Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 260
4. rhetorical and stylistic devices in
Considerazioni al Tasso and in The Assayer
Before observing the correspondences of particular aspects of the
two works, it is worth noting how their structural setting is also
similar: in Considerazioni al Tasso galileo transcribes all those
excerpts from Jerusalem Delivered he intends to critically analyse.
In The Assayer, at the beginning of each chapter, he includes long
excerpts of Sarsi’s/grassi’s Libra astronomica (Astronomic Scale,
1619)21, in order to confute them.22
The Assayer is an epistolary essay. galileo dedicates his work to
Virginio Cesarini, an academic of Lynxes who also was the
Chamberlain of Pope urban VIII. The form and the vulgar tongue
establishes a dialogic relationship with the addressee, brought out
by the frequent use of allocutions: “and I wanted, Your Excellency,
that before everyone else thou should be the reader of my reply”23;
or: “nevertheless, I remained resolute in talking and writing to
Your Excellency”24.
If the use of courtesy pronouns is not particularly remarkable in
an epistolary work, galileo nevertheless seems to draw on the dia-
logic relation in order to subtly take advantage of it and to use it as
a full-blown cooptation. The addressee suddenly becomes a sort of
SIMILarITIES BETWEEn SCIEnTIFIC LanguagE …
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21 The complete title of this work, a treatise in Latin, is Libra astronomica ac philosophica,
qua Galilaei Galilaei opiniones de cometis a Mario Guiducio in Florentina Academia
expositae, atque in lucem nuper editae, examinantur a Lothario Sarsio Sigensano.
(astronomic and philosophic scale by which galileo galilei’s opinions about comets,
exposed by Mario guiducci at The academy of Florence, and recently published, will be
examined by Lothario Sarsi Sigensano). In 1619 Orazio grassi published this work under
the pseudonym of Lothario Sarsi Sigensano. The treatise was such a public, open, and harsh
accusation against galileo and his theories that galileo could not ignore it. Il Saggiatore is
the reply to Lothario Sarsi’s alias Orazio grassi’s work.
22 In this way the reader can follow all the issues of the debate without necessarily owning all
the books related to the debate itself (i.e. the original text and galileo’s confutations), since
he can take advantage of all the material concerning information, data, and items of discus-
sion by just owning galileo’s book. This fact, more than the adoption of the vernacular –
adoption suggested by personal propagandistic necessity – significantly testify galilean
openness to ‘culture accessibility’.
23 “Ed ho voluto, Illustrissimo Signore, ch’ella sia prima d’ogni altro lo spettator di questa mia
replica”, galileo galilei, Il Saggiatore (1623), Milano: Feltrinelli Editore, universale
Economica – I Classici, 2008 [first edition, 1965], p. 15.
24 “Ho nondimeno mantenuta l’istessa risoluzione di parlar con V.S. Illustrissima ed a Lei scri-
vere”, ibid, p. 16.
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