Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 254

tled Contro il portar la toga (Against Wearing the Gown, 1590) con-
siders the academic garment as representative of other differentia-
tions within society, differentiations that were unjustified as they
were generally not based on real distinction (intelligence, culture,
critical analysis, dedication), but on the principle of authority.
In 1639, a seventeen year old scientist named Vincenzio Viviani
became galileo’s assistant. galileo was then seventy-five years
old. Viviani remained in arcetri with galileo until the master’s
death in 1642. He also became his first biographer, publishing, in
1654, Racconto istorico della vita del Sig.r Galileo Galilei
(Historical Narration of Mr. Galileo Galilei’s Life). It is from
Viviani’s biography that we know of galileo’s literary formation
and of his literary preferences and opinions. according to Viviani’s
biography, galileo had a great gift for memorization:
nature blessed him with a quite unusual memory and
because his love of poetry was great, he knew by heart –
among the Latin authors – a large part of Virgil, Ovid,
Horace and Seneca and – among the Tuscans – he knew
almost all Petrarch, all Berni’s rhymes and a little less than
the entire poem of Ludovico ariosto, who was always his
favourite author, celebrated above all the other poets, to an
extent that he [galileo] wrote particular observations about
him and particular comparisons with Tasso […]7
In this passage, Viviani in all probability refers to the aforemen-
tioned manuscript, known as Considerazioni al Tasso di Galileo
Galilei (Considerations on Tasso by Galileo Galilei), a treatise that
accidentally disappeared while galileo was still alive.8 Before ana-
lyzing the language in galileo’s works, it is worth stepping into the
past and making a brief digression on a debate that involved most
of the literati of the XVI century. In its first decades, Cardinal
SIMILarITIES BETWEEn SCIEnTIFIC LanguagE …
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7 “Fu dotato dalla natura d’esquisita memoria; e gustando in estremo la poesia, aveva a mente,
tra gl’autori latini, gran parte di Vergilio, d’Ovidio, Orazio e di Seneca, e tra i toscani quasi
tutto ’l Petrarca, tutte le rime del Berni, e poco meno che tutto il poema di Lodovico ariosto,
che fu sempre il suo autor favorito e celebrato sopra gl’altri poeti, avendogli intorno fatte
particolari osservazioni e paralleli col Tasso”, VincenzioViviani, Racconto istorico di
Vincenzio Viviani, ibid, Vol. XIX, p. 627 (accessed november 4, 2010).
8 See chapter 3 of this article.
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