Re: paleonet Curiosity cabinets

["D.Mclean" <D.Mclean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Certosa di Calci is a remarkable monastery outside of Pisa 
which houses a reasonably large museum full of wierd and 
wonderful curiosity cabinets. These range from the mineralogical 
and palaeontological to the (often stomach-churning) biological and 
anthropological, from the microscopic to the odd full-sized whale 
skeleton (in fact I seem to remember that there are several of 
these). Despite its obvious eclecticism and antiquity the collection 
is arranged into some sort of reasonable order (though there are 
some surprises of juxtaposition). While this might detract from the 
fun of it all, it remains a must for any earth/life scientist interested 
in the bizarre, and probably the closest that anyone will get to time-
travel back to the rennaissance. Beside the museum the 
monastery has a phenomenal collection of sacred relics. My 
hagiography isn't that good, but it did seem that they had at least 
one "bit" from every saint. The mind does boggle.
The monastery was used as a set in a recent(-ish) Hollywood 
movie, but I can't remember which one, so you will just have to go 
there yourself to see what it is like.

Duncan McLean