Giovanni Jacopo Spada
naturalist
Giovanni Jacopo Spada (1680 – 1774) was an Italian naturalist and pioneering geologist, born in Verona, who served for many years as archipresbyter at Graz in Styria. He is known for the revised and expanded catalogue of his collection that he published in 1744, Corporum lapidefactorum agri veronensis catalogus quæ apud Joan. Jacobum Spadam Gretianae Archipresbyterum Aasservantur A first version, now very rare, had been published in 1739. His dissertation of 1737 at the University of Verona asserted that fossils, then known as petrifications, of recognizably marine species, to be found in the mountains near Verona, were neither "sports of Nature" nor the products of the biblical Great Deluge, but antediluvian. He was listed among the subscribers to the corpus of Latin inscriptions assembled at Verona (and other north Italian locations), the Museum Veronense hoc est antiquarum inscriptionum atque anaglyphorum... (Verona 1749).
Though Spada is barely remembered today, he was commemorated in the snail Candidula spadae, described by Pietro Calcara in 1845.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Giovanni Jacopo Spada” as naturalist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as naturalist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q21055383. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1680, 1774, 1744 and 1739.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Giovanni Jacopo Spada”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Giovanni Jacopo Spada primary sources, Giovanni Jacopo Spada archive and Giovanni research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Giovanni Jacopo Spada”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Giovanni Jacopo Spada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.