Then he went on to add samples of decorative stones from sites as far afield as Derbyshire and America. By around 1826 Corsi’s collection, described by William Buckland, first Reader in Geology at Oxford University, as “…quite unique in its kind, and such as is never likely to be made by any other individual…” included nearly 1000 large (approximately 15x7x4 cm) uniformly cut and polished specimens, all carefully numbered and arranged in geological order and accompanied by a comprehensive printed catalogue.
Then, suddenly, it seems Corsi deemed his collection was complete, and decided to sell. The specimens, along with all the available copies of the catalogue were bought by Stephen Jarrett, a wealthy Oxford undergraduate in 1827 for more than £1000. Jarrett donated the lot to Oxford University, where it is now housed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
As for Corsi’s motives for selling, one can only guess. But it’s interesting to speculate that Mrs Corsi might have had a hand in influencing his decision. Imagine what it must have been like living in a second floor city centre apartment with an obsessive collector and his vast collection of stone samples. And to top it off, the sheer weight of the collection must certainly have posed a structural risk to an old building located in seismically active Italy.
Acknowledgement
This vignette was inspired by a talk given by Monica Price of the Oxford University of Natural History to celebrate the launch of a website documenting the Corsi Collection (see:
www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi) which includes high resolution images and descriptions of all the samples as well as a copy and modern translation of Corsi’s catalogue. Other sources include The Corsi Collection in Oxford, by Lisa Cooke and Monica T. Price, in Asmosia 5: Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone, Hermann, J.J. Jr, Herz, N and Newman, R eds, Archetype Publications, London, 2002 ISBN: I-873132-085, and Decorative Stone: The complete sourcebook by Monica T Price, Thames and Hudson, London, 2007, ISBN 9780500513415, and abstracts by Monica Price and Stuart Baldwin included in the abstracts for the talks and posters presented at the Conference on Geological Collectors and Collecting, April 2011 available free to download as a pdf file from www.geolsoc.org/hogg (link below) .
- If the past is the key to your present interests, why not join the History of Geology Group (HOGG)? For more information and to read the latest HOGG newsletter, visit: HOGG, where the programme and abstracts from the Conference on Geological Collectors and Collecting are available as a pdf file free to download.
* Nina Morgan is a geologist and science writer based near Oxford.