The Carline thistle

This drawing was originally part of the Paper Museum, a collection of drawings assembled by the Italian scholar Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) in order to form a visual encyclopaedia of the ancient and natural worlds. This drawing belongs to the natural history group and shows a carline thistle, a medicinal flower which can be found in central and southern Europe. Despite Cassiano dal Pozzo’s intentions the encyclopaedia was never published.