«Prender la difesa degli antichi»: gli animali favolosi di Luigi Bossi

In 1792, Luigi Bossi, a Milanese scholar, published, through the printing house of Luigi Veladini, the scientific dissertation "Dei basilischi, dragoni ed altri animali creduti favolosi". This work, presented in the form of a letter to Gian Rinaldo Carli, addressed the hypothetical existence of legendary animals described in medieval bestiaries. In an attempt to reduce popular beliefs (a persistent source of prejudice) and to limit the scope of the realm of the miraculous, Bossi identified the fabulous mythological monsters with common animals that lived in the remote past and are now extinct. The author, who defined himself as «più fisico, chimico che teologo», alternated erudite discussion with recourse to the irrefutable data of science. The elements of fictional epistolary writing, documentary approach and references to sources play a fundamental role in the treatise, which is not only an interesting chapter in Enlightenment journalism against superstition, but a real all-out defense of antiquity.