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Three Early Naturalists Who Visited Malta

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Three Early Naturalists Who Visited Malta 44 I MAY 24, 2020 THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA MAY 24o, 2020 I 4:5 LIFEANDWELLBEING HISTORY John Ray (1627-1705), the 'father of English natural history' (from a Sicilian -natu~alist -Paolo Boccone Swedish natur.alist -Petrus Forsskal portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London) • I. • ~ Three early naturalists who visited Malta DAVID DANDRIA and crossed over to Malta, reaching the lichen that was collected and used to e Decorato ai Osservazioni Naturali, was /cones et Descriptiones Rariorum the important attractions the island had island on May 13, 1664. produce ared dye. published in 1697, he describes a num- Plantarum Siciliae Melitae, Galliae & to offer, including Buskett, St Paul's As was the custom among such trav­ Towards the end of his stay, Ray ven­ ber of his experiences on the island. Like Italie, a lavishly-illustrated Latin tome Grotto, San Anton Garden and Mdina. ellers, Ray kept a journal detailing his ex­ tured to Mdina and Rabat, where he de­ Ray, he refers to the Terra Sigillata from published in 167 ~, in which he describes Together with the other members of the During the 17th century, many scholars periences during the trip; this was later scribes St Paul's Grotto, expressing his St Paul's Grot:o; he is not so sceptical, and depicts hundreds of plants, among expedition, he also carried out a great undertook long journeys throughout published under the title of Travels disbelief regarding the legends associated however, and lists some of its supposed them a number found in Malta. deal of scientific research. Europe end even ventured further south. Through the Low Countries, Germany, with the cave and with the miraculous medicinal pro9erties. Of course,. the Malta fungus is one of Forsskal was especially interested in .I These travellers had a variety of motives, Italy and France - with Curious Observa­ properties of its Terra Silgfilata, dismiss­ He devotes a whole section, entitled In- them, and here we find the first known il­ the island's rich fossil deposits and com­ ' ~ and they included explorers, pilgrims, tions Natural, Topographical, Moral, ing them and other legends about St Paul torno al Fungus Typhoides coccineus lustration of this celebrated plant, which, piled a list of 14 invertebrate fossils (11 :;:;;..___::::~--------l---;.;_________ _:_J'-..J" ·~ craftsmen, diplomats and the scions of Physiological, etc. It includes a long as no more than "monkish fancy". He tuberosus Melitensis, to the Malta fungus of course, is not a fungus at all but a flow­ molluscs and three echinoids). This list, An illustration featuring the Malta fungus in Boccone's Museo di Fisica e di Esperienze. noble families with little else to do but section about Malta. does, however, affirm his belief that Malta found on the"Pietra del Generale che eun ering plant. He refers to the local appella­ entitled Testacea Fossilia-Melitensis, is further ;:heir education by undertaking There is some doubt as to whether Ray was the site of the apostle's shipwreck, iso/etta vicina al Gozo". He lauds its tion of the plant as "Heritz ta/ General" thought to be the first scientific list of the Grar..d Tour. and his companions stayed in Malta for rather than "that other Melita in the Adri­ medicinal properties and exhorts Italian (Gherq tal-General). Boccone also men­ Maltese fossils. His botanical work, J11cea. Melitenfis cttpitulis conglobatu. Among these pe1·sonalities one counts 12 or 13 days as their date of departure is atick [sic] sea on the coast of Dalmatia". physicians to make use of it. tions the renowned Maltese naturalist Gi- mainly carried out in the Salini salt the naturalists - dilettantes who were be­ uncertain. In his journal, Ray gives a In another section, dedicated to anfrancesco Bonamico, referring to him as marsh, resulted in a list of 87 species. CAutes Jacc~ n2nr~ redales, & 1ongio.res funt, atati, ramo· ginning to give their studies a more scien­ detailed description of Malta; he was of Ray's travelling companion, Thomas "Dominus Bonamicus Medicus eruditus". He also met an unidentified local r..,6.35. tific basis. Malta's geographical position, the opinion that geographically Malta is "Forsskal's Testacea Willoughby, he describes a rather myste- During the 18th century, Malta was learned doctor-naturalist who supplied together with the fame it had achieved more European than African, preferring rious glass vessel, unearthed in 1680 near host for a few days to the prominent him with a list of local fish species, which afte1· the Great Siege, made it a favourite to follow "the more accurate observa­ Fossilia-Melitensis is Mdina, which contained a balsainic liquor Swedish naturalist Pehr Forsskal, also was published posthumously in Descrip­ stopover for these travellers when they tions of Johannes Franciscus Abela, a thought to be the first with unusual properties. He also writes at widely known as Petrus Forsskal (1732- tiones Animalium; the doctor is now ventured further south after tow·ing Italy learned man and native of this island, in length about the fossils found in Malta. 1763). Recognised as a young scientific thought to have been Giorgio Giovan and Sicily. his Malta Illustrata". scientific list of In another publication, Museo di Piante genius, Forsskal was invited by the King Battista Locano, a prominent physician One of the fu'St naturalists to visit Malta He writes at length on the fossils found Rare della Sicilia, Malta, Corsica, Italia, of Denmark to join a scientific expedi­ and naturalist from Senglea. was one who was to become known in in Malta and concluded that the island Maltese fossils" Piemonte e Germania, also published in tion he was organising to the Mediter- The Gron/and left Malta on June 20, later years as the 'father of English natu­ must have been completely submerged, 1697, Boccone describes a cure he person- · ranean and Middle East. 1761, for the Middle East, where they ral history'. This was John Ray, who was citing as evidence "the multitude of sea­ Another naturalist who visited Malta in ally effected on a nun of the santa Cate- He was to join five other scientists - in were to remain for the next five years. born in Essex in November 1627. After shells of all sorts, sharks' teeth, vertebres the 17th century came from nearby Sicily. rina Convent in Valletta, 31-year-old Suor . his paper 'The Arabian Voyage 1761-67 and During this time, all but one of the sci­ graduating from Trinity College, Cam­ of thornbacks and other fish bones petri­ He was Paolo Boccone, the celebrated Rosana Seichel. The poor nun had been Malta: Forsslcll and his Contribution to entific members, including Petrus i <\l bridge, he stayed on at the University as a fied all over the island". He did not agree botanist from Palermo who travelled all afflictedfortwoyearswithaseverecough the Study of Local Natural History', Forssk:U, perished. : ~v,.- lecturer in Greek, mathematics and the with the theory that was then popular over Europe studying and recording the and other symptoms which were ex- George Zammit ~aempel described the Forsskfil died from the plague in Yemen humanities; in the meantime, he devel­ that these fossils were "formed by some flora in many countries. tremely debilitating, so much so that she group as follows: "~ot only were they an and his remains were buried in an un­ could not eve::i lie down in bed: ill-assorted band (two Danes, two Ger­ marked grave in the village of Jarim. His 'AA oped a passion for natural history. plastic power in the stone quarries". Although he mentions Malta several "non I In early 1663, Ray decided to nndertake Ray also wrote about the island's agri­ times in his publications, little is known poteva giacere a letto". mans, two Swedes), but they jealously dis- memory lives on in his three major scien­ the Grand Tour of Europe accompanied culture, stating that the cereal crops he about the actual dates of his visit or visits. Boccone prescribed a mixture based liked and distrusted each other". tific publications: the Flora Aegypttaco­ by three of his ex-students - Francis saw were thin on the ground and did not They must have been prior to 1669, which on a plant he refers to as "Centaurea mi- The expedition set off on January 10, Arabica, the Descriptiones Animalium, Willughby, Philip Skippon and Nathaniel support the ancient acclaim of its fertility. was the year of his wife's death; according nore" to be taken every night for 40 days. 1761, from Copenhagen on board the Amp/Jibiorum, Piscium, lnsectormn, Ver­ Bacon. TI1e fow'Some set off from Dover Apart from the cereals, he lists the main to one biography, his marriage had The nun soon started to recover and Boe- Royal Danish Navy ship Gron/and on what mium and the /cones Rermn Naturalimn, on a journey that was to take them crops grown in those tinles: cumin seed, restricted his botanising to Sicily and cone recounts that her condition im- was to be a long and eventful voyage to the · the latter containing several illustrations through Holland, Germany, Italy, Sicily aniseed, cotton and indigo plants. Malta and after his wife's death, he started proved to such an extent that after 27 Mediterranean. They arrived in Malta of plants and animals new to science. and Malia. Willughby left them in Padua He also refers to "a sort of excrescence travelling all over Europe. days she could walk painlessly and sing more than five months later, on June 14 .. All three works were edited by the sole and returned to England, while the other or moss" that grew on rocks in the Boccone authored three important in the choir wi:h the other nuns.
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