Geoscience Reference
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Figure 5.1 Nicolaus Steno
(1638-1686) (from J. G. Winter,
Prodromus of Nicholaus Steno
(1916), Plate 5).
later in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Firenze (Florence) where many
members of the Medici family were interred. On 4 October 1881, at the
close of the second International Geological Congress, a distinguished
group of international delegates including the Canadian Thomas
Streey Hunt, the American James Hall, the German Karl Alfred Zittel,
and the Italian Giovanni Capellini (the President of the IGC) left
Bologna and assembled at Steno's tomb in the Capella Stenoniana.
Later a bust and a plaque in Latin were unveiled at the tomb. The
plaque reads 'You behold here, traveller, the bust of Nicholas Steno, as
it was set up by more than a thousand scientists from all over the
world, as a memorial to him ... [he is] illustrious among geologists
and anatomists.' Today his tomb is still venerated, and is the destina-
tion of many pilgrims. It is not unusual to find it covered with hastily
scribbled notes on scraps of paper, or with letters, photographs or
flowers, all left by pilgrims seeking indulgences or help.
He settled in Italy in 1665 and became fascinated with the Tuscan
landscape, and with the fossils that he and others had found. By 1669 he
published his great geological work, the Prodromus (or to give it its
correct and fuller title De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento
