RT Journal Article T1 Giustiniani Medicine Chest A1 Julie Ackroyd YR 2019 VO 11 IS Spring 2019 K1 Science Museum K1 Giustiniani K1 Interpretation K1 Provenance K1 Medicine Chest K1 Naval Medicine Chest K1 Medicine K1 Materia Medica K1 Wellcome Collection K1 Genoa K1 Italian K1 Turk K1 Ottoman K1 Suleiman the Magnificent 1494–1566 K1 John Burdett K1 Chios K1 podestà K1 Venetian K1 Furniture AB In autumn 2019 the Science Museum will open its new Medicine Gallery, which is an opportunity to redisplay and reinterpret items from the collection. One object selected as a centrepiece for the new space is the Giustiniani Medicine Chest, which dates from the mid-sixteenth century. This object came into the Science Museum Collection in 1946 having originally been bought in Italy in 1924 by an agent of Sir Henry Wellcome for his medical collection. This article assesses its provenance and history. NO The Financial Times, 1 March 1924, p 1, Column 1, gives an exchange rate of Italian Lire to English Pound of 25.22 ½. This makes 10,500 lira approximately £416. Using the ‘Historic inflation calculator’ on-line, the purchase price of the chest in the current market would be equivalent to £22,500. NO Now known as Theodosia/Feodosia on the Crimea Peninsula, Ukraine. NO The coat of arms is described as: ‘Di rosso, al castello d'argento sormonto da tre torri, quella di mezzo piu elevata, aperto e fenestro del campo; col capo d'oro, all' aquila nascente di nero, coronata del campo.’ Crollalanza, G.B. di, cited in Burnett, 1982, p 327. This translates as: ‘Gules, a castle of silver overlay by three towers, the middle one higher, open field and fenestro; the Golden head, at the nascent Black Eagle, crowned of the field.’ NO However, caution must be exercised when assessing the general condition of the chest. It entered the Wellcome Collection at a time when extensive restoration of items was not uncommon and no documentation exists to indicate if this particular object was restored and if so how much was undertaken. PB The Science Museum Group SN 2054-5770 LA eng DO 10.15180/191108 UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-11/giustiniani-medicine-chest/ CR Burnett, J, 1982, The Giustiniani Medicine Chest, Medical History, Vol 26, pp 325–333 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Giustiniani-medicine-chest--Burnett/b8ca9154c1ccf01121403e76af6b535a08e943cf (accessed 3 March 2017) CR Crollalanza, G B di, 1886-90, Dizionario storico-blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabile italiane, Vol 1 (of 3), Presso la Direzione del Giornale, Araldico, Pisa CR Financial Times, Saturday 1 March 1924, http://find.galegroup.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/ftha/browseEdition.do?prodId=FTHA&userGroupName=tou&tabID=T004&method=doBrowseEdition&mcode=3FDQ&dp=19240301&docPage=browseissue&fromPage=browseEdition (accessed 1 February 2017) CR Giustiniani, E, Giustiniani Family History in English, http://www.giustiniani.info/english.html (accessed 30 January 2017) CR Giustiniani, H and Argenti, P (ed), 1943, History of Chios (Cambridge University Press) CR Giustiniani, V, 1995, Diario di viaggio di Vincenzo Giustiniani, Barbara Agosti and Bernardo Bizoni (eds), Quaderni del battello ebbro, Porretta Terme, Italy CR Guilmartin, J F, 2003, Galleons and Galleys: Gunpowder and the Changing Face of Warfare at Sea, 1300–1650 (Cassell: London) CR Historic inflation calculator, This is Money.co.uk, 2017, http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html (accessed 1 February 2017) CR Konstam, A, 2003, Lepanto 1571: The Greatest Naval Battle of the Renaissance (Osprey Publishing: Oxford) CR Rossi, Dr Carlo, correspondence file, WA/HMM/CM/COI/85, Wellcome Library, London CR Rossi, Dr Carlo, 16 March 1924, Private correspondence, T/A641515, Science Museum CR Rossi, Dr Carlo, 23 November 1924, Private correspondence, T/A641515, Science Museum CR Science Museum, A641515, Brought to Life, Exploring the History of Medicine, on-line, http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=5699 (accessed 3 March 2017) CR Setton, K M, n.d., The Papacy and the Levant, 1204–1571, Vol 4 The Sixteenth Century from Julius III to Pius V (American Philosophical Society: Philadelphia), re-printed, 1984 as Volume 161 of Memoirs Series: Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, https://ia902707.us.archive.org/27/items/bub_gb_DUwLAAAAIAAJ/bub_gb_DUwLAAAAIAAJ.pdf (accessed 3 March 2017) CR Summerford, Thomasin, 3 May 2011, Meddling with Medicine: The Specialisation of Sea Surgeons’ Chests in the Early Modern Period, unpublished History of Design MA Dissertation, Royal College of Art and Victoria & Albert Museum, London WT Science Museum Group Journal OL 30