Case Studies

Lynx's view

The year 1755 saw the publication of Giovanni Antonio Battarra's Fungorum agri Ariminensis historia, an account of the fungi found near the town of Ariminum, now Rimini, in north-east Italy. The second edition appeared in 1759 and here is that edition's title page, showing the same illustration that appeared in the first edition. I have taken this from the copy of Battarra's work in the digital library (http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/index.php) of the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid.

The illustration features a lynx, in folklore a very sharp-eyed animal. Here is an enlargement of the picture:

The lynx has one paw on a mushroom and there are other mushrooms in the scene, as well as a solid, hoof-like bracket fungus growing from the trunk on the right. In the banner there is a sentence in Greek. Transliterated the banner reads mykas theoroumen ou phagomen and, in translation: we look at mushrooms but we don't eat them.