Beyond Italy
The Medici in France
Medici patronage of scientific inquiry and the useful application of scientific innovations traveled with members of the Medici family as they moved throughout Europe and arranged powerful diplomatic marriages. In 1533, for example, Catherine de' Medici married the second son of François I, king of France. Her son, who became Henry III, relied on the ingenuity of Agostino Ramelli to assist his military campaigns during the Religious Wars. Ramelli published his treatise of real and imagined machines in an effort to cement his relationship with the king.
Agostino Ramelli.
Le diverse et artificiose machine.
Paris: [In the house of the author], 1588.
The book features a portrait of Ramelli and elaborate engravings of machines, real and otherwise, as well as parallel text in Italian and French. An English translation, with a biographical study of the author by Martha Teach Gnudi and technical annotations and a pictorial glossary by Eugene S. Ferguson, was published in 1976.
Tuscan Research in England
The research undertaken at the Tuscan court enjoyed a considerable reputation both within Italy and beyond, notably at the Royal Society of London, founded in 1660 for the promotion of collective scientific inquiry. In line with the Society’s mission to increase scientific knowledge, its first secretary, Henry Oldenburg, published the Philosophical Transactions as a record of experiments presented to the Society as well as experiments and observations reported by his international network of correspondents. The work of Italian scholars as represented in the Philosophical Transactions included reports sent by Italians of their own investigations, reports of Englishmen who traveled to Italy and relayed what they saw back to the Society, and reviews of books by Italian authors. Richard Waller, a Fellow of the Royal Society, also “Englished” the Saggi of the Accademia del Cimento.
The Work of Francesco Redi in the Philosophical Transactions
"Some Observations of Vipers." Philosophical Transactions, 1 (1665-1666), 160-162.
"Accompt of Three Books: A Review of Origo Formarum & Qualitatum; juxta Philosophiam Corpuscularem Considerationibus & Experimentis Illustrata | Metallographia, or an History of Metals | Lettera di Francesco Redi sopra alcune Oppositioni fatte alle sue Observationi intorno alle Vipere." Philosophical Transactions, 5 (1670), 2034-2038.
"An Extract of a Letter Written to the Publisher by Mr. Thomas Platt, from Florence, August 6, 1672. Concerning Some Experiments, There Made upon Vipers, Since Mons. Charas His Reply to the Letter Written by Signor Francesco Redi to Monsteur Bourdelet and Monsieur Morus." Philosophical Transactions, 7 (1672), 5060-5066.
The title of this article suggests the complexity of scientific exchanges in this era.
Guido Grandi, Fellow of the Royal Society
Guido Grandi. "Florum Geometricorum Manipulus Regiae Societati Exhibitus a D. Guidone Grandi Abbate Camaldulensi, Pisani Lycaei Mathematico, R.S.S." Philosophical Transactions, 32 (1722-1723), 355-371.
Guido Grandi and Lorenzo Magalotti. "Epistola D. Guidonis Grandi, Societatis Regalis Londin. Socii, ad Illust. Comitem D. Laurentium Magalotti, Dictae Societatis Socium, De Natura & Proprietatibus Soni." Philosophical Transactions, 26 (1708-1709), 270-288.
For other works by Grandi, see Legacies of Galileo in the section on Mathematics.