Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 263
“Tancredi […], you silly ugly bean; I beg you, go and play with
dolls.”41
Somehow, in the transposition of the caustic sarcasm, the charac-
ters in Tasso’s work could be considered as equivalent to the charac-
ters in the Libra astronomica, that is equivalent to the ancient author-
ities which Sarsi/grassi defends (while galileo ridicules them),
according to the typical tradition of the Jesuit school:
If Sarsi wants me to give credit to Suida [the title of a
Byzantine encyclopaedia, which probably dated back to
tenth century and consisted of about 30000 entries] when it
says that the Babylonians used to hard-boil eggs by quickly
spinning them with their slings, well, I will; but I will also
tell the reason, which is far different from the one attributed
to this phenomenon […] now, we are not lacking in eggs or
slings, or strong men who are able to spin them, and yet the
eggs do not get hard-boiled, on the contrary, if they were hot,
they would soon get cold; in conclusion, since we are not
from Babylon, the only cause of the hardening is not the air
friction, but rather in their being Babylonians […]42
Sarsi invites me to listen carefully to Seneca’s theory and
then he asks me whether it was possible to express oneself in
a clearer and smarter way; I totally assent and I confirm that
it was not possible to express oneself either in a smarter or in
a more explicit way to tell a lie.43
The tangle of the addressees, which is organized in order to ridicule
the opponent, could not be complete, as aforementioned, without
STEFanO rOSaTTI
263
41 “Tancredi […], fagiolaccio scimunito; di grazia, va’ a giocar alle comaruccie.” Ibid, p. 86.
42 “Se il Sarsi vuole ch’io creda a Suida che i Babilonii cocesser l’uova col girarle velocemente
nella fionda, io lo crederò; ma diró bene, la cagione di tal effetto esser lontanissima da quel-
la che gli viene attribuita […] ora, a noi non mancano uova, né fionde, né uomini robusti
che le girino, e pur non si cuocono, anzi, se fusser calde, si raffreddano piú presto; e perché
non ci manca altro che d’esser di Babilonia, dunque l’esser Babilonie è causa dell’indurirsi
l’uova, e non l’attrizion dell’aria”, galileo galilei, Il Saggiatore, p. 247–248.
43 “all’invito che mi fa il Sarsi ad ascoltare attentamente quello che dice Seneca, e ch’egli poi
mi domanda se si poteva dir cosa piú chiaramente e piú sottilmente, io gli presto tutto il mio
assenso, e confermo che non si poteva né piú sottilmente né piú apertamente dire una
bugia.” Ibid, p. 248.
Milli mála 2011_Milli mála 1-218 6/28/11 1:39 PM Page 263