FEDERICO CESI, THE FIRST ACADEMY, AND UMBRIA 45Most scholars pursue those activities that are cultivated exclusivelybecause they are the source <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional gain or power; me<strong>di</strong>cine ‘forthe public and private practice and the collection <strong>of</strong> the daily stipendhouse by house’, law for ‘governments and <strong>of</strong>fices and ministries at theservice <strong>of</strong> princes and retainers and procurations’. 61 While the sciences,which ‘are not breadwinning activities’, such as ‘the great philosophy,mathematics and the philological and poetical eru<strong>di</strong>tions’, those which‘are best able to satisfy the native desire’ which ‘give us the most cognitionand bring us more perfection and ornament’, are ‘the most abandonedand derelict’; those ‘very few’ who remain to cultivate these sciences‘propose either to attain a public chair with stipend or a place <strong>of</strong>maintenance under some prince’. 62This portrait <strong>of</strong> university stu<strong>di</strong>es is truly desolating. The project <strong>of</strong>the Lyncean <strong>Academy</strong> will be to represent an alternative to an antiquatedmodel <strong>of</strong> university teaching. The Accademia dei Lincei thus proposed asits objective to move beyond the by now old, co<strong>di</strong>fied, and crystallizedcultural model <strong>of</strong> the University.Cesi is <strong>of</strong> the opinion that it is time for a change. Above all,knowing the small and defective power <strong>of</strong> the solitary and <strong>di</strong>videdand the strength <strong>of</strong> well-ordered unions and conspirations, withwell-regulated congregations and assemblies well furnished withboth aid and counsel,he in<strong>di</strong>cates the need to change the method and organization <strong>of</strong> research ina clearly communal <strong>di</strong>rection, the necessity <strong>of</strong> an institutionalized organization,taking as examples ‘the happy successes <strong>of</strong> the particular militias,though small’. Cesi has in mind the idea <strong>of</strong> a private organization, not verylarge, but ‘vigorously united’ which binds the members to a severe program<strong>of</strong> organization and research. He does not deny that the Universities, theColleges and Seminaries, and above all ‘the private Academies’ were bornfor this purpose, but he bitterly observes that so many ‘orders and assemblies’are <strong>of</strong>ten ‘addressed to other ends and ideas’, or have not‘provided for it sufficiently or pursued those advances that theirinstitutors pretended, giving in for the most part to current abusesand more common ends’. 6361 Below, p. 119.62 Below, pp. 119-121.63 Below, pp. 123-125.
46FEDERICO CESI, LA PRIMA ACCADEMIA, L’UMBRIANelle Accademie, anche private, non c’è ricerca in comune, le “radunate”non hanno quella “forza dell’unione” che dovrebbe caratterizzare la ricercama sono esclusivamente finalizzate alla conquista del titolo <strong>di</strong> dottorato,burocraticamente dominate da un insegnamento formale e perciò caratterizzatedallo “strepito delli incivili applausi e de’ campani e cifolamenti” <strong>di</strong>scolari adulatori e annoiati. 64Anche nelle Accademie più serie, in quella in cui il tempo viene impiegato“nelle lettioni utili e ricche”, piuttosto che “nelle <strong>di</strong>cerie pompose evane”, “nel buono et utile della filologia e della poesia più che nelli sonetti,madrigali, barzelletti e comme<strong>di</strong>e”, vengono messi in secondo piano gli“stu<strong>di</strong>osi essercitii” della matematica e della filos<strong>of</strong>ia <strong>natural</strong>e:“A pena nelle pubbliche scole li resta un poco <strong>di</strong> cantone, il piùremoto, il più solitario, il più agiato, e senza alcun pericolo <strong>di</strong>calca”. 65Perciò, nella mente <strong>di</strong> Cesi, quella dei Lincei non vuole essere una delletante Accademie dove si passa il tempo in “inutili <strong>di</strong>cerie”, né vuol ripeterequel modello umanistico che in fin dei conti aveva dato risultati molto deludenti;egli pensava, invece, ad un’istituzione con finalità del tutto nuove cherimettesse in auge le materie abbandonate, come la filos<strong>of</strong>ia <strong>natural</strong>e e lamatematica e soprattutto che avesse come fine precipuo lo stu<strong>di</strong>o rigorosodella natura:“Mancando un’or<strong>di</strong>nata institutione, una militia filos<strong>of</strong>ica perimpresa sì degna, sì grande e sì propria dell’huomo qual è l’acquistodella sapienza, e particolarmente con i mezzi delle principali <strong>di</strong>scipline,è stata a questo fine et intento eretta l’Academia o vero consessode’ Lincei, quale con proportionata unione de’ soggetti atti epreparati a tal opra, procuri, ben regolata, supplire a tutti li sopradetti<strong>di</strong>fetti e mancamenti, rimuovere tutti li ostacoli et impe<strong>di</strong>mentiet adempire questo buon <strong>desiderio</strong>, propostasi l’oculatissimalince per continuo sprone e ricordo <strong>di</strong> procacciarsi quell’acutezza epenetratione dell’occhio della mente che è necessaria alla notitiadelle cose, e <strong>di</strong> risguardar minuta e <strong>di</strong>ligentemente, e fuori e dentro,per quanto lece, gli oggetti tutti che si presentano in questo grantheatro della natura”.64 Infra, p. 124.65 Infra, pp. 124-126.
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