> Dear Ken and,
>
> First let me thank you for your time, enlightening me about Galileo and
> the Academies and all.
> So, Ken you know why Galileo was accepted, and why he aplied! I'm glad.
> Could you tell us your source?
> My first problem about this thing is that I found this information
> (Galileo accepted at the Academia del Disegno) in a website:
> http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/ist/luogo/accademiaartidisegno.html
>
> that looks pretty oficial. I've been looking for the fact in lots of
> Galileo's biographies and I dind'nt find anything. Of course I found out
> about the Lincei. Galileo practically founded the thing. (I spend an
> afternoon at the Lincei's Library in 1996. Nice place, difficult for
> asmatics though. One of the good things of getting a PhD are Libraries.
> They are so often well designed places. I remember with special longing
> the Hertziana because it was a house, a palace, built by Federico Zuccari,
> an artist of Disegno who managed to get rich enough to do such a delirious
> building for himself.)
> The "Galilean" Lincei Academy was shut down for more than a century
> (1630-1745). When it felt a sleep, Philadelphia didn't existed, and when
> it open the eyes again, Ben Franklin had already published 15 years of
> "The Poor Richard's Almanac" and Lisbon had been recently destroyed by an
> earthquake. When it was refounded the natural sciences academies were at
> founding frenzy and, most of all, the concept of Science had changed. The
> refounded Lincei Academy become, today, two important italian academies:
> The Pontificia and the "national academy". From the inicial Lyncei
> inherited the name.
> Galileo was a Philosopher and a Mathematician in the days when science
> meant solely knowledge (anykind of knowledge). Of course that the Disegno
> Academy was a scientific academy since it was devoted and based in a
> science (a system of knowledge) called disegno. Even the Florentine
> Academia degli Lettere (1530's) pretended to be scientific.
> As for the Academia del Disegno emcompassing all practical arts, I must
> recal that even the architects were excluded in the early stages of the
> Academy in order not to have any confusion with engineering or arts
> outside disegno. Remember that the academia was founded by Vasari's
> inspiration, "inventor" of schizzo, disciple and admirer of Michelangelo
> that loathed the use and abuse of mathematics in the arts. ("the artist
> must have the compass in the eye")
> So the mystery becomes even bigger:
> 1. I really don't know if Galileo has been an academic of Disegno. Maybe
> he was apointed and never knew about it... But you seem to have found the
> information.
> 2. Galileo was already a Linceo and a Court Prime Philosopher and
> Matematician when he suposingly entered so he didn't needed that extra
> honour.
> 3. Was he a Doctor?
> 4. Was he, by entering, an exception?
>
> Well, must go now,
>
> Thanks, again
>
> Eduardo
>
> PS, Thank you Klaus, also. You could very easily get near Heileen Reeves's
> "Painting the Heavens:
> Art and Science in the Age of Galileo". Princeton University Press, 1999,
> i think and check it out. I mean, if it were for the instruments or for
> the methods.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken Friedman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 7:33 PM
> Subject: Re: Philosophy doctors and Designers -- Galileo
>
>
>> Dear Eduardo,
>>
>> A few facts about Galileo, scientific communities, and the academies in
>> Italy may answer your question.
>>
>> The Florentine Accademia del Disegno accepted Galileo to membership two
>> and a half decades after he was appointed to the chair of philosophy
>> (natural science) and mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1589. He
>> also held the chair of mathematics in Padua from 1592. In 1610, Cosimo
>> II, Grand Duke of Tuscany appointed him as mathematician and philosopher
>> (natural scientist) to the principality. Since his appointment in Pisa
>> did not require that he teach or even be present, he moved to Florence.
>>
>> In addition to his work as a scientist and mathematician, Galileo was a
>> skilled military and civil engineer, and an instrument maker of the
>> greatest renown. In terms of the broad scope of interests of a design
>> academy, he would have been well qualified and much of his work --
>> especially engineering -- fit within the scope of the academy charter.
>>
>> But the first scientific academy in Italy -- and some say in the world --
>> was founded a century before Galileo's students established the Academia
>> del Cimento. This was the Academia Secretorum Naturae in Naples, founded
>> by Giambattista della Porta in 1560. Della Porta established his academy
>> three years before the Accademia del Disegno was founded in 1563.
>>
>> Before he joined the Accademia del Disegno, Galileo joined the Accademia
>> dei Lincei, a distinguished scientific academy established in 1603.
>> Despite some breaks in continuity, the Accademia dei Lincei celebrated
>> its fourth century in 2003. It is now Italy's national academy of
>> science.
>>
>> Galileo constantly sought patronage, connections, and opportunities to
>> advance his personal fortune along with his research. The political power
>> and patronage relations of the Accademia del Disegno made it a useful
>> network for Galileo. This is why he applied for membership.
>>
>> The academy accepted Galileo because he was Italy's leading scientist and
>> engineer, and a major figure in European science. The remit of the
>> Accademia del Disegno covered more than art, and the arts in those days
>> included most of the mechanical arts that we call engineering today, as
>> well as covering some areas of mathematics as well as some forms of
>> applied and theoretical physics. Galileo's achievements made him
>> extraordinarily valuable as a member of the academy.
>>
>> This would explain why he applied and why they accepted him.
>>
>> Yours,
>>
>> Ken
>>
>> --
>>
>> Eduardo Corte-Real wrote:
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Does any one know why the Florentine Academia del Disegno admited Galileo
>> as an academic in 1613?
>> I mean, besides the fact that he aplied and that he was accepted. And
>> even besides the fact that the first Scientific Academy (Academia del
>> Cimento) the world was founded only a few years later in 1657?
>> I mean, Why did he applied?
>> Why was he accepted?
>> I really don't know.
>> Help, anyone?
>>
>> Eduardo
>
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