Domenico Vandelli has had a laborious journey through Etruria to Padua, from where he has gone to Venice and tried to obtain specimens of Holothuria and Uva marina and send those to Linnaeus, as he had promised. However, he had not succeeded, and the fishermen had told him that they did not get those species during winter whereas they are easy to catch in spring and summer. So Vandelli will send them later on, together with his treatise on the hot springs in Padua [Vandelli refers to the Tractatus de thermis Agri-Patavini].
However, Vandelli takes the opportunity of sending some material to Linnaeus by a ship that is leaving for Hamburg. It is a box containing some marine animals, among them some Buccina variants. Some of them live in water that is 88 degrees Fahrenheit warm, while others live in cold water.
Vandelli continues with brief descriptions of nine specimens of minerals and fossils found during his journey. After that, Vandelli gives a very detailed description of a zoophyton, a marine animal behaving like a plant in that it does not move around but reacts on being touched. Its vernacular name is Tamaragolo. It is up to four French inches long and ten lines thick. Vandelli has dissected it and made five drawings, which are enclosed, and their layout and presentation is explained in great detail.
John Thornton, the merchant in Hamburg, has commercial contacts with the Venetian merchant Emanuel Treu.