Italian Naturalists, Patrons, and Painters: Methods of Collecting and Studying Plants and Aquatic Creatures in the 16th Century

In this paper I will focus on the period c. 1530-c.1560 and on a cluster of Italian naturalists, their painters and patrons, in order to address the following two issues. The strong visual turn of natural history and the role of non-printed images in this period; the links in terms of methodology and persons involved between the study of plants and that of (aquatic) animals. Geographically those clusters link Venice, Rome, Padua, Bologna, Trento, and some further towns of northern Italy. Some of the key persons will be Daniele Barbaro, Ulisse Aldrovandi, Pietro Andrea Mattioli and Ippolito Salviani.