

13. Catalogvs plantarvm Horti Patavini. Nouo incremento locupletior. GEORGIO A. TVURRE. Eiusdem Horti Praefecto Et Rei Herbariae Professore Ordin. PATAVII. MDCLXII. Typis Pauli Frambotti. Superiorum Permissu, Padua, 1662. The book is conserved at the library of the Chelsea Physic Garden (C2/40 IL). The binding is 12.8 × 7.0 cm, a very small, pocket volume.

14. The plant is clearly Hyoscyamus albus, as indeed Ray states in Observations. Part of the transcription, the translation and the quote are taken from Greengrass et al. (2016).

15. Hortus Siccus Rayanus VI, f. K10, Sloane Collection, NHML.

16. Hortus Siccus Rayanus VII, f. R1, Sloane Collection, NHML. Smilax aspera is on the same sheet with Erica ramulis termis arborescens, the same order they list the plants in the notebook and in the Observations.(They found the first plant between Voltaggio and Genoa: ‘1. Petasites flo. albo on the mountains about 3 or 4 m. distant from Voltage on the way to Genova’.).

17. The same list is in Ray 1694, p. 266.

18. Mi I 17/1, Library Catalogue, Manuscripts and Special Collection, NUL.

19. A couple of examples from Ray’s library can be found in the catalogue published for the auction (Hooke, 1708), 6. Casp. Bauhini Theatrum Plantarum Bas. 1658, 28. Morrisoni Historia Plantarum, Tom. II Oxon. 1680, 44. Raii Historia Plantarum, 3 vol. (Charta magna), 63. Historia botanica Bolog. 1675, 149. Theod. Thabernae Montanus De Herbis, 2 vol. Bas. 1687.

20. The explanation of the initials can be found in Ray (1673), after the Catalogue of plants there is an Explicatio Nominum abbreviatorum, which contains all the authors used and cited by Ray. A complete list with biographical notes is in Oswald & Preston (2011, pp. 70–96).

21. In Ray’s library, there was a copy of Theod. Thabernae Montanus De Herbis, 2 vol. Bas. 1687.

22. The copy we consulted is held at the Biblioteca della Scuola di Scienze MFN—Sede BTM (University of Genoa) and it is decorated with botanical drawings opposite some of the plants described.

23. The other plants are:

‘50. Triticum loliaceum […] Genuae in moeniis sub la Lanterna. Ann.

67. Sagina apetala […] Genuae ubique in moeniis maritimis. Ann. P. 35.

78. Hyosciamus albus […] Genuae in moeniis maritimis, et in littore alla Foce. Ann.

178. Alyssum maritimum […] In moeniis maritimis Genuae. Floret tota hyeme. Peren. alla Cava [added by pen].

184. Cheiranthus incanus […] Genuae in moeniis maritimis prope la Cava. Frutex. [Matthiola incana].

187. Erodium malacoides […] Genuae sub la Lanterna Ann. [geranium].

215. Trifolium stellatum […] Genua sub la Lanterna, et in moeniis passim. Ann.

228. Sonchus tenerrimus […] Genuae in moeniis praecipuemaritimis. Peren.

24. For an inventory of the herbals held at the Natural History Museum in Genoa, see Mariotti and Poggi (1983).

25. Apart from the plants in Table 2, it was possible to identify: Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle, Asparagus acutifolius L., Atriplex hortensis L., Calamintha nepeta (L.) Savi, Centranthus ruber (L.) DC., Crithmum maritimum L., Ficus carica L., Foeniculum vulgare L., Galium aparine L., Fraxinus ornus L., Fumaria officinalis L., Hypericum perforatum L., Glaucium flavum Crantz, Inula viscosa (L.) Aiton, Ipomoea purpurea (L.) Roth., Leopoldia comosa (L.) Parl., Malva sylvestris L., Misopates calycinum (Vent.) Rothm., Parietaria judaica L., Plantago lanceolata L., Portulaca oleracea L., Oxalis acetosella L., Rubus ulmifolius Schott, Scolimus hispanicus L.Solanum nigrum L., Sonchus sp., Vicia sativa L., Vitis vinifera L. Other works with a similar methodology (but more botanically focused) are the ones on vegetation studies in Roman archaeological areas like Blasi and Pignatti 1984 and Caneva 2004. For an interesting cultural interpretation of Ailanthus altissima, see Patrick (2014).