tale of two Giuseppes

In the mid-sixteenth century Rudolf II von Habsburg, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Bohemia and Hungary, commissioned Giuseppe Arcimboldo to paint a portrait of Giuseppe Giardiniere, Florentine scientist, inventor, artist and gardener whose experiments with edible herbaceous plants led to the development of the ADSV (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Veg) fast data transmission, or "broad bean", system.


After experimenting with a wide range of common garden vegetables such as marrow, carrot and spinach, Giardiniere discovered that the system, which preceded Internet technology by four hundred years, worked best with Vicia faba, the large flat seeds of which provided sufficient bean width to render the use of an external power source unnecessary.

Giardiniere was a visionary and far ahead of his time. Only recently, centuries after his death, have Vicia faba Pods become a popular means of digital music and image reproduction.