VMs: Re: Scotto

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Rafal for the info about Scottus.

> His name is usually rectified as Alessandro Scotto -
> supposedly
> a member of the noble family of that name in Italy
> (Perugia, if I recall correctly).

> > I saw his name in a short article about
> > 'Science at Rudolfine Prague' written by Zdenek
> > Horsky, a reputable scholar in this field.
> > This is one chapter in the book 'Prag um 1600'
> > (see:  http://www.villahuegel.de/ , click on
> >  "Publikationen").
> 
> This is the book I always wanted to see - but the
> Web page says it is no longer available, right?
> Besides the article by Horsky, is there anything
> else of interest to us?
> (I mean alchemy, curiosities, etc.).

I think the book is sold out. I used to see it at
the Darmstadt library, and then by chance could
buy one for just 20 DM (10 Euro) in a museum where
they just wanted to 'get rid' of a pile of leftover
copies !!.
The book is very heavy on art. 75% of the pictures
are B/W, but there are some very nice color pictures
too. Paintings, bronze scultpure (Adriaen de Vries)
but also a lot of Rudolph's cut gems and oddities
(Octavio Misseroni).
In the Westonia book there is a painting of a youg
girl (on the cover?). It's in the book as well,
giving the name of the artist (I think it was van
Aachen) and saying that it's probably his daughter.

There are lots of portraits of people related to
Rudolf (dignitaries rather than alchemists).
The most important thing (for me) in the book is
the discussion about the catalogue of Rudolf's
Kunstkammer which was found in Liechtenstein a 
few decades ago, and which we discussed here
before. I have some pictures of it on my
web site (incomplete - see:
http://www.voynich.nu/extra/inventory.html )
As I once remarked before, the style of his
numbers is remarkably similar to that of the 
VMs foliation.

Cheers, Rene


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