Ligabue Magazine 64

He had spent that time honing and checking his theory by corresponding with many other scientists. But so as not to lose his advantage, he published On the Origin of the Species on 24 November 1859. The book was an overnight success and left the young Wallace in the shade for decades. Alessandro Minelli tells this story and attempts to do Wallace justice. The courageous scientist liked travelling and had collected tens of thousands of species, including an incredibly large number of new ones for science at the time. He survived a burnt ship and then set off for the Malay Archipelago. Initially without even realising it, he stumbled on the divide between Asia and Oceania.

He then described it in a book, The Malay Archipelago, having noted that in Bali the fauna was Asian whereas in nearby Lombok there were no deer, monkeys and tigers. This difference led to the boundary being called the Wallace Linea. We continue to talk of evolution, although of a completely different kind, in Luciana Boccardi’s article on perfume through the centuries. Since the Egyptian and Roman worlds, but surely even earlier, essences and extracts have always accompanied pleasures and enhanced desire in men and women. We are introduced to experts in the art of perfumery: from the Venetian muschieri to Caterina De Medici, the master perfumers of Grasse and the dandy Robert de Montesquiou (Proust refers to him in his books as the Baron de Charlus), who was such a perfume fan that his friends dubbed him Monsieur de Horthensiou. This trip among violets, musk, Acqua di Parma and scents is never ending because fragrances are always changing, thus setting a fascinating challenge for producers and museums of perfume. Another kind of challenge concerns communicating innovations. For generations inventions were always shown in the Universal Expositions (world’s fairs or expos).

From the Crystal Palace in London in 1851 to the Eiffel Tower, from sewing machines in Paris in 1855 to the first mechanical reapers the expositions have always amazed people in every age. Little matter if the Krupp cannons displayed in such grand style in a Paris exposition were later used by the Prussians to win the war against France. We learn about the world’s fairs and much more in journey of over 150 years of history in Fabia Garatti’s account of the universal expositions and science shows: from the phonograph to the zip, Ferris wheel and Atomium. After the successful expo in 1906, in 2015 Milan will once more tell the world about other challenges, such as those associated with nutrition, food and energy. Venice will also play a part in the Milan Expo and next year will offer millions of people the chance to explore themes of water cities. Sky and water, or rather lagoon and constellations form the setting for the story of Vincenzo Coronelli, a leading intellectual in 17th-century Europe. A cartographer and Franciscan Friar Minor, he was also rector of the Basilica dei Frari in Venice.

As geographer Franco Farinelli explains in his article, Coronelli lived at a crucial time in a crucial city – Venice, a trendsetting world cultural centre of the day. If we agree with Heidegger that the modern epoch is at the age of the world pictured, then Coronelli was a modern man in every sense. In his remarkable production of terrestrial and celestial globes he used all the forms of knowledge that the Venetian cultural crossroads could offer. His maps recreate the world – they are reality. They tell of society and of power. And his globes have become the pride of museums and cities. This is still the case today in France, for example, where the two largest globes ever built are preserved in the National Library. Constructed for the Sun King Louis XIV, they were once in the fabulous palace at Versailles. Another geographic invention is described by Agostino Da Polenza, an ex-mountaineer and now an environmental entrepreneur, and by Adriano Favaro. The story of K2, the second highest mountain in the world after Everest, first conquered sixty years ago by a team of Italian mountaineers led by Ardito Desio, is in a way a metaphor for the rise of post-war Italy. The country was struggling to get over the war and sought new recognition on the world scene. And recognition unexpectedly came at high altitude, with a sporting and organisational achievement that surprised everyone, since the Italians had to beat off competition from the British and the well-organised United States. On 31 July 1954 those mountaineers transformed K2 into the Italians mountains.

This feat has been followed up by the activities of the Everest-K2-CNR committee. These Italian scientists were entrusted with the creation of the Central Karakoram National Park in the heart of Pakistan, not far from the great mountain. A question of style, one might say. Like the style in much more familiar, daily scenes illustrated by Ulderico Bernardi, a sociologist and scholar of Venetian and Veneto history. His journey to explore food and culinary culture and traditions in the Venetian Republic takes us through almost a thousand years of history. In those years peaceful coexistence, tolerance and respect but also curiosity and experimentation contributed to forging bonds that were indispensable for the destiny of a form of government that lasted centuries and is still studied and, in many ways, envied today. It is said that food is one of the most representative aspects of a culture and may be seen in terms of the dialogue of people with their environment and kindred beings. Bernardi keeps this concept in mind when telling of the flavours, encounters and crossovers which food produced under the government of the doges. Few excesses, a good dose of curiosity and heaps of knowledge. Venice really was fragrant. Bon Voyage!