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ABSTRACT
This paper offers an opportunity to ponder the way the Catholic Church and its methods of information control reshaped, and paradoxically even enabled, the dissemination and practice of science in early modern Italy. Focusing on the activities of Newtonian scholars operating in Rome in the First half of the eighteenth century – especially the Celestine monk Celestino Galiani (1681–1753) and prelate Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729) – I will argue that major contributions to the spread of Newtonianism in Italy came from individuals operating within the Church, acting more-or-less independently from the Church’s oversight. These scholars realized they were witnessing an inexorable transition and that the medieval scholastic cosmology and physics could not survive. In order to rescue the Church – and to avoid further embarrassment, especially after the Galileo Affair – renewal was needed. Counterintuitively, the dissemination of Italian Newtonianism was largely a Catholic effort.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The concept of Newtonianism is enormous in scope – encompassing, at least, cosmology, mathematics, optics, chronology, atomism, the social sciences, and natural theology, in addition to having meant different things to different people over the centuries. In this paper I will refer to Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1726/27) theory of light and colors, with an emphasis on the theory of attraction.
2 This paper is a revised version of a chapter of my doctoral dissertation. One of the objectives of the current essay is to collect and discuss information on Newtonianism in Rome in the first decades of the eighteenth century that is scattered across studies written especially by authors such as Vincenzo Ferrone, Massimo Mazzotti, Silvia Mazzone, Clara Silvia Roero but also Enrica Baiada, Marta Cavazza, Franco Palladino, Luisa Simonutti, and Maria Laura Soppelsa. Portions of this paper had already published in Daniele Macuglia, ‘The Work of the Roman Newtonians in the Italian Enlightenment’, Viewpoint, Magazine of the British Society for the History of Science 108 (2015), 8–9.
3 Vincenzo Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione: Mondo Newtoniano e Cultura Italiana nel Primo Settecento (Napoli: Jovene Editore, 1982), pp. 11–15.
4 For more information about the Accademia Fisico-matematica please refer to William E. Knowles Middleton, ‘Science in Rome, 1675–1700, and the Accademia Fisicomatematica of Giovanni Giustino Ciampini’, The British Journal for the History of Science 8 (1975), 138–54.
5 Vincenzo Ferrone, The Intellectual Roots of the Italian Enlightenment: Newtonian Science, Religion, and Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1995), p. 6. This volume is essentially the English translation of Ferrone's Scienza Natura Religione, with some differences in the footnotes.
6 Ibid.
7 is an illustration referring to Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa (BUP), Ms. 91, cc. 376r–378v; BUP, Ms. 91, cc. 379r–380v; Silvia Mazzone, Clara Silvia Roero, Jacob Hermann and the Diffusion of the Leibnizian Calculus in Italy (Florence: Olschki, 1997), p. 295; the two composing drawings of are taken from Franco Palladino and Luisa Simonutti, Celestino Galiani – Guido Grandi, Carteggio (Florence: Olschki, 1989), p. 58, p. 62.
8 See John Heilbron, ‘Bianchini and Natural Philosophy’, in Unicità del Sapere Molteplicità dei Saperi, Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729) tra Natura, Storia e Religione, ed. by Luca Ciancio and Gian Paolo Romegnani (Verona: QuiEdit, 2010), pp. 63–4.
9 Socièta Napoletana di Storia Patria (henceforth SNSP), MS XXX D 5.
10 SNSP, MS XXX D 2.
11 Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 295, and note 642.
12 Eugenio Di Rienzo, ‘Celestino Galiani’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 51 (1998). Galiani originally had difficulties in comprehending the first propositions of the Principia, especially those passages employing the method of first and last ratios; Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 295. The Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica in Naples,” Reading Newton in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Elizabethanne Boran, Mordechai Feingold (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2017), pp. 23–63, on pp. 26–27.
13 Gustavo Costa, ‘Documenti per una Storia dei Rapporti Anglo–Romeni nel Settecento’, Saggi e Ricerche sul Settecento (Naples: Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, 1968), p. 427; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 11, p. 19; Ferrone, The Intellectual Roots, p. 4, p. 7.
14 Casini, Paolo, ‘Newton in Italia, 1700–1740: Note di Ricerca’, Newton e la Coscienza Europea (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1983), p. 181.
15 Francesco Bianchini, Iter in Britanniam, Biblioteca Civica di Verona (henceforth BCV), ms. CCCLXXIV; Biblioteca Valliceliana di Roma (henceforth BVR), ms. T.46.B; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, pp. 57–64, on p. 58; See also Salvatore Rotta, Francesco Bianchini in Inghilterra. Contributo ala storia del newtonianismo in Italia (Brescia: Paideia, 1966).
16 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 58.
17 Bianchini to Cardinal de Rohan, 1713, BCV, ms. CCCLXXXIV, c. 37r. See also Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 60. Regarding the English translations of passages related to Ferrone that appear in this essay, the author has considered the English version of Ferrone's Scienza Nature Religione.
18 See for example the letter that Bianchini wrote to Keill on 8 February 1713, BVR, ms. U. 21, c. 241rv; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 60.
19 Casini, Newton, p. 181.
20 Mazzotti, ‘Il Newtonianesimo e la Scienza del Settecento’, in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero. Appendice VIII della Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, vol. 4, ed. by Antonio Clericuzio and Saverio Ricci (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2013), p. 296.
21 Mazzotti, ‘Il Newtonianesimo’, p. 296.
22 As a general reference, see Domenico Bertoloni Meli, Equivalence and Priority: Newton Versus Leibniz: Including Leibniz’s Unpublished Manuscripts on the Principia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
23 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 64; see also Casini, Newton, p. 182, and Salvatore Rotta, ‘Francesco Bianchini’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 10 (1968).
24 Grandi to Bianchini, Pisa, 14 August 1713, BVR, ms. U. 16, cc. 697r–699v; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, pp. 64–5.
25 Casini, Newton, p. 182.
26 Bianchini, Iter in Britanniam, January 21; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 61.
27 Bianchini, Iter in Britanniam, January 30; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 62.
28 Bianchini to Paoloucci, 31 January 1713, BCV, ms. CCCLXXIV, c. 39r. See also Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, pp. 62–3.
29 Bianchini to Cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci (1651–1726), London, 31 January 1713, BCV, ms. CCCLXXIV, c. 39r; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 62.
30 BVR, ms. U. 21, c. 246r, c. 243rv; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, pp. 62–3.
31 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, pp. 64–5, particularly note 16, p. 80.
32 Celestino Galiani, Epistola de gravitate et cartesianis vorticibus, 1714, SNSP, MS XXX D2. See also Rotta, ‘Francesco Bianchini’.
33 Cunningham to Newton, Venice, 21 February 1716. Isaac Newton, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. by Herbert Westren Turnbull (Cambridge: Royal Society at University Press, 1967), Vol. IV, pp. 278–9.
34 The connection between Galiani and Burnet started even earlier, when the English scientist was in Rome in 1709. Fausto Nicolini, Un grande educatore italiano Celestino Galiani (Naples: Giannini, 1951), p. 149.
35 Casini, Newton, pp. 192–3.
36 Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 305.
37 Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, pp. 294–5; Nicolini, Un grande educatore italiano, pp. 23–4.
38 Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, pp. 297–98.
39 Hermann to Grandi, Padua, 23 May 1710, Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 304.
40 Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 304.
41 Grandi to Barcellini, Pisa, 6 August 1711, Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 305; Palladino, Simonitti, Celestino Galiani, p. 281.
42 SNSP, MS XXX D 2, ff. 132r–139r; Mazzone, Roero, Jacob Hermann, p. 305, pp. 489–505.
43 Galiani’s letter seems to follow the general approach by Poleni in his De Vorticibus. However, the lack of originality was probably not the reason why the Epistola was not published. Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 65, p. 73; Casini, Newton, p. 193.
44 Galiani to Grandi, Rome, 21 April 1714, BUP, Carteggio Grandi, ms. 92, c. 363r. See also Celestino Galiani, Epistola de Gravitate et Cartesianis Vorticibus, SNSP, XXX D 2, c. 51r.
45 Celestino Galiani, Epistola de Gravitate et Cartesianis Vorticibus, SNSP, XXX D 2, cc. 51v–52r; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 74; Ferrone, Intellectual Roots, p. 28.
46 Celestino Galiani, Epistola de Gravitate et Cartesianis Vorticibus, SNSP, XXX D 2, c. 57r; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 75; Ferrone, Intellectual Roots, p. 29.
47 Celestino Galiani, Epistola de Gravitate et Cartesianis Vorticibus, SNSP, XXX D 2, c. 58v–59r; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 76; Ferrone, Intellectual Roots, p. 29.
48 Bianchini to Newton, Rome, 15 May 1714, BVR, ms. U. 21, c. 266rv; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 78; Ferrone, Intellectual Roots, p. 30.
49 BUP, Carteggio Grandi, ms. 92.
50 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 80; Ferrone, Intellectual Roots, p. 31.
51 Galiani to Bottari, Rome, 5 May 1714, BCR, ms. 1581, 32.E.2, c. 1r; Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 79; Ferrone, Intellectual Roots, p. 30.
52 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, p. 80.
53 Ibid., pp. 81–4.
54 Casini, Newton, p. 194; Heilbron, ‘Bianchini’, pp. 70–2.
55 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religlione, pp. 643–4.
56 The exact name of such a Flemmish scholar doesn not seem to be known. Casini, Newton, p. 191.
57 Federico Amodeo, Vita matematica napoletana (Naples: Mosca, 1727), p. 208; Vincenzo Ariani, Memorie della vita e degli scritti di Agostino Ariani (Naples: Catello Longobardo, 1778), p. 50, p. 81, p. 90; Casini, Newton, p. 191. See also Nicola De Martino, Elementa statices in Tyronum gratiam tumultuario studio concinnata (Naples: F. Mosca, 1727), p. LI, p. 560.
58 Neapolitan editors also produced a new edition of Thomas Dereham’s Teologia astronomica (1728) and William Derham’s (1657–1735) Principi filosofici di religione naturale (1729); Casini, Newton, pp. 191–2.
59 Pietro De Martino, Philosophiae naturalis institutiones libri tres (Naples: F. Mosca, 1738); Antonio Genovesi, ‘Disputatio [later Dissertatio] Physico–Historica de Rerum Origine et Constitutione’ in Pieter van Musschenbroek, Elementa physicae conscripta in usus academicos (Naples: typis Petri Palumbo, 1745); see also John Heilbron, Elements of early modern physics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 255.
60 Samuel Wainwrigh, The modern Avernus. the descent of England: how far? A question for Parliament and the constituencies (London: Hatchards, Piccadillly, 1876), p. 286; Isaac Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, in François Jacquier, Thomas Le Seur, eds., Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (Geneva: Barillot et fils, 1739), John Heilbron, ‘Censorship of astronomy in Italy after Galileo’, in The Church and Galileo ed. by Ernan McMullin (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), pp. 279–322, on p. 307.
61 Nicola De Martino, Elementi statices (Naples, 1727); Casini, Newton, pp. 208–12.
62 Mazzotti, ‘Il Newtonianesimo’, p. 297.
63 Pietro De Martino, Philosophiae naturalis, Vol. 2, p. 40.
64 Mazzotti, ‘Il Newtonianesimo’, p. 297. Franco Arato, Il secolo delle cose: scienza e storia in Francesco Algarotti (Genova: Marietti, 1991), p. 48.
65 Casini, Newton, pp. 212–15.
66 Mazzotti, ‘Il Newtonianesimo’, p. 297.
67 Antonio Genovesi, ‘Disputatio [later Dissertatio] Physico-Historica de Rerum Origine et Constitutione’ in Pieter van Musschenbroek, Elementa physicae conscripta in usus academicos (Naples: typis Petri Palumbo, 1745), Vol. 1, pp. 69–74.
68 Giovanni Crivelli, Elementi di fisica (Venice, 1731); Casini, Newton, pp. 215–16.
69 Giovanni Crivelli, Elementi di fisica, Vol. 2, pp. 215–36.
70 Crivelli, Elementi, p. 235. See also Casini, Newton, pp. 216–19.
71 Giovanni Maria Della Torre, Scienza della natura generale (Naples: Serafino Porsile, 1748); Giovanni Maria Della Torre, Scienza della natura particolare (Naples: Serafino Porsile, 1749); Giovanni Maria Della Torre, Institutiones physicae (Naples: Raimundianis, 1753), which is essentially the Latin version of the Scienza della natura generale, and finally Giovanni Maria Della Torre, Elementa physicae (Naples: Donati Campi, 1767–69), which is the Latin version, with revisions and expansions, of Della Torre's whole production.
72 Giovanni Maria Della Torre, Scienza della natura generale (Venice: Recurti, 1750), p. XIII.
73 Della Torre, Scienza della natura generale, p. 103.
74 Antonio Genovesi, Elementi di fisica sperimentale (Naples: Di Bisogno, 1786), vol. 1, p. 61.
75 Eustachio Manfredi, Istituzioni astronomiche, opera postuma del Dottor Eustachio Manfredi (Bologna: Della Volpe, 1749), p. 1. Casini, Newton, pp. 216–19.
76 Manfredi, Istituzioni astronomiche, p. XII.
77 Manfredi, Istituzioni astronomiche, p. IX.
78 Casini, Newton, p. 218.
79 Manfredi, Istituzioni astronomiche, p. 383.
80 Ibid., p. 389.
81 Mazzotti, ‘Newton for ladies’; Mazzotti, ‘Il newtonianesimo’, p. 295; Domenico Michelessi, Memorie intorno alla vita ed agli scritti del conte Francesco Algarotti (Venice: Pasquali, 1770).
82 Mazzotti, ‘Il newtonianesimo’, p. 295.
83 Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Propositiones Philosophicae (Milan: Joseph Richinum Malatestam, 1738); Massimo Mazzotti, The world of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), pp. 1–21; Mazzotti, ‘Il newtonianesimo’, p. 294; Francesco Manara, Prolusio in Gymnasio Ticinensi habita a Francisco Maria Manara C.R.S. cum physicam experimentalem mechanicam profiteri ingrederetur anno MDCCXLII Kal. Decembris (Pavia: Rovedino, 1742).
84 Ferrone, Scienza Natura Religione, pp. 12–13.
85 For a more precise focus on Benedict XIV the reader should consider Rebecca Messbarger, Christopher M.S. Johns, Philip Gavitt, eds., Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: art, science, and spirituality (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016).
86 Messbarger, Benedict XIV, pp. xxix–xxx, pp. 17–90, pp. 177–252. See also Paula Findlen, ‘Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy: The Strategies of Laura Bassi (1711–1778)’, Isis 83 (1993), 441–69; Paula Findlen, ‘A forgotten Newtonian: women and science in the italian provinces’, The sciences in Enlightenment Europe, ed. by William Clark, Jan Golinski and Simon Schaffer (The University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 313–49; Paula Findlen, ‘The scientist’s body: the nature of a woman philosopher in Enlightenment Italy’, The faces of nature in Enlightenment Europe, ed. by Gianna Pomata and Lorraine Daston (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafs–Verlag, 2003), pp. 211–36; Paula Findlen, ‘Translating the new science: women and the circulation of knowledge in Enlightenment Italy’, Configurations 2 (1995), 167–206.