Abstract
Since the change in the weather spoiled all my hopes of seeing the frozen waters in the grotto above Gresta, I returned to it after I had sent the last letter to Your Highness, so that I should miss nothing that might help me to discover something new about it.
Stensen’s original letter in Italian does not seem to have been preserved. It must have served as a model for Fabroni, (Lettere 2, 318–321) and Manni (Vita 292–296) in their publications of the same in 1775. Maar adopted their text (OPH 29 & 30) as did Scherz in EP, 238–240. It is also to be found in Montalenti (117–119) and is the basis of this translation by Mrs. M. Rohde. Annotations by Scherz are from GP, 247 ff. The sketches indicate Stensen’s routes to the grottos, see GP, illustration 105. The sketches from the grotto of Moncodeno in GP, 246 are not printed in OPH. Text from OPH.
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- 1.
A grotto near Gresta Castle, north-east of Lake Garda, the property of the Counts of Castelbarco. The castle is situated in the Gresta valley above Loppio, near Pannone, and has been a ruin since its destruction, in 1701, by the Duke of Vendôme, a marshal of Louis XIV.
- 2.
The plan has also been lost. However, we must note Viviani’s mention of a drawing of a grotto in the mountains of Brescia, which he sent to the Grand Duke's steward on the 30th June 1671. (Florence BN, Gal. 269, fol. 237: Disteso d'osservazioni de farsi da Lodovico Stoffiere Granduca Cosimo III sulla grotta delle montagne de Brescia, fatto da me e assegnatoli d'ordine di S.A.S. 30. giugno 1671).
- 3.
Members of the Cimento Academy, working probably from instruments known before Galileo’s death, were the first to produce a closed thermometer, which they described in their “Saggi”, p. 2 ff. The earlier instruments were thermoscopes which showed only the change in temperature. The thermometer of the Cimento Academy resembled a present day one in shape, with a glass globe and a long tube. It was filled with ethyl alcohol and sealed to make it independent of the change in air pressure. In Tuscany, the highest and the lowest temperatures were taken as the fundamental points. The scale was however, divided into one hundred degrees, and each degree was marked by a white glass pearl which was burned in. It was only after the dissolution of the Academy that one of its members, Rinaldini, brought out the fundamental points as we know them to-day. Present day freezing point corresponded to 13.5° on this thermometer and 55° Celsius corresponded to 50°. (Caverni 1, 279 ss. Dannemann 2, 75-77. OPH 2, 343) and R. Vollmann, Das Thermometer. In: Ciba Zeitschrift. März 1944, p. 3301.
- 4.
The Castelbarcos, a family from Valle Lagarina, who moved to Milan. In 1664 they obtained sovereignty over the districts around Ala, Avio, Mon and Bretonico, and were raised to the state of counts by the Emperor. Stensen’s host was Count Francesco de Castelbarco (1626-1695), son of Scipione and Laura de Galvagni, married to Claudia Dorothea, Countess of Lodron (Francesco 1652, had sold the old castle and the jurisdiction over Castelbarco to Christian, Count of Lodron). Francesco's younger son, Giuseppe Scipione, married Constanza, the daughter of Cesare Visconti, in 1696; for this reason the branch of the family still living also has this name.
- 5.
The idea of Antiperistasis goes back to Aristotle and means the recollection and concentration of one’s own forces to counteract the attack of an opposing force (Chauvin, Lexicon Rationale. OPH 2, 343 ff.). The theory of antiperistasis was used to explain the most widely differing phenomena, from fever with inflammation of the lungs to the observation that cellars are warm in winter and cold in summer. The members of the Cimento Academy did not find any confirmation of antiperistasis in their experiments and rejected it. (Saggi, 259).
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Francesco Buondichi a non-accredited Florentine resident in Milan from 1656-1692. A certain Count Alessandro Visconti († 1685) was cavalry captain in the service of Spain (EP 1, 240). Manfredo Settala, see note in OPH 23.
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Kardel, T., Maquet, P. (2018). 2.29 Letter to the Grand Duke Cosimo III on the Grotto Above Gresta. In: Nicolaus Steno. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55047-2_40
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