A telescopic paradox: the artisans of the Accademia del Cimento, their instruments and their (in)visibility

ABSTRACT

The brief life of the Accademia del Cimento (1657–1667), the first known society with a purely experimental programme,¹ is entangled with the most surprising advancements in the history of scientific instruments of that century, from the telescope to the microscope, the thermometer to the barometer, the hygrometer to the pendulum as a time-regulator, and more. The making of instruments at the Florentine court shows the interaction of princely, scholarly and artisanal actors. This paper explores this collaboration and shows how the supposed “invisibility’ of artisans depended on their proximity to the academicians and princes, who mainly communicated verbally with them, directly or through middlemen. The visibility of artisans increases proportionally to their physical distance from the Court. In this essay I unveil the identity of the artisans of the Cimento and, finally, attempt to attribute five instruments (some lost and others still extant) to specific makers, shedding light also on relations between the artisan and his patron.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Over the period of a year and a half in 2020–2021, I had the honor to join the European-funded research group Tacitroots under the direction of Professor Giulia Giannini, at the Università Statale di Milano. My task was to research the instruments of the Accademia del Cimento through the lens of social and cultural history. I therefore approached these instruments as cultural products, investigating the agencies that shaped them: specifically, I was interested in the processes involved in their design and construction. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101025015.

2 A selected historiography of the Accademia del Cimento in the last fifty years includes: W. E. Knowles Middleton, The experimenters: a study of the Accademia del Cimento (Baltimore, MA; London: Hopkins University Press, 1971); Paolo Galluzzi, ‘L’Accademia del Cimento: “Gusti” del principe, filosofia e ideologia dell’esperimento’, Quaderni Storici, 16 (1981), 788–844; Maria Luisa Bonelli and Albert Van Helden, ‘Divini and Campani: A Forgotten Chapter in the History of the Accademia Del Cimento’, Annali Dell’Istituto e Museo Di Storia Della Scienza Di Firenze, 6.1 (1981), 3–176; Marco Beretta, ‘At the Source of Western Science: The Organization of Experimentalism at the Accademia Del Cimento (1657–1667)’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 54.2 (2000), 131–51; Paolo Galluzzi, Scienziati a corte. L’arte della sperimentazione nell’Accademia galileiana del Cimento (1657–1667). (Livorno: Sillabe, 2001); Maria Grazia Tagliavini, ‘“Opere di Cristallo Delicatissime e Meravigliose”: Works of Art for Connoisseurs and Scientific Instruments for the Accademia Del Cimento’, Nuncius : Annali Di Storia Della Scienza Nuncius, 22.2 (2007), 309–33; Luciano Boschiero, Experiment and Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany: The History of the Accademia del Cimento (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol 21), Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 1. Aufl. (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, Springer, 2007), xxi; The Accademia Del Cimento and Its European Context, ed. by Marco Beretta, Antonio Clericuzio, and Lawrence Principe (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2009); Mordechai Feingold and Giulia Giannini, The Institutionalization of Science in Early Modern Europe (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2019).

3 For quotations from the Saggi I will make use of Richard Waller’s 1684 English translation: Lorenzo Magalotti, Essays of Natural Experiments: Made in the Academie Del Cimento, Under the Protection of the Most Serene Prince Leopold of Tuscany, trans. by Richard Waller FRS (London: B. Alsop, 1684).

4 Accademia del cimento and Magalotti, Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’Accademia del cimento sotto la protezione del serenissimo principe Leopoldo di Toscana e descritte dal segretario di essa accademia, (In Firenze: Per Giuseppe Cocchini all'Insegna della stella, 1666), pp. II-IV. Gianfrancesco Rambelli, Intorno invenzioni e scoperte italiane (Modena: Vincenzi e Rossi, 1844), p. 167. See also below.

5 Steven Shapin, ‘Invisible Technicians: Masters, Servants, and the Making of Experimental Knowledge’, in A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 355–407.

6 I would like to thank my colleagues at Tacitroots and especially the libraries of the Museo Galileo and of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (henceforth ‘BNCF’) for providing me with the digital resources needed for this investigation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many thanks are also due to the President of HORA (the Italian society of antiquarian horology), Antonio Lenner, for assigning to me the task of the posthumous edition of Silvio Bedini’s magnus opus, which first put me in touch with some of the fascinating topics discussed in this article. See Silvio A Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, ed. by Cristiano Zanetti (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021). I also thank Dr Giorgio Strano of the Museo Galileo and Giancarlo Truffa for their help, Mordechai Feingold for offering the hospitality of this journal, and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. This article adds to a growing corpus of contributions that, especially in the last two decades, focus on the role of artisans in the field of the History of Science and Technology. Since the beginning of this century, the work of Edgar Zilsel (1891–1944), the pioneering sociologist of the history of science, has attracted new attention. His research attempted to demonstrate the great importance of the role played by artisans in the development of modern science. Among the most seminal studies resulting from the Zilsel revival are works by Pamela O. Long and Pamela Smith: Edgar Zilsel, The Social Origins of Modern Science, ed. by Diederick Raven, Wolfgang Krohn, and Robert S. Cohen, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 200 (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000); Pamela O. Long, Artisan/Practitioners and the Rise of the New Sciences, 1400–1600 (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2011); Pamela H. Smith, The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). For a recent bibliographical overview on the topic, see: Joel A. Klein, ‘Practitioners’ Knowledge’, in The Cambridge History of Philosophy of the Scientific Revolution, ed. by David Marshall Miller and Dana Jalobeanu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022) pp. 184–200.

7 A historical but still useful work on the Grand ducal workshops is: Giuseppe Bencivenni gia Pelli, Saggio istorico della Real Galleria di Firenze, 2 vols, (Firenze: Cambiagi, 1779).

8 At the time, an arsenal was an establishment for different manufactures, and not just a place for the production or storage of weapons. The Arsenal in Venice was the place where the Republic manufactured all the items necessary for civil and military navigation. Considered the biggest industrial establishment of the Middle Ages and early modern period, it became the industrial place for antinomy: it gave its name, in different languages, to other similar establishments all around Europe.

9 ‘ … Le Gallerie che altrove servono per passeggio, nel Vostro fiorito Aeropago sono l’Arsenale, per numeroso stuolo de’ più perfetti Artefici del Mondo, che in ogni genere di Manuali Discipline, da’ più lontani paesi chiamati, ivi liberalmente lavorano per vezzo, e per dar perfezione a tutti quei Lavori, che possono servire alla vostra Grandezza, a’ vostri Studj, alle vostre Fisiche e Matematiche Speculazioni, e a qualsivoglia vostro piacevole Trattenimento. Quivi gli Olij, i Balsami, le Quintessenze più potenti contro la morte si fabbricano, né si vede sparsa per le circonvicine Regioni cosa di nuova invenzione, o di perfetto artificio, che per Opera della Galleria di Firenze non si ravvivi.’ Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, Notizie degli aggrandimenti delle scienze fisiche accaduti in Toscana nel corso di anni LX. del secolo XVII, raccolte dal dottor Gio. Targioni-Tozzetti …  (Firenze: G. Bouchard, 1780), i, p. 513. All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated.

10 BNCF, Galileiano (henceforth ‘Gal.’) 260, cc. 92r-97r.

11 Accademia del cimento and Magalotti, Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’Accademia del cimento sotto la protezione del serenissimo principe Leopoldo di Toscana e descritte dal segretario di essa accademia, p. CXXXXI: lathe for metals; p. CXXXXIV: lathe for wood; p. CLXXXII: lathe for metals and bronze casting; p. CLXXXIV: lathe for metals and wood; p. CCXII: lathe for wood.

12 Luciano Berti, Il principe dello studiolo: Francesco I dei Medici e la fine del Rinascimento fiorentino (Firenze: Edam, 1967) pp. 57–8.

13 Magalotti, Essays, p. 51. In Saggi, XCVII, ‘ … il Boile per uso delle sue bellissime, e nobilissime esperienze, tra le quali sovvennegli ancor quella, tuttoché allora non la mettesse in pratica per mancamento d’artefice atto a fabbricarne l’ordigno … ’.

14 The subject of glassmaking in Florence has attracted the attention of several scholars. Among the most relevant works see: Mara Miniati, ‘Bocciuoli, Palle d’oncia e Termometri Gelosissimi: Vetro e Scienza Nell’Accademia Del Cimento’, in Galluzzi (ed.) Scienziati a Corte, pp. 36–42; Anna Vittoria Laghi, ‘Fra Vetro d’arte e Vetro Scientifico,’ in Galluzzi (ed.) Scienziati a Corte, pp. 52–58; Marco Beretta, Paolo Galluzzi, and Carlo Triarico, Musa Musaei: Studies on Scientific Instruments and Collections in Honour of Mara Miniati (L.S. Olschki, 2003); Marco Beretta, ‘Glassmaking Goes Public: The Cultural Background to Antonio Neri’s L’Arte Vetraria (1612)’, Technlogy and Culture 58 (October 1, 2017), 1046–70.

15 BNCF, Gal. 252, see c. 4v: Letter from Vincenzo Viviani to Erasmus Bartholin (September 4, 1655), where we can see that Bartholin was interested in glass instruments from Florence and Viviani in optical glass from Venice.

16 Galluzzi, ‘L’Accademia del Cimento’, p. 792.

17 During the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were at least four important Grand ducal furnaces for the production of glass: one for experimenting with materials, such as the furnace for melted rock crystal beakers, was installed at the Casino di San Marco; a second, for the production of majolica and the famous Medici porcelain, was in Pisa; a third, imitating Venetian glass, was to be found in Pratolino; and, finally, a furnace was installed in the Boboli gardens to produce glass as fine as that of Venice. See: Beretta, ‘Glassmaking Goes Public’.; Miniati, ‘Bocciuoli, palle d’oncia … ’; Tagliavini, ‘Opere Di Cristallo Delicatissime e Meravigliose’.

18 The Museo Galileo website wrongly describes Luigi Antinori as ‘monaco Vallombrosano’ (a monk of Vallombrosa). https://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/itinerari/multimediale/ReteMeteorologicaMedicea.html [accessed 4 July 2022].

19 Dario Camuffo and Chiara Bertolin, ‘The Earliest Temperature Observations in the World: The Medici Network (1654–1670)’, Climatic Change, 111.2 (2012), 335–63.

20 Accademia del cimento and Magalotti, p. II-IV.: ‘Egli è tutto di cristallo finissimo lavorato per opra di quegli artefici, i quali fervendosi delle proprie gote per mantice, tramandano il fiato per un’organo di cristallo alla fiamma d’una lucerna, e quella, o intera, o in varie linguette divisa, di mano in mano dove richiede il bisogno di lor lavoro spirando, vengono a formar’ opere di cristallo delicatissime, e maravigliose. Noi un tal’ artefice chiamiamo il Gonfia. A lui dunque s’apparterrà di formar la palla dello strumento d’una tal capacità, e grandezza, e d’attaccarvi un cannello di tal misura di vano, che riempiendolo fin'a un certo segno del suo collo con acquarzente […] Con un simile imbuto adunque si potrà finir d’empire il Termometro […] spingendovi dentro con la forza del fiato il liquore, o risucchiandone, se fosse troppo […] di potrà fare a occhio, essendochè l’esercizio, studio, e industria dell’arte insegna da per se stessa […] Rimarrebbe da dire di molt’altre operazioni, e squisitezze di lavorare alla lucerna; ma si come in questa materia è troppo difficile spiegarsi in carta, così è affatto impossibile impararlo in iscritto; che però bisogna avere il Gonfia mediocremente istrutto, essendochè l’arte con la lunga pratica da per se stessa s’affina.’ For the English translation: Magalotti, Essays, pp. 2–4.

21 Magalotti, Essays, p. 2.

22 See translation of the Saggi in: Middleton.

23 Accademia del cimento and Magalotti, Saggi, p. VII-IX:‘ … la maestria del lavorare non si può insegnar per regole, volendo esser pratica, e lunghissima esperienza, provando, e riprovando, scemando, e crescendo or’ il corpo della palla, ora ‘l vano al cannello, ora la quantità d’acquarzente, finchè si dia nel segno. Ed un Artefice famosissimo in questo mestiero, che serviva il Sereniss. Granduca soleva dire, che gli dava ben l’animo di fabbricare due, e tre, e quanti Termometri si fosser voluti da 50 gradi, i quali circondati dallo stesso ambiente camminassero sempre del pari, ma non già di que’ da 100, e molto meno di que’ da 300, essendochè in maggior palla, ed in maggior lunghezza di collo più facilmente si trouano delle disuguaglianze, ed ogni minimo errore che venga fatto nel lavorargli, è abile a far’ apparire in essi grandissime disorbitanze, e ad alterare la proporzione d’ugualità, ch’arebbe a essere infra di loro.’ For the English translation: Magalotti, Essays of Natural Experiments, p. 5.

24 Albert Van Helden and Hankins, and Thomas L. Hankins, ‘Instruments in the History of Science’, Osiris, 9. Instruments (1994), 1–6 (p. 1). This is something that happens also today in important research institutions, where technicians reshape the experimental programs of the theoreticians through the limits of the technology. I would like to thank all the researchers working at Caltech and JPL for the examples they have given to me on this subject, through informal discussions, in a transdisciplinary and diachronic sense.

25 Here, Waller’s translation loses completely the original reference to Dante: ‘and often Trials being the onely way to effect it’. Magalotti, Essays, p. 5.

26 Angelo Fabroni, Lettere inedite di uomini illustri per servire d’appendice all’opera intitolata Vitæ Italorum doctrina excellentium, 2 vols (In Firenze: Alla stamperia di Francesco Moücke, 1773), i, pp. 112–14.

27 Fabroni, Lettere inedite di uomini illustri per servire d’appendice all’opera intitolata Vitæ Italorum doctrina excellentium, i, pp. 112–14.

28 BNCF, Gal. 278: letter by Geminiano Montanari to Prince Leopoldo (June, 25 1667): ‘Canicole. Volevo p[er]ciò proseguire più accuratam[en]te quest’anno, ma mi trovo privo affatto di termometri, sendomisi rotto quello di 100 gradi col che feci quelle osservazioni, ond’io piglio anche in ciò l’ardire di supp[lica]re l’A. Vos. Ser.ssma onorarmi di farmene provvedere d’alcuni, sin che è vivo cotesto Gonfia non potendo io tenere tanto q[uel]l impaziente che habbiamo a Bologna, che mi faccia cosa buona, stante mas[simament]e l’uniforme temperature che vi è necess[ari]a […]’:

29 Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, Gli strumenti superstiti dell’Accademia del Cimento (Pisa: Domus Galilaeana 1958), p. 10.

30 ‘ … La prego di mandarmi sei o quattro dozzine di quelli thermometri, ò siano strumentini, che faceva il Gonfia del Ser.mo Gran Duca, divisi in cinquanta gradi, sentendo, che doppo la morte di quello vi sia uno, che li fa assai bene.’ BNCF, Gal. 158, Letter from Tito Livio Burattini to Cardinal Leopoldo, May 23, 1668, c. 179r.

31 ‘ … mi trovo già in casa due assortim[en]ti di strumentini fatti portare dal Gonfia e lasciare per potergli esaminar con comodità, ma p[er]ché ho osservato che tra di loro non son d’accordo, ho ragion[evol]e sospetto che niun di loro sia giusto … sarei di parere di aspettar qualche giorno … si che tra molti che il med[esim]o Gonfia deve farne pel Sig. Card[ina]le, si possa fare scelta dei più esatti … ’ BNCF, Gal. 158, Letter from Viviani Vincenzo to Chimentelli Valerio, September 19, 1668.

32 Targioni Tozzetti, Notizie degli aggrandimenti delle scienze fisiche accaduti in Toscana nel corso di anni LX. del secolo XVII, raccolte dal dottor Gio. Targioni-Tozzetti … , i, p. 381.

33 Albert Van Helden, Catalogue of Early Telescopes (Firenze: Giunti, 1999), p. 34. It would be interesting to map prosopographically the artisans working around the Galleria over the longue durée: for instance, in the case of il Tordino and his uncle il Tordo, what was their family relation to the engineers Tommaso Francini 1571–1651 and his younger brother Alessandro Francini di Tommaso, both employed in the service of the King of France? Chiara Stefani, ‘Francini, Tommaso’, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani <https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/tommaso-francini_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/> [accessed 3 March 2023]. Carlo Vittorio Varetti, ‘L’artefice di Galileo: Ippolito Francini detto Tordo: contributo agli studi galileiani e alla storia dell’ottica’, Rendiconti della Reale Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 15.3–4 (1939), 204–97.

34 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, p. 574.

35 ‘[…] Si presenterà a V.S. con questa il Sig.r Jacopo Mariani che è un giovane mandato dal Ser.mo Gran Duca Nostro Sig.re alla città d'Augusta per apprendervi le finezze dell'arte del torno dove è già introdotto e perchè non ha egli alcuna esperienza nel viaggiare essendo questa la prima volta che esce di casa vuole S.A. che venga costì raccomandato a V.S. acciò ellea si contenti di provederlo d'un buon passaggio fino alla città sudetta accompagnandolo con qualche altro passeggiero che vada verso quella parte o almeno fino ad Inspruck con scriver poi colà a qualche amico di V.S. che gli trovi recapito et indirizzo per Augusta acciò non habbia a confondersi in un paese dove non conosce alcuno e non intende la lingua. […]’ Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato f. 1583, c. 557: Letter from the court of Florence to Andrea Galleni, June 28,1675. Courtesy of Database MIA (Doc ID 25270) of The Medici Archive Project.

36 ‘il nostro Gonfia, chiamato Antonio Alamanni nativo di Firenze (che pur’ era un valentissimo uomo in quest’arte, e tale che essendo egli oggi morto, non c’è per anche riuscito trovargli il compagno ne lo speriamo, ma ne meno sappiamo ch’ei l’abbia avuto in verun tempo)’: BNCF, Gal. 266, c. 11v. As previously seen, this passage was quoted by M. L. Bonelli, Gli strumenti superstiti dell’Accademia del Cimento, Pisa 1958, p. 10. At cc. 6r, 23r-25v of this draft (Gal. 266), we find that, at this stage, there was a plan to include a declaration of some machines, probably created by Father Candido del Buono (1618–1676), perhaps together with his brothers Anton Maria and the abovementioned Paolo. The machine was the arcicanna, used since 1660 to erect long telescopes to observe Saturn. Figure 4.

37 Accademia del Cimento, Lorenzo Magalotti, Saggi, p. VII: ‘un Artefice famosissimo in questo mestiero, che serviva il Sereniss. Granduca’.

38 Antonio Alamanni signed and undated letter to Vincenzo Viviani –perhaps written around 1666, considering that Alamanni made a reference to his bad health: BNCF, Gal. 269, c. 90r.

39 Miniati, ‘Bocciuoli, palle d’oncia … ’, p. 36. Tagliavini, ‘Opere Di Cristallo Delicatissime e Meravigliose’, pp. 323–4.

40 In 1610 he had promised Galileo that he would produce optical glass for him. Miniati, p. 42, n. 4: C. V. Varetti, L’artefice di Galileo …  1939; Galileo Galilei, Le opere di Galileo Galilei: Edizione nazionale sotto gli auspici di Sua Maestà il Re d’Italia, ed. by Antonio Favaro, 21 vols (Firenze: Barbera, 1890), X, p. 441. Gerardo de Simone, ‘Niccolò Sisti e la maiolica a Pisa tra fine Cinque e primo Seicento’, in Pisa città della ceramica. Mille anni di economia e d'Arte, Dalle Importazioni Mediterranee Alle Creazioni Contemporanee, ed. by Monica Baldassarri, (Pisa: Pacini, 2018), pp. 155–60.

41 Beretta, ‘Glassmaking Goes Public’.

42 On German ivory turners and Florentine lathes for the pietre dure see: Cristina Piacenti Aschengreen, ‘Una preda di guerra’, in Diafane passioni, ed. by Eike D. Schmidt and Maria Sframeli (Livorno: Sillabe, 2013), pp. 31–33; Francesca Toso, ‘L’“ingegnoso artifizio”: tecniche di lavorazione’, in La fabbrica delle meraviglie, ed. by Annamaria Giusti, (Firenze: Edifir edizioni, Opificio delle pietre dure, 2015), pp. 257–88; Francesca Toso, ‘Le tecniche e le attrezzature in uso presso la Manifattura granducale’, in ‘Pietre colorate molto vaghe e belle’: arte senza tempo dal Museo dell'Opificio delle pietre dure ed. by Sandra Rossi, Peter Assmann, and Anna Patera (Mantova: Tre lune edizioni 2018), pp. 244–59.

43 ‘Un cerchio d'argento tornito liscio che doveva servire per strumenta da filosofia, pesa once nove denari 16’: item number 239: Inventario de' mobili e masserizie dell'eredità del Serenissimo e Reverendissimo Signore Principe Cardinale Leopoldo di Toscana, cominciato questo dì suddetto. Stateci consegnate l'appiè descritte robe da Paolo Cennini Guardaroba di detto signor Cardinale e prima, Firenze, Archivio di Stato, Guardaroba Mediceo 826, years 1675–1676. https://www.memofonte.it/ricerche/collezionismo-mediceo/ accessed July 10, 2022. On the Milanese turners employed at court in the previous century, see: Toso, ‘L’“ingegnoso artifizio”’, and Diafane passioni: avori barocchi dalle corti europee, ed. by Schmidt, Eike and Sframeli, Maria (Livorno: Sillabe, 2013).

44 Targioni Tozzetti, Notizie degli aggrandimenti delle scienze fisiche accaduti in Toscana nel corso di anni LX. del secolo XVII, raccolte dal dottor Gio. Targioni-Tozzetti … , i, p. 381.

45 Wolfram Prinz, ‘Deutsche Kunstdrechsler Am Florentiner Hof. Nachrichten Über Johann Philipp Und Christoph Treffler, Drechsler Un Uhrmacher Für Ferdinando II. Und Cosimo III. de’ Medici, Sowie Über Jacopo Mariani’, Mitteilungen Des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 13.1/2 (1967), pp. 173–84. Several letters by Cosimo III mention this craftsman as his personal ivory turner, who worked with him: Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, 4491, cc. 687r-716v.

46 ‘per lavorare gli strumenti a piacere degli Accademici’: Targioni Tozzetti, i, p. 381.

47 The Museo Galileo of Florence houses a round sundial dated to 1692 (inventory 3189) and a terrestrial telescope signed and dated 1695 (Inv. 2550).

48 BNCF, Gal. 268, c. 158v. letter by Viviani written after October 10, 1656.

49 ‘ … mons[igno]re Filippo Torniaio di S.A.S. ebbe ordine di far’ gli anelli, ed i fusti conici … ’: BNCF, Gal. 268, c. 7v.

50 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler: Clockmaker of Augsburg’, Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, 7.6 (1956), 29.

51 Ibid.; Silvio A Bedini, ‘Agent for the Archduke: Another Chapter in the Story of Johann Philipp Treffler, Clockmaker of Augsburg.’, in Patrons, Artisans and Instruments of Science, 1600 - 1750, ed. by Bedini, Silvio A. (Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1999), pp. 137–58; Antonio Lenner, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler : orologiaio in Augsburg e Firenze’, La Voce di Hora, 41.Dicembre 2016 (2016), 5–20.

52 Günther Oestmann, ‘Clocks from Nuremberg and Augsburg in the 16th and 17th Centuries’, in Time Made in Germany: 700 Years of German Horology (presented at the Ward Francillon time symposium, Nuremberg: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie: Jahresschrif, 2019), lviii, 73–91 (p. 79).

53 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’; Bedini, ‘Agent for the Archduke’; Lenner ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’.

54 BNCF, Gal. 261, cc. 20v, 23r.

55 Tacitroots’s databases, currently under construction, will be able to clarify if my claim, based on a partial investigation of the papers, is sound. Moreover, careful philological and palaeographical analysis should be done on an experimental diary written by a servant of Grand Duke Ferdinand II: the amanuensis, on one occasion, signed himself ‘Filippo’, and made clear that he was conducting an experiment. BNCF, Gal. 260, c. 47 r. ‘Si faticò p[er] equilibrare una palla di Rame con vasetto in cima a vite da me filippo p[er] vedere il peso d[e]l aria in diversi gradi di calore … ’ . Published by Targioni Tozzetti.

56 BNCF, Gal. 252, c. 105r, Letter from Viviani Vincenzo to Trefler Johann Philipp, November 21, 1665.

57 BNCF, Gal. 254, c. 287r: Trefler Johann Philipp a Viviani Vincenzo, Dicember 4, 1665.

58 Gabriella Belloni Speciale, ‘Folli, Francesco’, in ‘Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani’ in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani < https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/francesco-folli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/> [accessed 3 March 2023].

59 BNCF, Gal. 254, c. 287r: Trefler Johann Philipp a Viviani Vincenzo, Dicember 4, 1665. BNCF: Gal. 252, cc. 103–106v, letters by Vincenzo Viviani (November 21, 1665) to Gio. Filippo Treffler. BNCF, Gal. 282, cc. 128r-130v, letter from Lorenzo Magalotti to his brother Cesare in Rome, (November 1, 1665). Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, pp. 298, 376.

60 The Museo Galileo owns these instruments: Folli’s hygrometer: Inv. 2435 (figure 8). Another similar hygrometer (Inv. 2434), less refined, is probably the original presented by Folli to the Grand Duke. Bedini believed that another hygrometer from the Museo Galileo (Inv. 3, 2437), whose design is attributed to Vincenzo Viviani, is the one referred to in these letters: Silvio A Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 15. However, the strong structural similarity of the other two (figure 9 and 10), suggests that the second was an improvement on the first as regards material, rather than in terms of design, as emerges from the letters mentioned here. Moreover, the significant use of turned decorative parts indicates that the instrument I propose (figure 9) is closer to Filippo’s craftsmanship as a turner. Viviani’s less elaborate hygrometer could also have been crafted by Filippo, but I believe that, if this was indeed the case, then it happened at a later time.

61 Silvio A. Bedini, The Pulse of Time : Galileo Galilei, the Determination of Longitude and the Pendulum Clock (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1991), pp. 67–8. BNCF, Gal. 255, c. 3r, letter from Filippo Treffler to Vincenzo Viviani about a surveying instrument (January 15, 1666). See also Silvio A Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 15.

62 The nocturnal pendulum-regulated clock in the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, is of the same typology as the night clock paid for by the Medici in September 1667: <http://www.museoscienza.it/dipartimenti/catalogo_collezioni/scheda_oggetto.asp?idk_in=ST040-00028&arg=treffler> [accessed 4 April 2023]. This museum owns another caseless movement by Filippo. A nocturnal projector clock by Filippo Treffler is housed in the Orangerie of Kassel, which was also inspired by a 1667–1668 invention by Giuseppe Campani <https://datenbank.museum-kassel.de/226663/0/0/0/0/2/0/objekt.html> [accessed 10 July 2022]. Bedini mentioned some other clocks made or restored by Filippo Treffler: Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 5.

63 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 5.

64 The scudo (Italian for ‘shield’) was a 3.34-gram golden coin (plural: scudi). It was a common currency in the early modern period. Silvana Balbi de Caro and Luigi Londei, Moneta Pontificia: Da Innocenzo XI a Gregorio XVI (Roma: Edizioni Quasar, 1984), ad vocem.

65 For a detailed history of the Campani brothers, see: Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius.

66 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, pp. 199, 239.

67 Ibid. Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’; Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, ‘Di un orologio di “Gio: Filipp Trefler” di Augusta’, Physis, 2 (1960), 242–60; Prinz ‘Deutsche Kunstdrechsler Am Florentiner Hof. Nachrichten Über Johann Philipp Und Christoph Treffler, Drechsler Un Uhrmacher Für Ferdinando II. Und Cosimo III. de’ Medici, Sowie Über Jacopo Mariani’; Bedini, ‘Agent for the Archduke’; Lenner ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’.

68 I am preparing an article to be submitted to this very journal where I will deal with this issue in detail.

69 See Viviani’s letter to Prince Leopoldo dated August 20, 1659 in Le opere di Galileo Galilei, ed. by Eugenio Albèri (Firenze: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 1855), XIV, pp. 341–56.

70 The original document contains some amendments to the way Viviani dated Generini’s presentation of his clock to the Grand Duke in relation to 1641, the year Galileo, according to Viviani, had conceived the design of his pendulum-regulated clock. Viviani, writing in the summer of 1659, had first written ‘18 anni fa’, meaning ‘18 years ago’. He then changed this to ‘14 anni avanti’, meaning ‘14 years earlier’, referring here to the year Generini presented the machine: in other words, he was referring to the year 1655. BNCF, Gal. 85, c. 48v-49r.

71 He was also the sculptor of the so-called Fontana della Nicchia, one of the most iconic fountains of Florence (see Fig. 5).

72 The new databases being developed by Tacitroots will perhaps shed some new light on the issue in the future.

73 Vincenzo Viviani, "Lettera di Vincenzio Viviani al Principe Leopoldo de' Medici intorno all'applicazione del pendolo all’orologio" in Albèri, XIV, pp. 341–56.

74 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 5.

75 For instance, see: Bedini, The Pulse of Time, p. 66 and following ones.

76 Viviani and Prince Leopoldo wrote more than once that the clock chimed ‘on the Piazza where they [the princes] lived’, i.e. the square of Palazzo Pitti: ‘et in particolare ad uno assai grande che mostra l'Ore, e suona nella piazza del nostro Palazzo doue abitiamo, e glie lo inviero.’; letter from Prince Leopoldo to Boullieu (August 21, 1659); letter from Ismaël Boulliau to Christian Huygens (February 27, 1660): Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres Complètes de Christiaan Huygens (La Haye: M. Nijhoff, 1888) III, pp. 14–15, 29, 468. See Figure 11 in this article for the reproduction of the drawing illustrating the Medici turret clock. Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 9.), Silvio A. Bedini, The Pulse of Time: Galileo Galilei, the Determination of Longitude, and the Pendulum Clock (Firenze: L.S. Olschki, 1991) Biblioteca di Nuncius. Studi e Testi, 3, pp. 55–76; Bedini, ‘Agent for the Archduke’, pp. 140–1.

77 ‘que Monsieur le Grand Duc a fait raccommoder auec la pendule dans le vieil palais de Medicis a Florence’ Letter from Ismaël Boulliau to Christian Huygens (February 27, 1660): Huygens, Oeuvres Complètes de Christiaan Huygens, III:29. Righini Bonelli, ‘Di un orologio di “Gio … ”’; Bedini, The Pulse of Time. Bedini, in his early work on Treffler got it probably right, but then he also adopted the wrong interpretation.

78 Giuseppe De Logu, L’architettura italiana del Seicento e del Settecento (Bari: Edizioni Dedalo, 1993), p. 98.

79 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, 10.

80 BNCF. Gal. 269, c. 168r.

81 Bedini, The Pulse of Time, p. 68.

82 Righini Bonelli, ‘Di un orologio di “Gio … .”’.

83 I thank Andrea Palmieri, who has dismounted the mechanism, for providing me with this piece of information, which confirms what Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli had previously argued: Righini Bonelli, ‘Di un orologio di “Gio … ”’, p. 244. See also what Bonelli has to say about the problem of the backplate inscription.

<https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/object/SpringdrivenClockMovementDial.html?_ga=2.25322171.786192468.1657390922-123062591.1655866417> [accessed 10 July 2022]. For some useful images of the mechanisms of the Museo Galileo’s clock, see the following pdf on Keith Piggot’s blog: <http://www.antique-horology.org/piggott/rh/memoranda/memotrefler.pdf> [accessed 10 July 2022]. Piggot used the images provided by Professor Andrea Palmieri.

84 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 5.

85 Giuseppe Campani, Discorso di Giuseppe Campani intorno a’ suoi muti oriuoli, alle nuove sfere Archimedee, e ad un’ altra … inventione …  (Roma: Per F. Moneta, 1660), p. 17.

86 Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 18.

87 Ivi, p. 40.

88 Ivi, pp. 17–18.

89 Ivi, p. 16.

90 Ibid.

91 Righini Bonelli, ‘Di un orologio di “Gio … ”’, pp. 250–5.

92 I here follow Silvio Bedini: Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’; Bedini, The Pulse of Time, 1991, pp. 49–51.

93 BNCF, Gal. 268, c. 158v. letter by Viviani written after October 10, 1656.

94 Bedini, The Pulse of Time, pp. 49–51.

95 Magalotti and Accademia del Cimento, Saggi, pp. XVI-XVIII.

96 Tito Livio Burattini, Misura universale, overo Trattato nel qual si mostra come in tutti li luoghi del mondo si può trovare una misura e un peso universale … di Tito Livio Burattini …  (Nella stamperia de’ padri Francescani, 1675), p. B1r.

97 Vincenzo Antinori and Marco Tabarrini, Scritti editi e inediti (G. Barbera, 1868), p. 163; Giuseppe Boffito, Gli Strumenti della Scienza e la Scienza degli Strumenti (Firenze: Seeber, 1929), p. 88; Bedini, ‘Johann Philipp Treffler’, p. 6; Galluzzi, Scienziati a corte. L’arte della sperimentazione nell’Accademia galileiana del Cimento (1657–1667), p. 98. I thank Dr Giorgio Strano and Dr Francesco Barreca for their help in revising the bibliography on this machine.

98 See Magalotti and Accademia del Cimento, Saggi, pp. CLIV, CLVIII, CCXXXXII, CCXXXXIV.

99 Albèri, XIV, pp. 341–56. Bedini, who quoted this important passage, made use of an apparently problematic and lacunose translation: Bedini, The Pulse of Time, pp. 41–3.

100 Simon Dumas Primbault, ‘Viviani Franchi, Vincenzio’, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani <https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/vincenzio-viviani-franchi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/> [accessed 3 March 2023].

101 See footnote 107.

102 BNCF, Gal. 252, c. 92r, Viviani Vincenzo to Bruto della Molara, February 4, 1664 ab Inc. (i.e. 1665) ‘[…] che S.A. mi avesse ordinato di instruire Filippo […]’; Gal. 243, c. 16r: ‘Adì 30 Aprile 1665 in Firenze/ Essendo che il Ser.mo G.duca p.ma di andare a Pisa, cioè la sera del 21 [?] Xbre prossimo passato tra l’altre cose mi comandasse che io Vincenzio Viviani nel tempo di q.sta sua Campagna assistessi a Ma.tro Filippo Treffler suo tornaio il quale S. A. lasciava a posta in Firenze con introdurlo e instruirlo nel modo di lavorare i vetri p[er] occhialoni, detti telescopi, insegnandogli quelle propor.ni e misure che p[er] tal arte si cavano dalla teorica e de fondam.ti diottrici […]’; Gal. 243, c. 20r: ‘Adì 26 Maggio 1665 in Firenze/ Essendoche il Ser.mo Granduca una sera di Dicembre prossimo passato prima d’andare a Pisa tra altre cose comandasse a mè Vincenzio Viviani scrittore della presente che nel tempo di questa sua Campagna assistessi a Mr. Filippo Treffler suo tornaio che S. A. lasciava a posta in Firenze con introdurlo e instruirlo in quelle propor.ni e misure che p[er] l’arte del lavorare i vetri da occhialoni si cavano dalla teorica e de fondam.ti diottrica […]’. Gio. Filippo Treffler must have been trained in this method after February 3, 1664 (more florentino, therefore 1665), as that day Viviani wrote to a secretary at court that he wished to help the German turner to learn the technique of lens-grinding. Letter from Vincenzo Viviani to unknown character, February 3, 1664, The British Library, Original letters of Italian litterati and artists, 1474–1845, Add MS 24215 : 1474–1845, c. 75v. I thank Ann McDermott of the British Library for providing me with a digital reproduction of this letter. See footnote 105 for the transcription.

103 See for instance the chapter ‘Artisans, Humanists and De Architectura of Vitruvius’ in Long.

104 Viviani made clear the importance of this very mixed knowledge when he criticized Filippo, who, in his eyes, was ignorant in both the theory and practice of dioptric lens-grinding, which was a craft ‘very different from the art of working and polishing wood and metal’, being the trade of a turner such as Filippo. Bedini claimed that Viviani had prized Filippo, in a letter found in the British Library and dated March 15, 1664 (cc. 61rv-62rv), Treffler. Unfortunately, the quoted letter does not discuss Treffler (Bedini, The Pulse of Time, 1991, 42, footnote 39). The quotation Bedini produced in relation to this letter comes instead from Vincenzo Viviani in a letter to Prince Leopoldo (August 20, 1659): Albèri, XIV, pp. 341–56. Bedini’s translation contains, moreover, a blunder: Bedini translates ‘ingegnosissimo e perfettissimo artefice, degno in vero di tanto Principe’ as ‘most ingenious and perfect of artisans, recognized as such by many princes’ whereas the meaning, in my translation, is closer to ‘a most ingenious and perfect artisan, worthy of so great a Prince.’ In one of the other letters found in the folder in the British Library and quoted by Bedini, Viviani talks about Filippo Treffler. This is the abovementioned letter dated February 3, 1664, where Viviani mentions but does not praise Treffler: ‘[…] sempre mi sono offerto di andar io a casa sua e d’assistergli intorno alli strum.ti necessari p[er] tal lavoro, et alla manipolazione ancora, già che da discorsi ch’egli me ne ha fatto, conosco che come inesperto ch’ei n’è, s’imbroglierebbe forse senza frutto non solo nella teorica, che nella pratica, la quale è differentissima da quella del lavorare e pulire i legni e i metalli, e senza averla mai esercitata, e senza vederne, e sentirne l’uso tenuto dagli altri, non può mai un uomo immaginarsi […] un modo migliore di quello che l’industria e l’esperienza di tanti, ne’ passati secoli ha saputo inventare, sì intorno agli stromenti che alle materie appartenenti al lavoro, et al pulimento delli vetri ordinari, e molto meno intorno alli cristalli pe’ cannocchiali. […] ch’io so che non si nasce con le scienze, né con le pratiche’.

105 A phrase coined by the sociologist of science Edgard Zilsel to emphasize this mixed Vitruvian knowledge. See: Edgar Zilsel, The Social Origins of Modern Science, ed. by Diederick Raven, Wolfgang Krohn, and Robert S. Cohen, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 200 (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000); A. C. Keller, ‘Zilsel, the Artisans, and the Idea of Progress in the Renaissance’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 11.2 (1950), 235–40.

106 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, pp. 594–5.

107 See the names of Filippo Treffler (or Trefler), Giuseppe Campani, Matteo Campani, and Antonio Alamanni (Gonfia) in the Museo Galileo’s database containing the digitized documents of the Fondo Galileiano in the BNCF. Caveat: there are some recording errors, for instance in relation to the Gonfia and Jacopo Mariani. Other important resources are the databases of the Medici Archive Project (letters of the Mediceo del Principato and documents from the Guardaroba): https://www.medici.org/. The ERC project Tacitroots is creating an important database of all the documents relating to the Accademia del Cimento: <https://sites.unimi.it/tacitroots/> [accessed 4 April 2023].

108 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, pp. 267, 316, 402, 418.

109 BNCF, Gal. 252, c. 106v, Letter from Viviani Vincenzo to Trefler Johann Philipp, November 21, 1665. Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, 298; Bedini, ‘Agent for the Archduke,’ 142 and followings. See also Gal. 255, c. 3r, letter by Filippo Treffler to Vincenzo Viviani about a surveying instrument (January 15, 1666).

110 This requirement was probably due to the difficulties Cosimo III had just experienced because of the distress suffered by Filippo Senger due to his wife’s depression following the loss of a son and the miscarriage of a second. Grand Duke Cosimo III expended much energy over seven months to have ‘Anna Caterina Sangers’ (her Italianized name in Cosimo’s letter) to be sent from Hamburg to Florence. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, folder 4491, cc. 687r-716v. Moreover, the close presence to the person of the Grand Duke required a certain politeness and constant availability that a man with a family could have not provided. This shows how the service of the princely turner was a fashionable desideratum for rulers of the period.

111 These documents shed light on the way young Filippo Treffler arrived at court. He was indeed employed in the house of the Gerini, an important aristocratic family connected with the Medici and with the imperial court. The mother of Ottavio Piccolomini, general of the Imperial Army at the end of the Thirty Years War, was a Gerini. Diligenti, Genealogia: Sommario Storico Delle Famiglie Celebri Toscane, ad vocem. Therefore, it was likely not Matthias de’ Medici, as Bedini had previously suggested, who brought Filippo Treffler to Italy, but instead the Gerini network. Silvio A. Bedini, The Pulse of Time. Nevertheless, Matthias played an important role in the history of Medici science: besides the many mathematical instruments he brought from Germany, and that later entered the grand ducal collections, were the marvellous goblets in turned ivory from Coburg. Piacenti Aschengreen. Furthermore, Matthias had a special connection with the telescope makers of Rome: he had acquired a silent night clock and a telescope from Giuseppe Campani, who in 1664 dedicated to him his booklet on the observations he had made on Saturn. Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, pp. 190, 286, 572.

112 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, folder 4491, Supplication of Filippo Treffler, Augsburg, November 23, 1674.

113 Ibid., already published in the original Italian as appendix in: Prinz, ‘Deutsche Kunstdrechsler … ’.

114 Bedini suggests the reading ‘zecchini’, i.e., a gold currency from Venice. This seems to make no sense, nor does even the reconstruction the scholar made of Treffler’s accident while striking coins.

115 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, folder 4491.

116 In addition to Filippo Treffler, so too did Galileo Galilei, Eustachio Divini and other scientific figures receive a gold chain with a medal as a sign of favour and protection. For the meaning of such a gift see: Mario Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 40–1.

117 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, folder 4491. Already published in the original Italian as an appendix in: Prinz, ‘Deutsche Kunstdrechsler … ’

118 Cristiano Zanetti, Janello Torriani and the Spanish Empire: A Vitruvian Artisan at the Dawn of the Scientific Revolution (Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 263–6.

119 Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier, pp. 20, 38–9; Zanetti, Janello Torriani and the Spanish Empire, p. 382.

120 see appendix in Prinz, ‘Deutsche Kunstdrechsler … ’.

121 Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier, p. 49.

122 Bedini, ‘Agent for the Archduke’

123 Prinz, ‘Deutsche Kunstdrechsler … ’.

124 Ibid.

125 Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli mentions this clockmaker, and cites a list of instruments that belonged in his workshop in the Gallerie. Righini Bonelli, ‘Di un orologio di “Gio … ”’, p. 242. I will publish this list for the first time in a forthcoming article in La Voce di Hora.

126 Silvio A Bedini, ‘A Medici Palace Clock’, Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, 7.1 (1955), 21–6.

127 PEM, Inv. N. 103699; Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 4491, c. 481r, letter from Cosimo III to Benedetto Winchler the Younger, March 2, 1674-more Florentino, therefore 1675.

128 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 4491, c. 488r, letter from Benedetto Winkler the Younger to Cosimo III, April 3, 1675.

129 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 4491, c. 488r, letter from Benedetto Winkler the Younger to Cosimo III, February 15, 1675; Guardaroba Medicea 959, f. 30r: ‘Un oriuolo a dondolo, che mostra solam.te con cassa di pero tinta di nero e tabernacolo con adornam.to a frontespizio, e vasetto sopra e due colonne avvitich[iat]e di pero sim[l]e con scartocci e rabeschi di d.o pero, et altri di rame dor.to; con sua mostra dipintovi un paesino con balaustro e figurine, con sfera di stagno p[er] l’ore, entro alla quale vi è un arme di palle dove si vede l’agitazione d[e]l dondolo, con suo conrtapeso di piombo, e la caricatura serve p[er] tre mesi alto d. 1/’; lar.o d. 1. In circa posa sopra …  [sic] Inv. di Guard.a d. 32.’

130 Regarding pendulum-regulated clocks, besides the prototypes by Filippo Treffler and Giuseppe Campani, at court, by the summer of 1659, drawings, engravings and working pendulum-regulated clockworks by Galileo’s son Vincenzio, Francesco Generini, Christian Huygens, and Salomon Coster could be seen. Moreover, in 1667 the Polish Jesuit Adam Adamandus Kochanski showed Ferdinando II a magnetic pendulum for watches. Bedini, The Pulse of Time; Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, chap. 6, pp. 106–7; Sebastian Whitestone, ‘Christian Huygens’ Lost and Forgotten Pamphlet of His Pendulum Invention’, Annals of Science, 69.1 (2012), 91–104.

131 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, p. 193.

132 Ivi, p. 243 (1664 to the Queen of England, Catherine of Braganza)

133 Bedini attributes it to Filippo Treffler, but it could also be attributed to Mattias Coffer. Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, p. 173. See figure 69.

134 Lenner. See images.

135 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, p. 15.

136 The website of the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel gives a wrong dating of 1665. Considering that Giuseppe Campani invented this type of clock between 1667 and 1668, the date of creation of the Kassel clock must be later. <https://datenbank.museum-kassel.de/226663/> [accessed 21 August 2021].

137 Klaus Maurice, ‘Jost Bürgi, or on Innovation’, in The Clockwork Universe: German Clocks and Automata, 1550–1650, ed. by Otto Mayr (New York: Smithsonian Institution, 1980), pp. 87–102 (p. 91).

138 The following seminal works have extensively analysed the role of the Cimento in the Campani-Divini contest for the best telescopes: Bonelli and Van Helden, ‘Divini and Campani’; Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, Chapters 8–10.

139 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, p. 270.

140 Ivi, pp. 722–3.

141 Letter sent on August 16, 1666: ‘ … ma circa il di lui [Giuseppe Campani’s] Tornio ancora quà da molti è stato creduto che non sia tale ma un artifizio competentemente lecito per che altrj non camminj per la strada uera del ben fabbricare le lentj. Vero però è che i suoi Telescopi riescono, di qualsi uoglia grandezza che sieno, migliori di ogni altro che quà sia uenuto, non ostante che ne sien stati mandati dei fatti a comparazione.’ Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres complètes. Tome VI. Correspondance 1666–1669, p. 78. <https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv06_01/huyg003oeuv06_01_0048.php> [accessed 5 August 2022].

142 Campani, Discorso di Giuseppe Campani intorno a’ suoi muti oriuoli, alle nuove sfere Archimedee, e ad un’ altra … inventione … ., p. XII.

143 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, pp. 393–9.

144 Ibid.

145 BNCF, Gal. 278, c. 177v.

146 Bedini, Giuseppe Campani, ‘Inventor Romae,’ an Uncommon Genius, chapters 12–13.

Additional information

Funding

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow (grant agreement No. 101025015).