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Annals of Science Volume 30, 1973 - Issue 1
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Original Articles

A little known early seventeenth century treatise on vision: Benedetto Castelli's Discorso sopra la Vista (1639, 1669)

Translation and critical comments

Piero E. Ariotti Ph.D. Department of Philosophy, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, W. A.
Pages 1-30 | Published online: 22 Aug 2006

  • Caverni , Raffaello . 1891–1898 . Storia del Metodo Sperimentale in Italia Vol. i , 159 – 159 . Florence 5 vols vol. ii, pp. 396–397; vol. iii, p. 346. Caverni wrongly regards Castelli's treatise as little more than a commentary on Kepler's optics.
  • Caverni , R. 1874 . Problemi Naturali di Galileo Galilei e di altri autori della sua scuola 121 – 156 . Florence
  • Priestley , Joseph . 1772 . The History and present state of discoveries relating to vision, light and colours London
  • Plateau , J. 1877 . Bibliographie Analytique des Principaux Phénomènes Subjectifs de la Vision, depuis les temps anciens jusqu' à la fin du XVIIIe siècle in six sections
  • Plateau , J. 1877 . Bibliographie Analytique des Principaux Phénomènes Subjectifs de la Vision, depuis les temps anciens jusqu' à la fin du XVIIIe siècle 15 – 15 . in six sections sect. IV ‘Irradiation’
  • Boring , Edwin G. 1942 . Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology New York Richard J. Herrnstein and Edwin G. Boring, A Source Book in the History of Psychology, Cambridge, Mass., 1965.
  • Sahakian , William S. 1968 . History of Psychology: A Source Book in Systematic Psychology Itasca, Illinois
  • The so-called Mattonata of Castelli reported both in his posthumous Alcuni Opuscoli Filosofici del Padre D. Bendetto Castelli Bologna 1669 which also contains his Discorso sulla Vista, and in the Correspondence of Galileo, Opere, Edizione Nazionale, ed. A. Favaro, Florence, 1890–1909, 1929–1934, 1964–1966, 1968, 20 vols.; vol. xvii, letter 3509 pp. 121–123; letter 3539, pp. 151–152, letter 3541, pp. 156–169. For an English translation see my ‘Benedetto Castelli: Early Systematic Experiments and Theory on the Differential Differential Absorption of Heat by Colours’, Isis, 1972, 63, 78–87.
  • Galileo . Correspondence , xvi 122 – 122 . Opere cit. letter 2975, 12 August 1634,
  • Castelli . “ Del modo di conservare i grani ” . In Alcuni Opuscoli cit in
  • Galilei , Galileo . June 1632 . Opere Edited by: Favaro , A. Vol. xiv , June , 359 – 359 . Edizione Nazionale letter 2277, 19 I have been unable to trace an earlier (1630) letter of Castelli's mentioned by Plateau, op. cit., Sect. IV, p. 15.
  • Castelli , Benedetto . 1669 . Alcuni Opuscoli 1 – 1 .
  • Caverni , R. Storia cit. Vol. iii , 346 – 347 .
  • 1684 . Saggi dell ‘Esperienze Naturali fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento, 1667. translated as Essayes of Natural Experiments made in the Academie del Cimento … London translated by Richard Waller Reprint facsimile ed. by A. R. Hall, New York and London, 1964.
  • Abbatis Francisci Maurolyci Messanensis Photismi de Lumine … Neapolis 1611 39 39 translated by Henry Crew as The Photismi de Lumine of Maurolycus, New York, 1940, 65
  • Hevelius . 1647 . Selenographia, sive lunae descriptio 35 – 38 . Gedani ch. III also Plateau, op. cit., Sect. IV, p. 18; and Caverni, Storia … cit., Vol. I, pp. 431.
  • Aristotle . 1936 . Problems 333 – 333 . Cambridge, Massachusetts Bk. I Loeb Classics, transl. W. S. Hett
  • Maurolycus . 1936 . Problems 29 – 30 . Cambridge, Massachusetts Bk. I Loeb Classics, transl. W. S. Hett
  • Kepler . 1604 . Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, quibus Astronomia Pars Optica Francofurti cap. II, Proposition VI, VII.
  • della Porta , Giambattista . Natural Magick 363 – 364 . translated by J. Wright in 1669 from the 1599 edition of the Magiae Naturalis also Caverni, Storia … cit., Vol. I, pp. 367–368.
  • Maurolycus . Natural Magick 69 – 70 . translated by J. Wright in 1669 from the 1599 edition of the Magiae Naturalis, Bk. III Crew, transl. pp. 105–107.
  • Kepler . 1604 . Ad Vitellionem paralipomena quibus Astronomia Pars Optica … Frankfurt ch. 5; transl. by Alistair C. Crombie in I. B. Cohen and René Taton, eds. Mélanges Alexandre Koyré: L'Aventure de la science, Paris, 1964; also in Richard J. Herrnstein and Edwin G. Boring, Eds., A Source Book in the History of Psychology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1965, no. 23, pp. 91–97.
  • Priestley . 1604 . Ad Vitellionem paralipomena quibus Astronomia Pars Optica … 112 – 112 . Frankfurt
  • Descartes . 1637 . La Dioptrique Leiden ch. 5
  • Aristotle . On Dreams ch. 2 and 3
  • Plateau . On Dreams 1 – 1 . Sect. I
  • Ptolemy . Optics liber II; Plateau, loc.cit., p. 3.
  • della Porta , Giambattista . Natural Magick 140 – 140 . translated by J. Wright in 1669 from the 1599 edition of the Magiae Naturalis, De Refractione Plateau, loc.cit., p. 4.
  • Alhazen . 1572 . Opticae Thesaurus Basel lib. III, cap. VII, no. 66 and 67; Plateau, op.cit., p. 5.
  • Alhazen . 1572 . Opticae Thesaurus Basel lib. I, cap. 1; lib. III, cap. III and IV; Plateau, op.cit. pp. 4–5.
  • Aguilonius . 1613 . Francisci Aguilonii opticorum libri sex 55 – 57 . Antverpiae lib. I., prop. 52, ‘Rerum imagines oculo impressa, amoto obiecto illico evanescunt’ Plateau, op.cit., Sect. II, p. 2.
  • Aguilonius . 1613 . Francisci Aguilonii opticorum libri sex 347 – 347 . Antverpiae lib. IV., props. 137–138 Plateau, op.cit., Sect. I, p. 6–7.
  • Gassendi . 1641 . Vita Peireskii Paris lib. V Opera Omnia, Lyon 1658, tomus V, p. 317; Plateau, loc.cit., p. 7; also Sect. III, p. 4–5.
  • Aristotle . On Dreams ch. 2.
  • Descartes . 1637 . La Dioptrique 4 – 5 . Leiden ch. 6, paragraph IV; Plateau, op.cit., Sect. II
  • Kircher , Athanasius . 1646 . Ars magna lucis et umbrae 54 – 54 . Rome Amsterdam, 1671 Plateau, loc.sit., p. 5.
  • Michaelius . 1645 . De oculo, seu de natura visus, libellus Dordrecht added to the Paralipomena Plateau, op.cit., Sect. I, pp. 7–8; also Sect. II, p. 2., Plateau is thus in error in attributing to Michaelius the first mention of the return of the after-image.
  • Fabri , Honoratus . 1667 . Synopsis optica in qua 21 – 21 . Lyons Prop. XVI, corol. IV Plateau, op.sit., Sect. I, p. 8. Thus Plateau is again in error when for Fabri he claims: ‘Ce serait done la permière fois qu'on aurait attribué nettment un effet de ce genre à persistance des impressions’.
  • In Porta De Refractione 141 141 and 140, Originally probably in Albert's and in Avicenna's respective Commentaries on Aristotle; Plateau, op.cit., Sect. I, respectively p. 6 and p. 4.
  • Kepler . Ad Vitellion paralipomena … ch. 5, no. 2; Herrnstein and Boring, op.cit., p. 92. My italics.
  • Descartes . 1644 . Dioptice et Meteora Amsterdam ch. 6 and paragraph IV
  • Galileo . Il Saggiatore, Opere Vol. vi , 274 – 278 . Ed. Naz. 347–352; transl. Stillman Drake Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Garden City, N.Y., 1957.
  • Kepler . Ad Vitellion paralipomena … caput V.
  • Galileo . Sydereus Nuncius, Opera Vol. iii , 70 – 70 . Ed. Naz. part I transl. by Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Garden City, N.Y., 1957, p. 39.
  • Guiducci , Mario . 1619 . Discorso delle Comete Florence Plateau, op.cit., Sect. IV, pp. 11–12.
  • Gassendi . 1631 . Mercurius in sole visus Paris Opera Omnia, t. IV, pp. 499ff.
  • Galileo . 1962 . Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems 336 – 336 . Berkeley transl. Stillman Drake Opere, vol. vii, p. 364.
  • Descartes . 1638 . La Dioptrique Leiden discours 6; also, Herrnstein and Boring, op.cit., par. 27, p. 116.
  • Molyneux , William . 1962 . Dioptrica Nova: A Treatise of Dioptricks Prop. 34, 40, 42, etc. and p. 104.
  • Berkeley , George . 1709 . An essay towards a New Theory of Vision Dublin sects. 1–28 52–58; Herrnstein and Boring, op.cit., pp. 118–125.
  • Boring , E.G. 1942 . Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology 224 – 224 . New York par. 28
  • Emmert , E. 1881 . Grossenverhältnisse der Nachbilder . Klin. Monasbl. d. Angenheilk , 19 : 443 – 450 . for a fuller discussion of Castelli's anticipation of the law of the size of after images see my forthcoming ‘On the apparent size of projected after-images: Emmert's or Castelli's law? A case of 242 years anticipation’ in His. Behavioral Sci, 1972.
  • Molyneaux , W. 1881 . Grossenverhältnisse der Nachbilder . Klin. Monasbl. d. Angenheilk , 19 : 104 – 106 . Herrnstein and Boring, op.cit., p. 99.

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