Brunelleschi's mirror, Alberti's window, and Galileo's' perspective tube'

SAMUEL Y. EDGERTON5 Even in ProtestantEngland, John Donne(1572-1631), when heheard of Galileo’sdiscoveries,suspected (withtongue in cheek) thatit was all a Jesuit plotanyway (as he wrotebelow in his fiercelysatirical tract, ‘Ignatiushis Conclave’ in1611): “I will write theBishop of Rome: heshall call Galileo theFlorentine who by thistime hath thoroughlyinstructed himself ofall the hills, woods,and cities in themoon. And nowbeing grown to moreperfection in his art,he shall have madenew glasses, and withthese having receiveda hallowing from thepope, he may drawthe moon, floating likea boat upon the water,as near the Earth as hewill. And thither(because they everclaim that thoseemployments ofbelong to them) shallthe Jesuites betransferred, and easilyunite and reconcilethe Lunatique Churchto the Roman Church.And without doubt,after the Jesuites havebeen there a littlewhile, there will soongrow naturally a Hellin that world, overwhich you [?] IgnatiusLoyola shall havedominion...”.poets. 5 Even Harriot, once he had read Sidereus nuncius, finally ‘saw’the shaded craters which had eluded him a year before. In July of1610, four months after Sidereus nuncius was published, Harriot drewyet another lunar picture (Figure 20).Again, there is no written comment, but the Englishman didsketch the moon’s concavities in pen-stroke circles and half-circles,even exaggerating Albategnius in imitation of the Sidereus nunciusengraver’s drawing. It is a curious fact, if only a coincidence, thatin 1611, hardly a year after England received Galileo’s stunningannouncement, Inigo Jones, the first Englishman to have talentand training in the conventions of Italian perspective drawing,was appointed Surveyor General to the Prince of Wales, andSebastiano Serlio’s “Treatise on Architecture,” the most widely readtextbook on the neo-classical style – including a special section onlinear perspective – was translated into English. Both events,following immediately upon the news of Galileo’s telescopicFigure 20176 História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro