Ulderigo Botti’s handbook on stages and sub-stages: a poorly known inventory of the late nineteenth century

Abstract - Botti's handbook is a poorly known inventory of the stratigraphic units established in the 19th century, written by a contemporary at the end of the century. The handbook constitutes a valuable historiographic source of information on the disorderly process that occurred in the second half of the century for the definition of the stages and sub-stages. The prevailing location of the proposed stratigraphic units in Europe and the increasing number of the introduced names is related to the process of construction of the national geological maps at large scale that took place in the same time. Moreover, Botti’s handbook documents the prevailing interest of Italian geologists of the 19th century for the Cenozoic stratigraphy.