_Account of the Academia Lincea—Del Cimento—Royal Society._
GALILEO'S resignation of the mathematical professorship at Padua
occasioned much dissatisfaction to all those who were connected with
that university. Perhaps not fully appreciating his desire of returning
to his native country, and the importance to him and to the scientific
world in general, of the complete leisure which Cosmo secured to him at
Florence, (for by the terms of his diploma he was not even required to
reside at Pisa, nor to give any lectures, except on extraordinary
occasions, to sovereign princes and other strangers of distinction,) the
Venetians remembered only that they had offered him an honourable asylum
when almost driven from Pisa; that they had increased his salary to four
times the sum which any previous professor had enjoyed; and, finally, by
an almost unprecedented decree, that they had but just secured him in
his post during the remainder of his life. Many took such offence as to
refuse to have any further communication with him; and Sagredo, a
constant friend of Galileo, wrote him word that he had been threatened
with a similar desertion unless he should concur in the same peremptory
resolution, which threats, however, Sagredo, at the same time, intimates
his intention of braving.
Early in the year 1611, Galileo made his first appearance in Rome, where
he was received with marks of distinguished consideration, and where all
ranks were eager to share the pleasure of contemplating the new
discoveries. "Whether we consider cardinal, prince, or prelate, he found
an honourable reception from them all, and had their palaces as open and
free to him as the houses of his private friends."[61] Among other
distinctions he was solicited to become a member of the newly-formed
philosophical society, the once celebrated _Academia Lincea_, to which
he readily assented. The founder of this society was Federigo Cesi, the
Marchese di Monticelli, a young Roman nobleman, the devotion of whose
time and fortune to the interests of science has not been by any means
rewarded with a reputation commensurate with his deserts. If the energy
of his mind had been less worthily employed than in fostering the cause
of science and truth, and in extending the advantages of his birth and
fortune to as many as were willing to co-operate with him, the name of
Federigo Cesi might have appeared more prominently on the page of
history. Cesi had scarcely completed his 18th year, when, in 1603, he
formed the plan of a philosophical society, which in the first instance
consisted only of himself and three of his most intimate friends, Hecke,
a Flemish physician, Stelluti, and Anastasio de Filiis. Cesi's father,
the Duca d'Acquasparta, who was of an arbitrary and extravagant temper,
considered such pursuits and associates as derogatory to his son's rank;
he endeavoured to thwart the design by the most violent and
unjustifiable proceedings, in consequence of which, Cesi in the
beginning of 1605 privately quitted Rome, Hecke was obliged to leave
Italy altogether from fear of the Inquisition, which was excited against
him, and the academy was for a time virtually dissolved. The details of
these transactions are foreign to the present narrative: it will be
enough to mention that, in 1609, Cesi, who had never altogether
abandoned his scheme, found the opposition decaying which he at first
experienced, and with better success he renewed the plan which he had
sketched six years before. A few extracts from the Regulations will
serve to shew the spirit in which this distinguished society was
conceived:—
"The Lyncean Society desires for its academicians, philosophers eager
for real knowledge, who will give themselves to the study of nature, and
especially to mathematics; at the same time it will not neglect the
ornaments of elegant literature and philology, which like a graceful
garment adorn the whole body of science.—In the pious love of wisdom,
and to the praise of the most good and most high God, let the Lynceans
give their minds, first to observation and reflection, and afterwards to
writing and publishing.—It is not within the Lyncean plan to find
leisure for recitations and declamatory assemblies; the meetings will
neither be frequent nor full, and chiefly for transacting the necessary
business of the society: but those who wish to enjoy such exercises will
in no respect be hindered, provided they attend them as accessory
studies, decently and quietly, and without making promises and
professions of how much they are about to do. For there is ample
philosophical employment for every one by himself, particularly if pains
are taken in travelling and in the observation of natural phenomena, and
in the book of nature which every one has at home, that is to say, the
heavens and the earth; and enough may be learned from the habits of
constant correspondence with each other, and alternate offices of
counsel and assistance.—Let the first fruits of wisdom be love; and so
let the Lynceans love each other as if united by the strictest ties, nor
suffer any interruption of this sincere bond of love and faith,
emanating from the source of virtue and philosophy.—Let them add to
their names the title of Lyncean, which has been advisedly chosen as a
warning and constant stimulus, especially when they write on any
literary subject, also in their private letters to their associates, and
in general when any work comes from them wisely and well performed.—The
Lynceans will pass over in silence all political controversies and
quarrels of every kind, and wordy disputes, especially gratuitous ones,
which give occasion to deceit, unfriendliness, and hatred; like men who
desire peace, and seek to preserve their studies free from molestation,
and to avoid every sort of disturbance. And if any one by command of his
superiors, or from some other necessity, is reduced to handle such
matters, since they are foreign to physical and mathematical science,
and consequently alien to the object of the Academy, let them be printed
without the Lyncean name."[62]
The society which was eventually organized formed but a very trifling
part of the comprehensive scheme which Cesi originally proposed to
himself; it had been his wish to establish a scientific Order which
should have corresponding lodges in the principal towns of Europe, and
in other parts of the globe, each consisting of not more than five nor
less than three members, besides an unlimited number of Academicians not
restricted to any particular residence or regulations. The
mortifications and difficulties to which he was subjected from his
father's unprincipled behaviour, render it most extraordinary and
admirable that he should have ventured to undertake even so much as he
actually carried into execution. He promised to furnish to the members
of his society such assistance as they might require in the prosecution
of their respective researches, and also to defray the charges of
publishing such of their works as should be thought worthy of appearing
with the common sanction. Such liberal offers were not likely to meet
with an unfavourable reception: they were thankfully accepted by many
well qualified to carry his design into execution, and Cesi was soon
enabled formally to open his academy, the distinctive title of which he
borrowed from the Lynx, with reference to the piercing sight which that
animal has been supposed to possess. This quality seemed to him an
appropriate emblem of those which he desired to find in his
academicians, for the purpose of investigating the secrets of nature;
and although, at the present day, the name may appear to border on the
grotesque, it was conceived in the spirit of the age, and the fantastic
names of the numberless societies which were rapidly formed in various
parts of Italy far exceed whatever degree of quaintness may be thought
to belong to the Lyncean name. The Inflamed—the Transformed—the
Uneasy—the Humorists—the Fantastic—the Intricate—the Indolent—the
Senseless—the Undeceived—the Valiant—the Ætherial Societies are
selected from a vast number of similar institutions, the names of which,
now almost their sole remains, are collected by the industry of Morhof
and Tiraboschi.[63] The Humorists are named by Morhof as the only
Italian philosophical society anterior to the Lynceans; their founder
was Paolo Mancino, and the distinctive symbol which they adopted was
rain dropping from a cloud, with the motto _Redit agmine dulci_;—their
title is derived from the same metaphor. The object of their union
appears to have been similar to that of the Lynceans, but they at no
time attained to the celebrity to which Cesi's society rose from the
moment of its incorporation. Cesi took the presidency for his life, and
the celebrated Baptista Porta was appointed vice president at Naples.
Stelluti acted as the legal representative of the society, with the
title of procuratore. Of the other two original members Anastasio de
Filiis was dead, and although Hecke returned to Italy in 1614, and
rejoined the Academy, yet he was soon afterwards struck off the list in
consequence of his lapsing into insanity. Among the academicians we find
the names of Galileo, Fabio Colonna, Lucas Valerio, Guiducci, Welser,
Giovanni Fabro, Terrentio, Virginio Cesarini, Ciampoli, Molitor,
Cardinal Barberino, (nephew of Pope Urban VIII.) Stelliola, Salviati,
&c.
The principal monument still remaining of the zeal and industry to which
Cesi incited his academicians is the Phytobasanos, a compendium of the
natural history of Mexico, which must be considered a surprising
performance for the times in which it appeared. It was written by a
Spaniard named Hernandez; and Reccho, who often has the credit of the
whole work, made great additions to it. During fifty years the
manuscript had been neglected, when Cesi discovered it, and employed
Terrentio, Fabro, and Colonna, all Lynceans, to publish it enriched with
their notes and emendations. Cesi himself published several treatises,
two of which are extant; his _Tabulæ Phytosophicæ_, and a Dissertation
on Bees entitled _Apiarium_, the only known copy of which last is in the
library of the Vatican. His great work, _Theatrum Naturæ_, was never
printed; a circumstance which tends to shew that he did not assemble the
society round him for the purpose of ministering to his own vanity, but
postponed the publication of his own productions to the labours of his
coadjutors. This, and many other valuable works belonging to the academy
existed in manuscript till lately in the Albani Library at Rome. Cesi
collected, not a large, but an useful library for the use of the
academy, (which was afterwards augmented on the premature death of
Cesarini by the donation of his books); he filled a botanical garden
with the rarer specimens of plants, and arranged a museum of natural
curiosities; his palace at Rome was constantly open to the academicians;
his purse and his influence were employed with equal liberality in their
service.
Cesi's death, in 1632, put a sudden stop to the prosperity of the
society, a consequence which may be attributed to the munificence with
which he had from the first sustained it: no one could be found to fill
his place in the princely manner to which the academicians were
accustomed, and the society, after lingering some years under the
nominal patronage of Urban VIII., gradually decayed, till, by the death
of its principal members, and dispersion of the rest, it became entirely
extinct.[64] Bianchi, whose sketch of the academy was almost the only
one till the appearance of Odescalchi's history, made an attempt to
revive it in the succeeding century, but without any permanent effect. A
society under the same name has been formed since 1784, and is still
flourishing in Rome. Before leaving the subject it may be mentioned,
that one of the earliest notices that Bacon's works were known in Italy
is to be found in a letter to Cesi, dated 1625; in which Pozzo, who had
gone to Paris with Cardinal Barberino, mentions having seen them there
with great admiration, and suggests that Bacon would be a fit person to
be proposed as a member of their society. After Galileo's death, three
of his principal followers, Viviani, Torricelli, and Aggiunti formed the
plan of establishing a similar philosophical society, and though
Aggiunti and Torricelli died before the scheme could be realized,
Viviani pressed it forward, and, under the auspices of Ferdinand II.,
formed a society, which, in 1657, merged in the famous _Academia del
Cimento_, or Experimental Academy. This latter held its occasional
meetings at the palace of Ferdinand's brother, Leopold de' Medici: it
was composed chiefly, if not entirely, of Galileo's pupils and friends.
During the few years that this society lasted, one of the principal
objects of which was declared to be the repetition and developement of
Galileo's experiments, it kept up a correspondence with the principal
philosophers in every part of Europe, but when Leopold was, in 1666,
created a cardinal, it appears to have been dissolved, scarcely ten
years after its institution.[65] This digression may be excused in
favour of so interesting an establishment as the Academia Lincea, which
preceded by half a century the formation of the Royal Society of London,
and Académie Françoise of Paris.
These latter two are mentioned together, probably for the first time, by
Salusbury. The passage is curious in an historical point of view, and
worth extracting:—"In imitation of these societies, Paris and London
have erected theirs of _Les Beaux Esprits_, and of the _Virtuosi_: the
one by the countenance of the most eminent Cardinal Richelieu, the other
by the royal encouragement of his sacred Majesty that now is. The _Beaux
Esprits_ have published sundry volumes of their moral and physiological
conferences, with the laws and history of their fellowship; and I hope
the like in due time from our Royal Society; that so such as envie their
fame and felicity, and such as suspect their ability and candor, may be
silenced and disappointed in their detractions and expectations."[66]
FOOTNOTES:
[61] Salusbury, Math. Coll.
[62] Perhaps it was to deprecate the hostility of the Jesuits that, at
the close of these Regulations, the Lynceans are directed to address
their prayers, among other Saints, especially to Ignatius Loyola, as to
one who greatly favoured the interests of learning. Odescalchi, Memorie
dell'Acad. de' Lincei, Roma. 1806.
[63] Polyhistor Literarius, &c.—Storia della Letterat. Ital. The still
existing society of Chaff, more generally known by its Italian title,
Della Crusca, belongs to the same period.
[64] F. Colonnæ Phytobasanus Jano Planco Auctore. Florent, 1744.
[65] Nelli Saggio di Storia Literaria Fiorentina, Lucca, 1759.
[66] Salusbury's Math. Coll. vol. ii. London, 1664.