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Omas I think” LIMITED EDITION
When, in the early part of the 19th century during his long journey of exploration by
sea, the great British scientist Charles Darwin started taking notes which he
subsequently used in his treatise “ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES” on the evolution of
living species, he wrote the words: “I think”. Omas is dedicating this Limited Edition to
the words "I think" and to one of the fundamental stages of the study of the evolution
of life in this the 200th anniversary of the author's birth and the 150th anniversary of
the book's publication.
We can say that, with Charles Darwin, the scientific method finally became the tool
with which humanity seeks progress and the solution of problems, overcoming
superstitions and the recourse to the values of religions. “I think” is an act of will which
puts man at the centre of everything. With a Limited Edition, Omas underlines the fact
that writing too is a fundamental aspect of the growth of civilization: it is with writing
that thoughts take shape.
The parts of this pen made of precious jewels represent the voyage which Darwin made
across the oceans aboard the British brig HMS Beagle, which saw him make his decisive
scientific discoveries in the Galapagos Islands, located a thousand kilometres west of
South America in the Pacific Ocean. The route taken by HMS Beagle is faithfully
reproduced on the reservoir of the Limited Edition. The fine engraving is made using
the "island" technique, performed with a hand-controlled pantograph, which allows
extremely thin and accurate marks to be drawn, tracing the continents and a naval map
dating from 1800. Looking at the pen through a magnifying glass, you can read text and
see details which cannot be seen by the naked eye. It is painstaking work, which
suggests how attention and research can discover things which are not apparently
visible.
On the top of the cap a drawing of a mockingbird has been engraved: it was in fact the
different varieties of this creature found in the different islands which suggested that
the mutations had come about from a single original specimen. The same thing
happened in the analysis of the other species whose footprints are reproduced on the
clip: turtle, marine iguana, land iguana, lava lizard, flamingo, gannet and gecko.
On the band of the cap is a design of the structure of "DNA", the nucleic acid which
contains genetic information, to represent the future after Darwin. Indeed, its
discovery was the fruit of nearly a century's work by other scientists in the wake of
Darwin's theories.
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