Notes on the birds collected by Giovanni Emilio Cerruti during his journey to New Guinea (1869–1870)

Abstract

In the later decades of the nineteenth century, some Italian explorers carried out expeditions to the Indonesian archipelago and New Guinea, with the aims of concluding diplomatic agreements, strengthening commercial networks and obtaining territorial concessions. During these expeditions, collecting animal specimens and artefacts, later deposited in several museums, was fairly common, increasing the scientific renown of post-unitarian Italy. Giovanni Emilio Cerruti ( fl. 1860–1875) was a traveller, little known today, who visited those then remote lands. He was a merchant and a strong supporter of colonial policies. Through the mediation of government officials, he managed to obtain a commission from the Italian government to identify one or more places close to New Guinea where a penal colony could be established. Although the trip was commissioned exclusively for diplomatic purposes, Cerruti collected some interesting ornithological specimens, which were later donated to Italian natural history museums. We reconstruct Emilio Cerruti’s journey, using his letters to illuminate the most interesting details of its natural history. Fifty of Cerruti’s specimens, extant in the collections of the Museo di Scienze Naturali di Torino and Museo Calderini di Varallo Sesia, are recorded in an annotated catalogue.