Agricola's Bermannus (1530) and his “minor” works describe his career as an expert in mining knowledge. If we examine the period after publication of his collected works in 1546, Bermannus and the other works provide additional keys for understanding the influence of Agricola on development of the mineralogical and geological sciences in Italy. These publications also offer a way of understanding the link between the culture of the humanists and that of the practitioners; this, after all, led to the birth of the empirical sciences. Agricola's fourfold classification of fossil objects (earth, concretionary juice, stone, metal) improved considerably the twofold classification by Aristotle and became an influential paradigm for the scientists of the late sixteenth century that was further refined and developed as to the genetic environment of different types by Aldrovandi and Imperato.

ABSTRACT Sedimentary strata and fossils of Tuscany have been the object of inquiry from the late Middle Ages into the onset of modern science, passing through the art and words of Leonardo da Vinci, and culminating in the work of Nicolas Steno on a Galilean foundation. In the Age of Enlightenment, the Florentine Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti perfected Steno’s scheme for a history of Tuscany to be extended to a general theory of the Earth, corresponding with European savants, writing the oldest catalogue of fossils now hosted at the Museum of Natural History, University of Florence, and passing on Steno’s taxonomy. A few decades later, founders of modern geology, Georges Cuvier, Giambattista Brocchi, and Charles Lyell walked Tuscan fossiliferous hills and studied public and private collections, focusing on the anatomy of Tertiary species as a means to track the making of the modern fauna. The international impact of Brocchi’s Subapennine Fossil Conchology reached the young Charles Darwin, offering a theoretical background for the early development of modern evolutionary theory and fueling the modern taxonomic study of Tertiary marine shells. Under Igino Cocchi, in the year of national unity (1861), the Museum became the Italian Central Paleontological Collection, attracting collections from all over Italy and stirring an enduring international interest in Tertiary and Quaternary faunas, including fossil primates. With fossil specimens brought in by Steno, Targioni, and Cocchi, among many others, and with the organization of its catalogues reflecting the onset of modern taxonomy, the Museum of Natural History, University of Florence, is today an archive of the history of science as a whole and a means to bring environmental consciousness to future generations.

Abstract: Ctesias (fifth century BC) recounted contemporary Persian beliefs of white Indian animals which had a white horn, black in the centre and flaming red at the pointed tip, projecting from their forehead. Reinforced by classical and medieval writers, travellers, biblical warrant and trade in narwhal tusk, the unicorn became firmly established in European mythology. Increasing popularity as an alexipharmic, prophylactic and counter-poison through the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries led to rising demand and rapidly inflating prices. Debate raged as to which was the ‘true unicorn’ ( Unicornum Verum ), narwhal tusks or mammoth ivory ( Unicornu Fossile ); shavings and powders of both were incorporated into a bewildering array of medicinal mixtures while fraudulent alternatives flooding the markets required the employment of discriminatory tests. Further alternatives with supposedly similar properties included the (probably smectite) clays of Terra Sigillata Strigoniensis or Terra Silesiaca ( Unicornu Minerale ), and an alchemical preparation ( Unicornu Solare ). The supposed therapeutic application and wide range of delivery systems of all types of unicorn horn medicines are reviewed in detail for the first time. Particularly popular as an antidote in plague medicines, the use of alicorn (unicorn horn) simples declined to extinction with the increasingly empirical approach to pharmacy of the mid-eighteenth century.

Abstract: Italian physicians have been interested in geology since the fifteenth century or earlier, with leading figures carrying out fundamental and enlightening studies in both fields of competence. Refined cultured men including Bernardino Ramazzini, Antonio Vallisneri, Tommaso Antonio Catullo, Carlo Gemmellaro, Leopoldo Pilla, Giuseppe Meneghini, Gaetano Giorgio Gemmellaro and Arcangelo Scacchi, in addition to the introduction of reasoning and basic concepts for the advancement of Earth sciences, conducted major studies in the medical field, proving once again the holistic interests of Italian intellectuals. Following the publication of Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell, some scientists were fascinated by the geosciences, carrying out both medical observations and geological studies, and contributing significantly to the development of modern geology. The biographies and works of some leading Italian physicians illustrate their scientific activity in the study of stratigraphy, geomorphology, palaeontology and volcanology, with acknowledgement internationally. These Italian scientists contributed to the political unification of Italy, actively participating in scientific and political discussion, and fulfilling government aims. They contributed to the foundation of the Geological Society of Italy, one of the oldest scientific fellowships in Italy.