Account of the Academia Lincea—Del Cimento—Royal Society.

Galileo's resignation of the mathematical professorship at Padua occasioned much dissatisfaction to all those who were connected with that university. Perhaps not fully appreciating his desire of returning to his native country, and the importance to him and to the scientific world in general, of the complete leisure which Cosmo secured to him at Florence, (for by the terms of his diploma he was not even required to reside at Pisa, nor to give any lectures, except on extraordinary occasions, to sovereign princes and other strangers of distinction,) the Venetians remembered only that they had offered him an honourable asylum when almost driven from Pisa; that they had increased his salary to four times the sum which any previous professor had enjoyed; and, finally, by an almost unprecedented decree, that they had but just secured him in his post during the remainder of his life. Many took such offence as to refuse to have any further communication with him; and Sagredo, a constant friend of Galileo, wrote him word that he had been threatened with a similar desertion unless he should concur in the same peremptory resolution, which threats, however, Sagredo, at the same time, intimates his intention of braving.

Early in the year 1611, Galileo made his first appearance in Rome, where he was received with marks of distinguished consideration, and where all ranks were eager to share the pleasure of contemplating the new discoveries. "Whether we consider cardinal, prince, or prelate, he found an honourable reception from them all, and had their palaces as open and free to him as the houses of his private friends."[61] Among other distinctions he was solicited to become a member of the newly-formed philosophical society, the once celebrated Academia Lincea, to which he readily assented. The founder of this society was Federigo Cesi, the Marchese di Monticelli, a young Roman nobleman, the devotion of whose time and fortune to the interests of science has not been by any means rewarded with a reputation commensurate with his deserts. If the energy of his mind had been less worthily employed than in fostering the cause of science and truth, and in extending the advantages of his birth and fortune to as many as were willing to co-operate with him, the name of Federigo Cesi might have appeared more prominently on the page of history. Cesi had scarcely completed his 18th year, when, in 1603, he formed the plan of a philosophical society, which in the first instance consisted only of himself and three of his most intimate friends, Hecke, a Flemish physician, Stelluti, and Anastasio de Filiis. Cesi's father, the Duca d'Acquasparta, who was of an arbitrary and extravagant temper, considered such pursuits and associates as derogatory to his son's rank; he endeavoured to thwart the design by the most violent and unjustifiable proceedings, in consequence of which, Cesi in the beginning of 1605 privately quitted Rome, Hecke was obliged to leave Italy altogether from fear of the Inquisition, which was excited against him, and the academy was for a time virtually dissolved. The details of these transactions are foreign to the present narrative: it will be enough to mention that, in 1609, Cesi, who had never altogether abandoned his scheme, found the opposition decaying which he at first experienced, and with better success he renewed the plan which he had sketched six years before. A few extracts from the Regulations will serve to shew the spirit in which this distinguished society was conceived:—

"The Lyncean Society desires for its academicians, philosophers eager for real knowledge, who will give themselves to the study of nature, and especially to mathematics; at the same time it will not neglect the ornaments of elegant literature and philology, which like a graceful garment adorn the whole body of science.—In the pious love of wisdom, and to the praise of the most good and most high God, let the Lynceans give their minds, first to observation and reflection, and afterwards to writing and publishing.—It is not within the Lyncean plan to find leisure for recitations and declamatory assemblies; the meetings will neither be frequent nor full, and chiefly for transacting the necessary business of the society: but those who wish to enjoy such exercises will in no respect be hindered, provided they attend them as accessory studies, decently and quietly, and without making promises and professions of how much they are about to do. For there is ample philosophical employment for every one by himself, particularly if pains are taken in travelling and in the observation of natural phenomena, and in the book of nature which every one has at home, that is to say, the heavens and the earth; and enough may be learned from the habits of constant correspondence with each other, and alternate offices of counsel and assistance.—Let the first fruits of wisdom be love; and so let the Lynceans love each other as if united by the strictest ties, nor suffer any interruption of this sincere bond of love and faith, emanating from the source of virtue and philosophy.—Let them add to their names the title of Lyncean, which has been advisedly chosen as a warning and constant stimulus, especially when they write on any literary subject, also in their private letters to their associates, and in general when any work comes from them wisely and well performed.—The Lynceans will pass over in silence all political controversies and quarrels of every kind, and wordy disputes, especially gratuitous ones, which give occasion to deceit, unfriendliness, and hatred; like men who desire peace, and seek to preserve their studies free from molestation, and to avoid every sort of disturbance. And if any one by command of his superiors, or from some other necessity, is reduced to handle such matters, since they are foreign to physical and mathematical science, and consequently alien to the object of the Academy, let them be printed without the Lyncean name."[62]

The society which was eventually organized formed but a very trifling part of the comprehensive scheme which Cesi originally proposed to himself; it had been his wish to establish a scientific Order which should have corresponding lodges in the principal towns of Europe, and in other parts of the globe, each consisting of not more than five nor less than three members, besides an unlimited number of Academicians not restricted to any particular residence or regulations. The mortifications and difficulties to which he was subjected from his father's unprincipled behaviour, render it most extraordinary and admirable that he should have ventured to undertake even so much as he actually carried into execution. He promised to furnish to the members of his society such assistance as they might require in the prosecution of their respective researches, and also to defray the charges of publishing such of their works as should be thought worthy of appearing with the common sanction. Such liberal offers were not likely to meet with an unfavourable reception: they were thankfully accepted by many well qualified to carry his design into execution, and Cesi was soon enabled formally to open his academy, the distinctive title of which he borrowed from the Lynx, with reference to the piercing sight which that animal has been supposed to possess. This quality seemed to him an appropriate emblem of those which he desired to find in his academicians, for the purpose of investigating the secrets of nature; and although, at the present day, the name may appear to border on the grotesque, it was conceived in the spirit of the age, and the fantastic names of the numberless societies which were rapidly formed in various parts of Italy far exceed whatever degree of quaintness may be thought to belong to the Lyncean name. The Inflamed—the Transformed—the Uneasy—the Humorists—the Fantastic—the Intricate—the Indolent—the Senseless—the Undeceived—the Valiant—the Ætherial Societies are selected from a vast number of similar institutions, the names of which, now almost their sole remains, are collected by the industry of Morhof and Tiraboschi.[63] The Humorists are named by Morhof as the only Italian philosophical society anterior to the Lynceans; their founder was Paolo Mancino, and the distinctive symbol which they adopted was rain dropping from a cloud, with the motto Redit agmine dulci;—their title is derived from the same metaphor. The object of their union appears to have been similar to that of the Lynceans, but they at no time attained to the celebrity to which Cesi's society rose from the moment of its incorporation. Cesi took the presidency for his life, and the celebrated Baptista Porta was appointed vice president at Naples. Stelluti acted as the legal representative of the society, with the title of procuratore. Of the other two original members Anastasio de Filiis was dead, and although Hecke returned to Italy in 1614, and rejoined the Academy, yet he was soon afterwards struck off the list in consequence of his lapsing into insanity. Among the academicians we find the names of Galileo, Fabio Colonna, Lucas Valerio, Guiducci, Welser, Giovanni Fabro, Terrentio, Virginio Cesarini, Ciampoli, Molitor, Cardinal Barberino, (nephew of Pope Urban VIII.) Stelliola, Salviati, &c.

The principal monument still remaining of the zeal and industry to which Cesi incited his academicians is the Phytobasanos, a compendium of the natural history of Mexico, which must be considered a surprising performance for the times in which it appeared. It was written by a Spaniard named Hernandez; and Reccho, who often has the credit of the whole work, made great additions to it. During fifty years the manuscript had been neglected, when Cesi discovered it, and employed Terrentio, Fabro, and Colonna, all Lynceans, to publish it enriched with their notes and emendations. Cesi himself published several treatises, two of which are extant; his TabulÆ PhytosophicÆ, and a Dissertation on Bees entitled Apiarium, the only known copy of which last is in the library of the Vatican. His great work, Theatrum NaturÆ, was never printed; a circumstance which tends to shew that he did not assemble the society round him for the purpose of ministering to his own vanity, but postponed the publication of his own productions to the labours of his coadjutors. This, and many other valuable works belonging to the academy existed in manuscript till lately in the Albani Library at Rome. Cesi collected, not a large, but an useful library for the use of the academy, (which was afterwards augmented on the premature death of Cesarini by the donation of his books); he filled a botanical garden with the rarer specimens of plants, and arranged a museum of natural curiosities; his palace at Rome was constantly open to the academicians; his purse and his influence were employed with equal liberality in their service.

Cesi's death, in 1632, put a sudden stop to the prosperity of the society, a consequence which may be attributed to the munificence with which he had from the first sustained it: no one could be found to fill his place in the princely manner to which the academicians were accustomed, and the society, after lingering some years under the nominal patronage of Urban VIII., gradually decayed, till, by the death of its principal members, and dispersion of the rest, it became entirely extinct.[64] Bianchi, whose sketch of the academy was almost the only one till the appearance of Odescalchi's history, made an attempt to revive it in the succeeding century, but without any permanent effect. A society under the same name has been formed since 1784, and is still flourishing in Rome. Before leaving the subject it may be mentioned, that one of the earliest notices that Bacon's works were known in Italy is to be found in a letter to Cesi, dated 1625; in which Pozzo, who had gone to Paris with Cardinal Barberino, mentions having seen them there with great admiration, and suggests that Bacon would be a fit person to be proposed as a member of their society. After Galileo's death, three of his principal followers, Viviani, Torricelli, and Aggiunti formed the plan of establishing a similar philosophical society, and though Aggiunti and Torricelli died before the scheme could be realized, Viviani pressed it forward, and, under the auspices of Ferdinand II., formed a society, which, in 1657, merged in the famous Academia del Cimento, or Experimental Academy. This latter held its occasional meetings at the palace of Ferdinand's brother, Leopold de' Medici: it was composed chiefly, if not entirely, of Galileo's pupils and friends. During the few years that this society lasted, one of the principal objects of which was declared to be the repetition and developement of Galileo's experiments, it kept up a correspondence with the principal philosophers in every part of Europe, but when Leopold was, in 1666, created a cardinal, it appears to have been dissolved, scarcely ten years after its institution.[65] This digression may be excused in favour of so interesting an establishment as the Academia Lincea, which preceded by half a century the formation of the Royal Society of London, and AcadÉmie FranÇoise of Paris.

These latter two are mentioned together, probably for the first time, by Salusbury. The passage is curious in an historical point of view, and worth extracting:—"In imitation of these societies, Paris and London have erected theirs of Les Beaux Esprits, and of the Virtuosi: the one by the countenance of the most eminent Cardinal Richelieu, the other by the royal encouragement of his sacred Majesty that now is. The Beaux Esprits have published sundry volumes of their moral and physiological conferences, with the laws and history of their fellowship; and I hope the like in due time from our Royal Society; that so such as envie their fame and felicity, and such as suspect their ability and candor, may be silenced and disappointed in their detractions and expectations."[66]