FEDERICO CESI, THE FIRST ACADEMY, AND UMBRIA 35places, where real scholars could live in community to devote themselvestogether to the practice <strong>of</strong> science. 40And if the project <strong>of</strong> Cesi and his companions, while certainly ambitious,cannot be considered a pure sign <strong>of</strong> evasion, it is equally evident thatthe neither can the Lynceographum and the constitutional elaborationderived from it, be considered the umpteenth product <strong>of</strong> that normativemania that characterized the charters and by-laws <strong>of</strong> the academies up anddown the peninsula. ‘The Lynceographum, that is’, writes Olmi, ‘is not simplyto be interpreted as the co<strong>di</strong>fication <strong>of</strong> a ceremonial void, as an attemptto cover, under the mantle <strong>of</strong> minutely detailed rules and regulations, thetotal absence <strong>of</strong> a preconceived plan <strong>of</strong> development and clearly expressedpurposes’. 41 The aim <strong>of</strong> the Lynceographum is certainly to ensure a ‘soundfoundation’, solid bases for the institution, with the objective <strong>of</strong> protectingit from all <strong>di</strong>sruptive actions, whether internal or external; but all this,which we could call the level <strong>of</strong> organizational and normative policy, explicitlyfinds its strength in what Cesi repeatedly refers to as the ideal <strong>of</strong>‘lynceality’, that is, an ideal <strong>of</strong> life and scholarship rigorously grounded inassumptions <strong>of</strong> a moral and epistemological order.3. Cesi and the Moral and Methodological Commitment <strong>of</strong> the ScholarIt is indeed these assumptions that emerge from Cesi’s speech <strong>of</strong> 1616,which make it the authentic ideological manifesto <strong>of</strong> the institution, andwhich explain its inclusion here in its entirety. In the speech the affirmations<strong>of</strong> the Lynceograph, expressed in the detached coldness <strong>of</strong> the latter’snormative and constitutional elaboration, take on instead the substance <strong>of</strong>a speculative reformulation, <strong>of</strong> a solid reflection on the culture <strong>of</strong> the time,on the necessity <strong>of</strong> a new model <strong>of</strong> scholarship, on the role, the functionand the responsibility <strong>of</strong> the scholar in the realization <strong>of</strong> this model.The speech opens with an examination <strong>of</strong> the internal and externalobstacles which impede the acquisition <strong>of</strong> knowledge, which is, or at leastshould be, for everyone, the fruit <strong>of</strong> a ‘<strong>natural</strong> inclination’, <strong>of</strong> an ‘innateaffection’, and the result <strong>of</strong> the ‘exercise’ <strong>of</strong> reason and ‘the sublime operation<strong>of</strong> the intellect’. The internal obstacles which hinder this ‘so worthyinclination’, are to be attributed ‘to the pleasure <strong>of</strong> laziness’, to the ‘arts <strong>of</strong>luxury’, to the ‘companions <strong>of</strong> these vain amusements’. But it is above all40 A. Alessandrini, L’originalità dell’Accademia dei Lincei, op. cit., pp. 187, 190.41 G. Olmi, op. cit., p. 191.
36FEDERICO CESI, LA PRIMA ACCADEMIA, L’UMBRIAgno (il “denaro” e la “robba”), degli onori e del potere a <strong>di</strong>stogliere l’uomodall’esercizio del <strong>sapere</strong> e della conoscenza. 42 Da qui una critica, efficacissimaed attualissima, nei confronti dell’atteggiamento quasi comune, sicuramentepr<strong>of</strong>ondamente ra<strong>di</strong>cato, <strong>di</strong> considerare la conoscenza esclusivamentein funzione del successo e dell’utile economico che se ne può ricavare,e <strong>di</strong>sprezzare quelle scienze, come la matematica e la filos<strong>of</strong>ia, che siaffidano ad una ricerca veramente <strong>di</strong>sinteressata, e che “veramente sonoscopo dell’innato <strong>desiderio</strong>” alla sapienza presente nell’uomo. 43L’analisi <strong>di</strong> Cesi non ha niente <strong>di</strong> moralistico, poggia piuttosto sullarealistica constatazione che l’atteggiamento umano è spesso guidato dall’ambiente,dal <strong>desiderio</strong> degli onori e dei guadagni per cui la rinuncia delricercatore, de<strong>di</strong>to alla “speculatione”, “alli negotii” viene vista come inettitu<strong>di</strong>ne,la sua attività <strong>di</strong> “contemplatione” viene interpretata come invertebratarinuncia alle virili faccende del mondo. Allora, la <strong>di</strong>fesa dell’idealelinceo <strong>di</strong> una vita de<strong>di</strong>cata alla ricerca <strong>di</strong>sinteressata prende, nel <strong>di</strong>scorsocesiano, i toni <strong>di</strong> una malinconica riflessione sul senso dell’esistenzae sulla necessità <strong>di</strong> non <strong>di</strong>sperderci nelle esteriorità che essa può <strong>of</strong>frirci,nelle “or<strong>di</strong>narie brighe e faccende”, nei “molti negotii”, nel “commodoe gustoso corso <strong>di</strong> vita”. 44 La ricerca reclama un suo impegno totale, <strong>di</strong>“fatiga”, tempo e assiduità che “vogliono l’huomo tutto”. 45 <strong>Il</strong> tempo che laricerca richiede è “lungo e continuato”, per cui, nella vita, “bisognacominciar presto e non finir mai”, bisogna soprattutto <strong>di</strong>menticare tuttiquei con<strong>di</strong>zionamenti, quelle “facende e brighe et occupationi familiari”che ne impe<strong>di</strong>scono il regolare svolgimento”. 46Imme<strong>di</strong>atamente dopo Cesi in<strong>di</strong>ca, per brevi tratti, quali dovrebberoessere le con<strong>di</strong>zioni metodologiche ideali per un’autentica ricerca.È necessaria anzitutto una solida conoscenza dei problemi attraverso ilreperimento <strong>di</strong> libri “che più pienamente tutte le materie <strong>di</strong>scuoprano e cicomunichino l’altrui contemplationi e fatighe”, ma è necessario altresì ilconcorso <strong>di</strong> maestri “che con la voce viva ci insegnino”. Insomma, la ricerca,per poter progre<strong>di</strong>re e per essere “a beneficio d’altri”, dovrà essere essenzialmenteinter<strong>di</strong>sciplinare e comunitaria. 4742 F. Cesi, Del <strong>natural</strong> <strong>desiderio</strong> <strong>di</strong> <strong>sapere</strong> et istituzione de’ lincei per adempimento <strong>di</strong> esso,infra, pp. 98-102.43 Infra, p. 102.44 Infra, p. 104.45 Infra, p. 106.46 Infra, p. 108.47 Infra, pp. 106-108.
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