Note Overo Memorie Del Mvseo Di Lodovico Moscardo Nobile Veronese, Accademico Filarmonico, dal medesimo descritte et in Trè Libri distinte. Nel primo si discorre delle cose anitche; le quali in detto Museo si trovano. Nel secondo delle Pietre, Minerali, e Terre. Nel terzo de Corali, Conchiglie, Animali, Frutti, & altre cose in quello contenute. Consecrate all' Altezza Serenissima Di Francesco Duca Di Modena E Reggio

Padua: Per Paolo Frambotto. Con Licenza de'Superiori, 1656. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. An excellent, crisp copy bound in 17th c. speckled calf, spine richly tooled in gold, with very discreet repairs to the end-caps and only light wear. A crisp copy with minor blemishes: Small stain to upper corner of first two lvs., a smaller one to upper margin of lvs. A1-3, leaf V3 with printer's fingerprints in margin, sm. stain at head of 1st index leaf, a few marginal paper flaws, edges sprinkled red and green. 1. Bookplate of the statesman, bibliophile, and collector Nicolas-Joseph Foucault (1643-1721), first Marquis de Magny, who commissioned archaeological excavations at the Ancient Baths of Alauna in Valognes. 2. Bookplate of the Earls of Macclesfield. The Museo Moscardo:

A fine copy of this catalogue of the celebrated collection of natural history specimens, archaeological remains, and ethnographic objects, assembled by the Veronese Count Lodovico Moscardo.

Moscardo's museum catalogue, like those of his contemporaries Ferdinando Cospi and Manfredo Settala, is a valuable record of the collecting strategy and tastes of an Italian collector in the first half of the 17th century.

Moreover, Moscardo's catalogue serves to document the survival of one of the earliest private museum collections in Italy, that of Francesco Calzolari, part of which Moscardo obtained around 1642 and added to his own collection. Moscardo continued to collect at least until 1672. The collection was seen by Ray in 1663 and by Gilbert Burnet in 1685 and it continued to draw visitors into the 18th c. In the early 19th c., a large part of the collection was obtained -as part of the dowry of Moscardo's granddaughter, Teresa Moscardo- by the Miniscalchi family of Verona. Today the extant specimens can be found in the museum of the Miniscalchi Foundation in Verona.

Moscardo's catalogue is notable for the degree to which the collector himself participated in its production. He not only assembled the collection and wrote the catalogue but he also engraved most of the illustrations himself. Several of the plates are new versions of plates originally made for the catalogue of Calzolari's museum (1622). Moscardo used them to illustrate the very same specimens , which Moscardo had acquired from the Calzolari heirs.

The catalogue is divided into three books. The first book describes the antiquities contained in the collection: marble and bronze statuary, coins, urns, stele, lamps, votive objects, seals, lapidary inscriptions and jewelry. The section also includes Egyptian ushabtis, "bones of giants" (actually Mastodon fossils), and some Renaissance medals. Although he relies on published scholarship when writing his catalogue, the objects themselves, which he analyzes and described based on their composition, stylistics, and relation to each other, supply the raw material for his text. He describes magic votives and amulets, phallic fertility charms, modes of ancient dress, the development of writing materials and the differences between Indian and Chinese ink, etc.

The second book discusses at length the stones, minerals, soils, and other objects that came from the earth. Included are descriptions of carnelians, topaz, sapphire, ruby, jasper, amber, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, opal, cat's eye, nephrite, turquoise, malachite, Bloodstone, Beozar, magnets, mica, rock crystal, obsidian, asbestos, gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, quicksilver, iron, antimony, various earths from Elba, Silesia, Strigonia, and Japan, sulfur, nitre, alum, salt, etc. The final section of this chapter concerns petrified objects (fossils) with illustrations of fossilized marine animals including fish. Here again, Moscardo is hard at work on developing typologies. One of the most fascinating, neolithic arrow heads and spear points, the so-called "cerauniae" (the "thunder stones").

The third section provides descriptions of corals, shells, animals, and fruit, including images of preserved aquatic creatures (such as turtles, crocodiles, a sting ray, a swordfish, a seahorse, a shark, and even the mythical basilisk), fruits, seeds, pods, beans, gums and ointments, various horns, Indian shoes, and at the end a large assault catapult. There are a number of brief essays on subjects such as horn of the rhinoceros, the Egyptian method of preserving mummies, musical instruments, paintings and drawings. The presence of musical instruments is to be expected; Moscardo was a music lover and member of the Accademia Filarmonica.

While the precise location of Moscardo's house is unknown, we do know that the mansion comprised four adjacent buildings. Fortunately, the catalogue gives some details as to the collection's arrangements. Fifty of the inscriptions, for instance, were displayed in the cortile and garden.