WERE FOSSILS ONCE LIVING? INVESTIGATING A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CONUNDRUM

When Federico Cesi founded the Accademeia Linceii in Italy in 1603 with four of his friends (Galileo Gallilei later joined the Society in 1611), one of his first and longest running projects was to study the fossils which were found on his lands in Umbria. Between 1610 and 1630, together with his fellow Lincean Francesco Stelluti he collected and drew many hundreds of specimens of fossils, especially of fossil woods. Cesi had not published his work by his death in 1633, so it was left to Stelluti to publish a thin volume in 1637 where he claimed that the woods were not once living. It is possible that this position was taken as the work was sponsored by Cardinal Barbarini and it followed the trial of Gallileo. However, most of the original drawings for the Cesi fossils project are now in the library of Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, England. Study of these drawings, contemporary manuscripts and letters, including field sketches led to the rediscovery of the original sites in Italy. Recollection of the fossil woods and a study of their taphonomy and preservation lends support to the belief that an interpretation that they were once living would have been difficult to demonstrate, given the lack of botanical and geological knowledge at the time.