Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 273

Sarsi’s theories are regarded as conventional and doctrinaire: “He
[Mr. Sarsi] should not think to bring his answers about limitations,
distinctions, per accidens, per se, mediate, primary, secondary or
other chitchats, otherwise, instead of upholding just one error, he will
make a hundred more serious ones, I promise him […]”87
among these caustic and grotesque elements used to discredit
his opponents, galileo also deploys metaphors connected to the
symbolism of animals. Drawn from this symbolism, in
Considerazioni al Tasso metaphors of animals are related to the
realistic and popular register of Tuscan burlesco (‘burlesque’) and
to the facezia (‘joke’) of the humanistic tradition, in which comic
elements and vulgar, gross, immediately comprehensible jokes are
very frequent: “a mush for dogs.”88; “aladdin, that sheep”89; “Heroes
more cowards and more effeminate than a pack of dogs running
after a bitch”90; “In the last two verses are three concepts that have
less to do with each other than the moon with crabs”91. On the other
hand, in The Assayer, the animal figures galileo chooses against
his opponent have a more sophisticated relevance and, as Battistini
underlines: “For the characteristics of their behaviour as well as for
the meanings that Bestiaries attribute to them, they pertain to the
canonical figures of satirical code […]”92
The simile that follows refers to the good and the bad philoso-
phers and to the fact that starlings (the bad philosophers), besides
being much more numerous and flying in large flocks, fly at lower
altitudes than the eagles (the good philosophers): “Mr. Sarsi, I
think they fly like eagles, not like starlings.”93
STEFanO rOSaTTI
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87 “né si persuada [il Sarsi] di poter venire con risposte di limitazioni, di distinzioni, di per
accidens, di per se, di mediate, di primario, di secondario o d’altre chiacchiere, ch’io l’assi-
curo che in vece di sostenere un errore ne commetterà cento piú gravi”, galileo galilei, Il
Saggiatore, p. 235.
88 “paniccia da cani.” galileo galilei, Considerazioni al Tasso, from Edizione digitale delle
opere complete di Galileo Galilei, Vol. IX, p. 67, http://pinakes.imss.fi.it:8080/pinakestext/
home.jsf (accessed november 5, 2010).
89 “quella pecora d’ aladino”, ibid, p. 78.
90 “eroi più vili e effemminati che un branco di cagnoli dietro alla cagna”, ibid, p. 95.
91 “ne gli ultimi due versi son tre concetti che non han che fare insieme più che la luna con i
granchi”, ibid, p. 122.
92 “per le caratteristiche del loro comportamento o per i significati attribuiti loro dai bestiari, appar-
tengono alle figure canoniche del codice satirico.” andrea Battistini, Galileo e i gesuiti, p. 154.
93 “Io, Signor Sarsi, credo che volino come l’aquile, e non come gli storni.” galileo galilei, Il
Saggiatore, p. 48.
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