La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso

La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso, by Pietro Santi Bartoli (1635-1700) from a drawing by Agostino Scilla (1639-1700). Title page of De corporibus marinis lapidescentibus quae defossa reperiuntur, Romae: Typis Antonii de Rubeis (1747) which contains the first Latin translation of the Italian painter Agostino Scilla's only palaeontological (and heavily influential) work La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso (Vain speculation undeceived by sense) (1670) in which he argued that fossils were not the magical objects many believed them to be but were petrefactions (that is fossils) of once living organisms. The image shows a visual representation of reason (the young man holding a fossil sea urchin and shark's tooth, pointing to a hillside covered with fossils) and speculation (the spectral figure looking at the fossils in isolation. Engraving

1670 1747 Agostino Argued Bartoli Believed Contains Fossils Fossilss Geological Heavily Hillside Isolation Magical Organisms Palaeontological Palaeontology Quae Reason Santi Scilla Scillas Sense Senso Seventeenth Spectral Speculation Tooth Translation Urchin Vain Vana

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