The Casa Fontanalba Visitors’ Book

This life-size facsimile reproduction was printed as part of the 2018 centenary celebration of Clarence Bicknell’s death. Who the hell was Clarence Bicknell you ask? Clarence Bicknell (1842–1918) was a man of letters, an artist, author, traveller, botanist, archaeologist, pastor, humanist and Esperantist. He created this book for guests to sign when visiting his summer home in Casterino in the mountains above Bordighera, Italy. Every right hand page has a glorious watercolor of a wild plant. If one were to add them up, they’d count sixty of ’em in total. Clarence died when the book had about 320 signatures of famous archaeologists, botanists, writers, Esperantists, soldiers, and politicians, as well as friends and family. This copy belonged to Valery Lester, Bicknell’s biographer (and Bodoni’s), and on September 12, 2018, a slew of friends visited her home in Hingham, Massachusetts, and signed their names and the names of Dwiggins and Hermann Püterschein even though Dwiggins and Hermann Püterschein were dead. Still, if you like flowers and paintings of flowers or men of letters, artists authors, travellers, botanists, archaeologists, pastors, humanists, or Esperantists, this is a lovely thing for you.