In Latin, the term marginalia refers to a scholar’s notes, which are often jotted down in the margins of a text. Fascinated by the concept, the Italian artist Gabriele Grones found his own form of “marginalia.” It began when he noticed small thistles alongside city roads and mountain trails, and then studied their significance in art history. He sought to do what the German art historian and theorist Aby Warburg did in his picture atlas Mnemosyne, and traced an iconographic path between time periods and artistic styles. As Grones explored, he noticed the thistles in medieval tapestries and Japanese prints, and also in Renaissance portraits. From the plants he encountered, both real and imaginary, Grones has created small oil paintings. The series is now on view in Trento. —Elena Clavarino