Why put a museum in a book? Ferrante Imperato and the image of natural history in sixteenth-century Naples

Abstract

Abstract The first image of a natural history museum appeared in Ferrante Imperato’s ‘Natural History’ (1599), a book that is, nonetheless, not a catalogue of the contents of his museum. This article explores contemporary accounts of the Neapolitan apothecary’s collection, and offers a close reading of its portrayal in this woodcut, in relation to the contents of the ‘Natural History’. How did Imperato’s museum reflect his relations with other naturalists, in Naples and beyond, and the politics of knowledge in Spanish Naples? What kind of civic monument was Imperato’s museum?