Dario Tessicini
I am interested in the history of the science of the Renaissance / Early Modern period (with special focus on the sixteenth century).
Topics I have dealt with span the history of astronomy and cosmology, natural philosophy, scientific patronage and, more recently, the history of translation.
Address: Dipartimento di Antichità, Filosofia, Storia
Via Balbi, 2 - 16126 GENOVA
Topics I have dealt with span the history of astronomy and cosmology, natural philosophy, scientific patronage and, more recently, the history of translation.
Address: Dipartimento di Antichità, Filosofia, Storia
Via Balbi, 2 - 16126 GENOVA
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Books by Dario Tessicini
Starting with a new approach to the issue of the presence of Islamic astronomical devices in Copernicus’ work and a thorough reappraisal of the cosmological views of Paracelsus, the book deals mainly with the abolition of cosmological dualism and the ways in which it affected the decline of astrology over the 17th century. Other related topics include planetary order and theories of world harmony, the cause of planetary motion in the Tychonic world system or the discussion on comets in Germany through the first presentation of a manuscript treatise by Michael Maestlin on the great comet of 1618.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Dario Tessicini
ABSTRACT
The article studies the Dialogo del Gobbo da Rialto, et Marocco dalle pipone dalle colonne di S. Marco, a rare and little-known pamphlet that stages an oral conversation between two talking statues about the comet of 1577. It investigates the way in which the conversation it purports to represent relates to Venice’s social and cultural environment. , and how the Dialogo is in turn connected to other pamphlets with which it constitutes a shared cultural environment.
Starting with a new approach to the issue of the presence of Islamic astronomical devices in Copernicus’ work and a thorough reappraisal of the cosmological views of Paracelsus, the book deals mainly with the abolition of cosmological dualism and the ways in which it affected the decline of astrology over the 17th century. Other related topics include planetary order and theories of world harmony, the cause of planetary motion in the Tychonic world system or the discussion on comets in Germany through the first presentation of a manuscript treatise by Michael Maestlin on the great comet of 1618.
ABSTRACT
The article studies the Dialogo del Gobbo da Rialto, et Marocco dalle pipone dalle colonne di S. Marco, a rare and little-known pamphlet that stages an oral conversation between two talking statues about the comet of 1577. It investigates the way in which the conversation it purports to represent relates to Venice’s social and cultural environment. , and how the Dialogo is in turn connected to other pamphlets with which it constitutes a shared cultural environment.
This is a sample digital offprint. Please contact the author or the publisher for a complete copy"
Copernicus’s De revolutionibus (1543) and Girolamo Fracastoro’s Homocentrica (1538) were both addressed to Pope Paul III (1534–1549). Their dedicatory letters represent a rhetorical exercise in advocating an astronomical reform and an attempt to obtain the papal favour. Following on from studies carried out by Westman (1990) and Barker & Goldstein (2003), this paper deals with cultural, intellectual and scientific motives of both texts, and aims at underlining possible relations between them, such as that Copernicus knew of Fracastoro’s Homocentrica, and that at least part of the rhetorical strategy laid out in De revolutionibus’s dedicatory letter can be read as a sophisticated response to Fracastoro’s arguments.
"L'Institut d'Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència López Piñero (centre mixt de la Universitat de València i el CSIC), amb seu al Palau de Cerveró, presenta el seminari The comet and the plague: medical and astrological debates in early modern Venice, que tindrà lloc el pròxim dimarts 20 de maig, a les 17 hores, a la sala de conferències de l'Institut.
La conferència se centrarà en l'estudi de la difusió del coneixement científic a través de fullets i publicacions similars. Els casos concrets a tractar tenen el seu origen en les escriptures mèdiques i astrològiques que van inundar les llibreries venecianes després de la plaga de 1576 i després del cometa de l'any següent. Textos plens de discursos curts i diàlegs satírics, amb estil poètic en llatí, a més de cartells. A través de l'anàlisi del contingut, la funció, el gènere i les maneres de circulació d'aquestes publicacions, el seminari planteja com a objectiu aportar algunes consideracions sobre la interrelació entre l'astrologia, la meteorologia i la medicina en la primerenca Venècia moderna.
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The Groningen-Uppsala-Durham International Summer School
in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.
Uppsala, 17-21 June
“Things That Matter” is a module offered in partnership by the Universities of Uppsala, Groningen and Durham. It takes place during the Easter Term, and consists of a (non compulsory) preparatory ‘International Classroom’ module delivered online, and of a week-long Summer School held each year in one of the partner universities in collaboration with their local cultural institutions (University of Uppsala, Gustavianum; University of Groningen Library and Museum; Durham Palace Green Library).
More details are available at https://www.rug.nl/education/summer-winter-schools/summer_schools_2019/ttm/.
Content
“Things that Matter” addresses the tension between the materiality of sources and their digitization. The recent advances of digital technology have created new modes of reproduction and forms of consumption that have substantially reshaped the concepts of ‘object’ and of ‘collection’ at the heart of cultural institutions such as libraries and museums. The Summer School engages with key questions that arise from the study of the past in the digital age. These issues include the changing nature of objects such as books and scientific instruments as source materials; the history and practice of collections and collecting, digitization and its challenges, both technological and intellectual.
“Things that Matter” maps the possibilities and challenges posed by the digital age for researchers. The ongoing process of digitization makes sources of the past available to a previously unknown extent: but what does this mean for researchers?
We will also discuss the role of objects in Public History. How does society approach the legacy of “things” in museums and heritage institutions? Which objects are “worth keeping”, why and when? Who determines the selection process and what are the selection criteria for curators, archivists and other agents in the sector? What collections are digitized and why those? Who makes the selections? How do we meet scientific demands on systematic design and transparency when working on online search engines and on differing (and sometimes incompatible) designs of data bases?
The Summer School brings together experts from both academia and the cultural heritage sector. Over the course of one week of intensive teaching, they will deliver lectures, lead seminars and hands-on sessions in libraries and museums, supervise student-led projects and presentations.
Participants: Master and PhD Students in History, Art History, Archaeology, Literary Studies, Library and Museum Studies.
Teaching Methods and Contact Hours:
- Preparatory online module [optional]
The online module runs for 6 weeks in the Easter Term. Total hours: 70 [inclusive of student-led seminars, discussion groups, and structured readings].
Tasks:
1. Research Presentation and Introduction: Students present their own research or research design submitted and shared online and then presented in virtual classroom at an introductory session.
2. Critical Reading: Prepare and assess key readings related to the subject “Things that Matter”. Students reflect in writing on required readings (which is done individually), identify 4 key questions related to the reading which are shared and discussed in the plenary virtual class room, where 4 guiding principles are developed to be applied to the design of a virtual collection
3. “Dry Swim”: Virtual Collection: Students of each of the three partner universities design a virtual collection of materials specific to the host Library/University Museum which they present to the students of the other partner universities.
Summer School (17-21 June 2019)
Programme: approx. 30 hours of teaching and learning activities over the course of one week (Monday-Friday). Typically, the Summer School will consist of lectures, hands-on sessions and excursions and student-led group work.
Tasks:
1. Actively participate in all components of the Summer School. All participants must demonstrate that they have digested and analysed the reading for each component of the Summer School
2. Present their own research in progress or research design
3. Write an essay in which they critically discuss the themes of the Summer School in relation to their own research
4. Write a SWOT analysis of the Summer School in which they reflect critically on their learning experience
Academic coordinators: Dr Mikael Alm (Uppsala); Prof. Raingard Esser (Groningen); Dr Dario Tessicini (Durham)
Contact: [email protected];
GALILAEANA. Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science
Il Saggiatore at 400: An Early Modern Controversy and Its Legacy
2023 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Galileo Galilei’s Il Saggiatore (The Assayer), a work on cometary theory that is best known for its controversial scientific claims and for being a turning point in its author’s relations with the Jesuits. Il Saggiatore was published as Galileo’s own contribution (with the aid of members of the Accademia dei Lincei) to the scientific dispute between Mario Guiducci, Galileo’s own pupil, and the Jesuit astronomer Orazio Grassi,. In addition to its immediate intellectual and social context, the polemical exchange among Guiducci, Grassi, and Galileo develops themes and arguments that had characterized European cometary debates since the late sixteenth century, including, crucially, the significance of comets for the study of the universe, its order and matter. Famously, Il Saggiatore contains well-known considerations on the telescope, natural philosophy, and matter theory. Galileo’s volume was also the target of at least three anonymous denunciations because of its alleged support of Copernicanism and of atomism.
Despite the wealth of literature on Galileo and the publication of a critical edition of Il Saggiatore in 2005 (ed. by O. Besomi and M. Helbing), many aspects of this volume remain understudied or need to be reconsidered in light of recent research. In order to reignite study of Galileo’s complex work, the journal Galilaeana: Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science invites article proposals for a monograph issue on Il Saggiatore and its legacies. Proposals are welcome on any aspect of Il Saggiatore, its intellectual context and its reception. Topics may include, but are by no means restricted to:
- the history of Il Saggiatore, its production and early-modern fortune, including the study of individual copies and marginalia.
- the history of astronomy and of observational techniques, including issues related to the use of the telescope and the parallax method.
- cometary theory and its cosmological consequences.
- the critical reception of Il Saggiatore, particularly studies of twentieth-century historiography.
Prospective contributors should submit 300-word abstracts by 31 March 2022 to [email protected]. Abstracts must include the author’s/co-authors’ name(s), affiliation(s), and email address(es). Finally, a brief CV (maximum of 2 pages) should also be submitted. Proposals will be assessed by the journal’s editorial committee. Selected contributors will be notified by the end of April 2022. It is expected that the deadline for complete article manuscripts will be 31 May 2023. Each manuscript will undergo double-blind peer-review.
Galilaeana: Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science is a journal of the Museo Galileo in Florence. From 2023, Galilaeana will be published biannually as an online, open-access journal. For any further information on the journal, please check the website: https://www.museogalileo.it/en/library-and-research-institute/publications-and-conferences/journals/480-galilaeana -studies-in-renaissance-and-early-modern-science.html or contact [email protected] .