The 'prehistory' of Tommaso Garzoni's "Menagerie of the World's Marvels"

Valentina Serio is currently Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Her research project 'GARZONI' is focused on Tommaso Garzoni's Serraglio degli stupori del mondo and other Early Modern encyclopedias and vernacular texts devoted to preternatural phenomena. This research, delving into the analysis of  broader context of the European vernacular debate on marvels and superstition, aims at providing a new insight on the circulation of scientific knowledge among non-specialist audiences,  the intermingling of learned culture and popular creeds, and analyse the scientific and epistemological impact of this discussion.

Tommaso Garzoni's The Menagerie of the World's Marvels was published in 1613, about twenty years after the author's death. The reasons for this delay have only been partially uncovered by scholars. However, investigating the troubled history of this encyclopedic vernacular work, its cultural framework and aims might shed new light on several key questions concerning the expanding body of vernacular writings and the circulation of scientific knowledge among non-specialist audiences in the Early Modern period. This, indeed, is the aim of the ‘GARZONI’ project. This talk offers a work-in-progress account of my research and will focus on the ‘prehistory’ of the Menagerie, exploring its circulation prior to print and Garzoni’s relationship with censorship.