Accademia del Cimento
Collective Inquiry
In addition to sponsoring the work of individuals, the Medici family also supported the collective pursuit of scientific knowledge. In 1657 Leopold de' Medici, cardinal, prince, and brother of grand duke Ferdinand I, founded the Accademia del Cimento (the Academy of the Experimenters). This group met in the Leopold's private chambers in the Pitti palace to study nature through repeated experimentation. Their motto -- testing and retesting (provando e riprovando) -- speaks to the value they placed on experimental knowledge. Viviani, Borelli, Redi, and Magalotti were all members.
Although the group only met for a period of a decade, accounts of their experiments, first published as the Saggi di naturali esperienze in 1667, were of signal importance in the development of experimental science. The Saggi were translated and reprinted for many years after the group had disbanded, and the instruments used by the group are preserved in the Museum of History of Science in Florence. A modern edition appeared in 1976 as volume 10 in the series Classici della società italiana. The experimenters by W. E. Knowles Middleton (1971) included a translation of the Saggi under the title "Examples of experiments in natural philosophy."
Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del cimento.
Florence: Gio: Filipo Cecchi, 1691.
Note the incorporation of a pendulum into the decorative initial P; the plate on the facing page depicts experimental apparatus including a pendulum.
Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del cimento.
Naples: Bernardo-Michele Raillard, 1714.
The engraving on the title page shows the academy's commitment to testing and retesting.
Tentamina experimentorum naturalium.
Trans. Petrus van Musschenbroek. Leiden: Joan. et Herm. Verbeek, 1731.
Even a translation by the Dutch natural philosopher Musschenbroek published in Leiden paid tribute to Leopold.
Essayes of natural experiments: made in the Academie del cimento. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del cimento.
Trans. Richard Waller. London: Benjamin Alsop, 1684.
Shown here: the decorative frontispiece for the English translation of the Saggi, as "Englished" by Richard Waller. Waller, identified as Secretary of the Royal Society of London (S.R.S.), undertook the translation project at the suggestion of the Society's then President, Sir John Hoskyns, as we learn from Marie Boas Hall, "The Royal Society and Italy 1667-1795," Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, 37:1 (Aug. 1982), 63-81; the Society's Council ordered the publication.
Members of the Accademia del Cimento
In addition to working collectively under the auspices of Prince (and Cardinal) Leopold, members of the Accademia del Cimento also published their own individual scientific research. Redi continued experimental investigations (see also Experiments on Generation at the Medici Court). Borelli turned observational skills honed during his work with the Cimento to the eruption of Mount Etna in 1669; he also conducted research in anatomy. Viviani published mathematical works throughout the period in which he was associated with the Accademia (see also Students of Galileo). Magalotti, the Accademia’s secretary, continued to write to the prince after moving to Rome.
Vincenzio Viviani.
De maximis et minimis, geometrica divination.
Florence: Apud Joseph Cocchini [etc.], 1659.
The title page pays tribute to Ferdinand and bears the symbol of the Medici, as does the following work.
Francesco Redi.
Esperienze intorno a diverse cose naturali e particolarmente a quelle, che ci
son portate dall'Indie.
Florence: All' Insegna della Nave, 1671.
An engraving of the Medici emblem and the use of two colors on the title page bespeak attention to detail in the printing of this volume, which also includes numerous plates illustrating exotic plants.
Lorenzo Magalotti.
Lettere scientifiche, ed erudite.
Venice: Domenico Occhi all'Unione, 1740.
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli.
Historia et meteorologia incendii Aetnaei anni 1669.
Reggio di Calabria: Dominici Ferri, 1670.
________.
De vi percussionis.
Leiden: Petrum Vander Aa, 1686.
The frontispiece for this edition of Borelli's work is packed with emblematic significance, as is the engraving on the title page.