The volume entitled Saggi di naturali esperienze (Essays on Natural Experiments), introduced and edited by Lorenzo Magalotti and published in Florence in 1667 with rich illustrations, collects the most relevant experiments carried out by the Accademia del Cimento in a decade of activity, following Galileo’s lesson, to verify the principles of natural philosophy (on air pressure, vacuum, the incompressibility of fluids, magnets and the electrical virtues of amber, the propagation of sound and light; given the Copernican implications, reflections on the configuration of Saturn were excluded, fearing the reactions of ecclesiastical authorities). The Academy, established in 1657 by Grand Duke Ferdinand II and Prince Leopold de’ Medici, was the first European society with an exclusively scientific purpose (it preceded the Royal Society of London, from 1660, and the Académie Royale des Sciences of Paris, from 1666). With the publication of the Essays, the Academy concluded its research activity.

Collection: Texts

Project: 9. Travels and travelers: economic, social and cultural connections.

Chronology: XVII

Scope: Secondary Education, Higher Education

Link: https://opac.museogalileo.it/imss/resource?uri=300092

Resource type: Document

Format: Texts

Source: https://www.museogalileo.it/it/biblioteca-e-istituto-di-ricerca/biblioteca-digitale/informazioni-biblioteca-digitale.html

Language: Italian

Date: 1667

Owner: Manuela Ghizzoni (Modernalia)

Copyright: © Museo Galileo 2022

Abstract: The Accademia del Cimento and the experimental method