Moscardo (Lodovico) Note overo Memorie del Museo di..., first edition, engraved title and numerous illustrations in text, F2-3 misbound, title a little soiled, some light scattered foxing, but a very good copy, modern vellum , marbled edges, [Cicognara, 3412; Graesse II, 613; Grinke, From Wunderkammer to Museum, no. 23; Nissen, 2898] folio, Padua, Paolo Frambotto, 1656.

⁂ Rare original edition of the catalogue which the Veronese Count Lodovico Moscardo made of the objects forming his collection or 'Wunderkammer', including archaeological pieces, works of art, fossils, minerals, corals, shells, gems and other natural curiosities. The Moscardo Museum also incorporated previous collections such as that of the famous botanist and pharmacist Francesco Calzolari. "The catalogues of seventeenth-century collections such as those of the Veronese noble Lodovico Moscardo [...] were all models of wit and persuasion; dwarfs, chameleons, birds of paradise, and abnormal trees formed by nature happily coexisted alongside mathematical instruments" (P. Findlen, Possessing Nature. Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy, Berkeley, 1994, p. 42).