Abstract
This chapter considers how seventeenth-century Jesuit professors of philosophy at the Collegio Romano depicted experiments involving the air-pump and Torricellian void. In contrast to previous scholarship, which has focused on Jesuit responses to the values of the new experimental philosophy and on issues of censorship, this chapter addresses the process of textual replication, in particular, how professors chose to recount experiments they found in printed books in the printed and manuscript texts they composed for classroom use. It argues that professors included textual details and visual images of experimental procedures to validate their competence as readers and their qualifications as participants in the wider natural philosophical community. This conclusion offers a point of contrast to previous discussions of the literary technology associated with seventeenth-century experimental texts, which, according to Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, served to bolster an author’s credibility and to transform readers into virtual witnesses. The different role these details served in the context of teaching at the Collegio Romano likely derived from their inclusion in pedagogical texts, a genre in which the authoritativeness and reliability of the included narratives were assumed.
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Notes
- 1.
Zanfredini 2001.
- 2.
Information on positions held at the Collegio Romano for Mauro and other professors is taken from García Villoslada 1954, 321–36.
- 3.
The two works are Aristotelis opera quae extant omnia, Rome, 1668 and Opus theologicum, Rome, 1687.
- 4.
Mauro 1658, vol. 2, 415–16: “si fistula vitrea ultra duos cubitos longa, in qua sit unicum foramen apertum, ex una extremitate impleatur argento vivo, quod vocatur etiam Hydrargirum, seu Mercurius penitus aere excluso, et digito supraposito foramini, ita ut argentum vivum non possit egredi fistula invertatur et demergatur in alio argento vivo parato in vase, seu catino subiecto, tum digito subducto aperiatur foramen ita ut libera sit argento vivo facultas egrediendi, ac descendendi, argentum vivum descendet usque ad certam mensuram fistulae: deinde sursum aliquantum ascendit, et post descendit, et sic aliquantulum fluctuat ascendendo, ac descendendo, donec tandem quiescat in certa altitudine fistulae.”
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
Shea 2003, 28.
- 8.
On the reaction of Casati and other Jesuits to the experiments on the void, see Gavagna 2002, 325–38.
- 9.
Gorman 1994, 7–32.
- 10.
Shapin and Schaffer 1985, 156–69.
- 11.
Hellyer 2005, 155–156.
- 12.
Gorman 1994, 13–14.
- 13.
- 14.
Schmitt 1983.
- 15.
Hellyer 2005, 159.
- 16.
Hellyer 2005, 158–61.
- 17.
Wilding 2014, 136.
- 18.
Mauro 1658, part 2, 415–6.
- 19.
Mauro 1658, part 2, 415: “Dolium tantundem vini capit una cum utribus, quantum sine utribus: vas tantundem aquae capit cum cinere quantum sine cinere, quae non possent contingere sine vacuo.”
- 20.
Mauro 1658, part 2, 415: “Dum silex rumpitur ictu mallei simul se parantur partes mediae, et partes extremae; ergo in meiis datur vacuum pro aliquo brevissimo tempore, antequam aer per motum successivum perveniat ad locum ipsorum.”
- 21.
An example of one such text that contained images of the various world systems is Semery’s Triennium Philosophicum, discussed below.
- 22.
Semery 1688, part 2, 552: “Objicitur primo, experimentum P. Magni. Accipe fistulam vitream ita clausam ex una parte, ut nullum corpus vel tenuissimum introgredi possit. Imple fistulam mercurio, sive argento vivo, et qua parte patet, crasso digito occlude. Deinde in concham alio mercurio plenam immerge; nec retrahe digitum donec fistula secundum illam extremitatem immersa sit. Tunc vero retrahe digitum, et videbis argentum vivum ex parte deorsum tuere, et in spatio relicto, quod erit trium, vel quatuor digitorum, pro magnitudine, vel parvitate tubi, edere vibrationes quasdam, et fluctuare, donec postmodum plane conquiescat.”
- 23.
“De Vacuo … An sit possibile,” Semery 1688, part 2, 549.
- 24.
Semery 1688, part 2, 550: “De Vacuo fuse disputat Aristoteles 4. Physic. ostendens illud simpliciter repugnare. Ex recentioribus multi vacuum admittunt. Inter cæteros est P. Magnus, qui librum scripsit cui titulus est: Ocularis demonstratio Vacui. Et vere in illo experimento quod adducit oculi nullum corpus intra fistulam depræhendunt … Experimentum illud adducitur inferius.”
- 25.
Gorman 1994, 28–29.
- 26.
Semery 1688, part 2, 550: “Inter alia est illud familiare de cucurbitulis (vulgo ventossas vocant) quibus medici passim utuntur. Nam in iis cum aer reducit se ad debitam densitatem, evanescente videlicet calido a quo raruerat, experientia constat carnem attolli, ut relictum ab aere spatium impleat. Immo si Chirurgus eas ab humeris avulsutus recta sursum attollat, diffingit potius quam avellat. Unde eas aliquantisper elevans ab una parte retrahit, aer subingrediens finit illas avelli.”
- 27.
Semery 1688, part 2, 551: “Praeterea si lagenam aqua, vel vino plenam aperto orificio inverteris, saepe continget nihil ex ipsa effluere, nisi illam tantisper inclines: videlicet ut per canaliculum sese insinuans aer pergat ad occupandum locum, qui deferendus est a liquore effluente: et quia si recta invertatur non habet aer qua se insinuet, ideo nihil effluit. Hoc idem saepe experiuntur Acholiti, dum ex ampulla bene obturata in superiori orificio, nihil effluit in calicem ex protenso canaliculo, quamvis aperto.”
- 28.
Sommervogel 1960, vol. 6, 166.
- 29.
Panici n.d., 408v: “Unum, et celeberrimum hic seligo, quod anno huius saeculi 43. proposuit Evangelista Torricéllius Galilæi discipulus, et magni nominis Mathematicus … accepit hic author fistulam vitream trium circiter pedum longitudine, ex una parte Hermetice sigillatam: eam hydrargiro, sive argento vivo, sive Mercurio (quae nomina idem sonant) implevit; obturataque subiecto digito altera fistulae parte, fistulam perpendiculariter ad orizontem erexit, et digitum simul cum extrema ea. parte, quam claudebat, immersit Mercurio stagnanti in subiecto catino, ut apparet in figura. Amoto deinde digito, Mercurius inclusus fistula descendit, ita tamen, ut post multas undulationes, et vibrationes consisteret pendulus in fistula ad altitudinem digitorum fere viginti septem cum dimidio supra superficiem planam Mercurii stagnantis in catino; relinquens reliquum spatium superius fistulæ Mercurio penitus vacuum.”
- 30.
Panici n.d., 408r: “Primo cucurbitulae Medicae … postquam enim intra illas rescissa fuerit flamma, caro illico intra cucurbitulas attollitur vehementer; hoc autem non videtur aliunde procedere, nisi quod cessante illa magna raritate aeris orta et praecedente flamma: adeoque reducante se aere ad minus spatium, caro attollitur ad occupandam partem spatii ab aere relictam, ne ibi detur Vacuum.”
- 31.
Panici n.d., 408r: “Siphunculus retortus habens tamen crura inaequalia, ut in subiecta figura. Si naris brevius huius siphunculi immergatur in vas aqua plenu, et deinde applicato ore ad orificium cruris longioris extra vas pendentis, exugatur totus aer in siphunculo inclusus, statim aqua simul cum aere descendét in os exugentis. Rémoto deinde ore, tamdiu aqua a siphone prodibit, quamdiu vel gutta in vase superit, vel certe superficies aquæ stagnantis intra vas sit inferior crure siphunculi; tunc enim subintrabit aer, et deficiet fluxus aquae.”
- 32.
- 33.
Panici n.d., 410r: “alia tamen addidit phænomena Robertus Boyle … per suam machinam Pnéumaticam, quae Cenoscopium appellatur.”
- 34.
Panici n.d., 410r: “ut apparet in subiecta figura. e.”
- 35.
Panici n.d., 410r: “Imago descriptae machinae videri potest in fronte operis quod ipse Boyle inscripsit. Nova experimenta Physico-mechanica de vi aeris elastica; vel etiam in subiecta figura.”
- 36.
Though we know that Boyle collaborated with William Faithorne to produce other images of his air-pump for inclusion in portraits Faithorne made of Boyle with the instrument, the engraver who produced the prints for this publication is not known. On Faithorne’s portraits, see Maddison 1959.
- 37.
Panici n.d., 410r: “Ita aperitur mensa, ut ex parte superiore vas vel vitreum, vel alterius materiae, (quod vulgo Recipiens appellatur) mensae agglutinetur, orificio eius cum cera, et terebintina ad mensam applicato, ut nullus aere circumfuso pateat aditus; ex altera parte mensæ sit magnum forman, in quo anthlia sic disponatur, ut embolus planae mensae paene commensuretur. Inter vas vitreum, et anthliam sit tubus cupreus paululum curvatus, per quem aer, qui est in Recipiente, traduci possit in anthlia: et in tubi eiusdem extrema parte, quae in anthliam desinit, sit verticillus, quo aeri aditus .. possit, quandocumque libuerit. Super embolum lamella ferrea, atque densata affigatur …. Sit denique in infima anthliae parte exiguum foramen, quod apposito digito, vel alio simili, occludi commode possit, aut recludi.”
- 38.
Boyle 1662, 49.
- 39.
On Baldigiani, see Findlen 2009, 211–54.
- 40.
Baldigiani 1696, 26v: “Sit tubus oblongus et amplus utrimque peruius, qualem exibet figura octaua. Hic tubus sit perfecte clausus in extremitate A mediate pellicula siue uesica circum posita et bene alligata. Haec extremitas adsit inserta lacernula seu uesicula XZ. et ibi bene aglutinata. Lacerna uerò habeat in parte superiori tenue aperturam B per illam impleatur aqua tota lacerna ita ut nihil aeris intra illud remaneat deinde claudatur apertura glutine et pellicula tunc tubus totus impleatur mercurio, at facta solita immersione fiat uacuum torricelliam num notandum occurret quod uesica existens in a extremitata tubi non frangetur nec dilatabitur.”
- 41.
“Quaeres 6.° in Uacuum Torricellianum alio modo fieri possit sine mercurio vel alio liquore descendente et evacuante fistulas et vasa superius imposita,” Baldigiani 1696, 37v–38r.
- 42.
Baldigiani 1696, 38r: “Magdeburgenses, et societas regia anglicana excogitauit ingeniosas quasdam machinas, per quas ingentia uasa uitrea quae ab illis uocari solent recipientia omni aere euacuantur non tamen sine longo labore, et tempore. Id praestant ope Antliae evacuantis successive et per partes inclusum aerem. Modus utendi talibus machinis est ualde laboriosus, et periculosus nam per rimulas saepe ingrediens aer fallet obseruantes saepe etiam interuenit fractio vitri.”
- 43.
- 44.
Dinis 2003 198.
- 45.
Gorman 2003, 13, 15–17, 26.
- 46.
Chouet 2010, vol. 2, 69: “neque id nos morari debet quod aëris pondus ac pressionem non sentiamus. Id enim ex iisdem oritur causis quibus urinatores in fundo maris nullum aquae pondus sentiunt.”
- 47.
Chouet 2010, vol. 2, 70: “si sumatur tubus vitreus altero extremo clausus altero apertus, qui longitudinem viginti sex digitorum non superet, tubusque ille hydrargyro compleatur et eius orificium in aliud hydrargyrum in vase quopiam contentum imittatur, notum est, inquam, hydrargyrum tubi qualicunque praeditum sit gravitate minime descendere, sed suspensum intra ipsum tubum haerere.”
- 48.
Semery 1688, part 2, 552: “Objicitur primo, experimentum P. Magni. Accipe fistulam vitream ita clausam ex una parte, ut nullum corpus vel tenuissimum introgredi possit. Imple fistulam mercurio, sive argento vivo, et qua parte patet, crasso digito occlude. Deinde in concham alio mercurio plenam immerge; nec retrahe digitum donec fistula secundum illam extremitatem immersa sit. Tunc vero retrahe digitum, et videbis argentum vivum ex parte deorsum tuere, et in spatio relicto, quod erit trium, vel quatuor digitorum, pro magnitudine, vel parvitate tubi, edere vibrationes quasdam, et fluctuare, donec postmodum plane conquiescat.”
- 49.
Magni 1648, 5: “Procuravi fisultam vitream, longam ultra cubitos duos, cuius canalis commode excipiat pisum: crassities vitri est tanta, quanta est grani frumentacei. Unum eius orificium occlusi sigillo Hermetis, scilicet, vitreo liquenti. Hanc fistulam implevi argento vivo, cuius orificium patens obturavi digito vehementer applicato, super quo orificio, eatenus obturato, erexi fisultam, quam immersi argento vivo, indito vasi congruo, quod vas erat pariter immersum vasi repleto aquis, ita ut aquae eminerent supra argentum vivum digitis quatuor.”
- 50.
Magni 1648, 6: “salitque iterum, ac desilit, et post nonnulas eiusmodi vibrationes, inferior pars fistulae, longitudine cubitu uno, visitur plena mercurio, superior vero creditur vacua ab omni corpore: nam oculis nil aquae, in illa parte cernitur.”
- 51.
Zucchi 1649, 101–2: “Si Tubus vitreus, secundum alteram extremitatem impervius, ingesto per alteram patentem argento vivo, impleatur, et erectus immergatur secundum patentem, sed apposito digito clausam, alteri argento vivo in vase subiecto contento, et aqua superfusa; tum amoveatur digitus ab orificio Tubi, argentum vivum in Tubo contentum descendit, post descensum aliquantum assurgit; tum descendit minus, et resurgit minus; donec iteratis aliquot vibrationibus semper minoribus, tandem quiescat in parte Tubi inferiori, relicta superiori non ipso solum destituta.”
- 52.
Another Jesuit writer, Paolo Casati, did just that, reporting the height of the mercury measured by Magni and Roberval, as well as those of his own experiments, Casati 1649, 84–5.
- 53.
“Argento vivo (seu malis appellare Mercurium, aut Hydrargyrum),” Casati 1649, 84.
- 54.
- 55.
Boyle 1662, 149–50.
- 56.
Grafton 1989, 183.
- 57.
Whittaker 1989, 71.
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Raphael, R. (2021). Literary Technology and Its Replication: Teaching the Torricellian Void and Air-Pump at the Collegio Romano. In: Berger, S., Garber, D. (eds) Teaching Philosophy in Early Modern Europe. Archimedes, vol 61. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84621-3_9
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