Nature and Antiquarianism

The project looks at how natural elements and natural phenomena were objects of antiquarian investigation, just as ruins and built monuments were. They were also central to the daily life of communities, who regarded natural elements as identity and experienced both the destructive and healing powers of nature. The subsoil is central in this discourse, not only in the search for antiquities, and for its medical properties, such as in international experiences of thermal bathing, but also for the extraction of minerals, as in 16^th-century Potosí where mountains were drilled to extract silver. The project will provide a historical perspective on the responses of local communities facing the dramatic changes of landscape determined by global diseases, such as Xylella bacteria, which, from the olive trees of Puglia to the grapevines in California, is dramatically changing landscape, affecting the economy, the psychological well-being and life of vast regions.