Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 267
In another famous metaphor galileo compares literature and science
when attacking Jesuit scientists uncritical of aristotelian theories:
Maybe [Mr. Sarsi] thinks that philosophy is a book and a fan-
tasy of a single man, like Iliad and Orlando furioso, books
where truthfulness is the least important issue. Mr. Sarsi, it is
not like this. Philosophy is written in a huge book in which
every moment is open in front of us (I mean the universe),
but it cannot be understood if we do not learn its language
and its alphabetic characters beforehand. It is written in
mathematic language and its characters are triangles, circles
and other geometric shapes and without knowing them it is
not possible for human beings to understand a word of it.
Being unaware of them is like wandering in a dark
labyrinth.52
In Considerazioni al Tasso the use of the ‘high’ metaphor is less fre-
quent and less varied. nevertheless, in this work it is possible to
observe its efficacy, and elegance, for instance in the similes galileo
applies to Tasso’s style, with regard to literature and painting:
His narrative style is similar to an inlay rather than an oil
painting, as the inlay is a patchwork made with wooden
sticks of different colours and even if they are put together in
the smoothest way, their edges still remain sharp and their
different colours continue to contrast substantially, so that
the pictures perforce turn out dry and plain, without any
emphasis, while in oil painting, since the edges gradually
shade from one colour into another, the painting becomes
smooth, accomplished, with vigour and emphasis. ariosto
STEFanO rOSaTTI
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no piú sacca di grano che un caval solo, io acconsentirei che i molti discorsi facesser piú che
uno solo; ma il discorrere è come il correre, e non come il portare, ed un caval berbero solo
correrá piú che cento frisoni.” galileo galilei, Il Saggiatore, p. 247.
52 “e forse stima che la filosofia sia un libro e una fantasia d’un uomo, come l’Iliade e
l’Orlando furioso, libri nei quali la meno importante cosa è che quel che vi sia scritto sia
vero. Signor Sarsi, la cosa non istà così. La filosofia è scritta in questo grandissimo libro che
continuamente ci sta aperto innanzi a gli occhi (io dico l’universo), ma non si può intende-
re se prima non s’impara a intender la lingua, e conoscer i caratteri, ne’ quali è scritto. Egli
è scritto in lingua matematica, e i caratteri son triangoli, cerchi, ed altre figure geometriche,
senza i quali mezi è impossibile a intenderne umanamente parola; senza questi è un aggi-
rarsi vanamente per un oscuro laberinto.” Ibid, p. 38.
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