FEDERICO CESI, THE FIRST ACADEMY, AND UMBRIA 47In the Academies, even the private ones, there is no communal scholarship,the ‘assemblies’ do not have that ‘strength <strong>of</strong> union’ that should characterizescholarship but are exclusively aimed at the conquest <strong>of</strong> the title <strong>of</strong> doctorate,bureaucratically dominated by formal teaching and thus characterizedby ‘the <strong>di</strong>n <strong>of</strong> the uncivil applause and <strong>of</strong> the bells and hooting’ fromadulating and bored students. 64Even in the more serious Academies, those in which time is employed‘in rich and useful lessons’ rather than in ‘vain and pompous gossip’, ‘inthe good and useful <strong>of</strong> philology and poetry rather than sonnets, madrigals,funny tales and come<strong>di</strong>es’, a lesser role is assigned to the ‘scholarlyexercises’ <strong>of</strong> mathematics and <strong>natural</strong> philosophy.Just barely in the public schools there remains a little corner, themost remote, the most solitary, the most easeful, with no danger<strong>of</strong> crow<strong>di</strong>ng. 65Thus, in Cesi’s mind, the Lyncean <strong>Academy</strong> does not wish to be anotherone <strong>of</strong> those many Academies where time is passed in ‘useless gossip’,nor to repeat that humanistic model which in the final analysis had producedresults that were very <strong>di</strong>sappointing; he was thinking instead <strong>of</strong> aninstitution with totally new objectives which would restore to favor abandonedsubjects, such as <strong>natural</strong> philosophy and mathematics and, aboveall, which would have as its principle aim the rigorous study <strong>of</strong> nature:There lacking an ordered institution, a philosophical militia forsuch an enterprise so worthy, so great, and so proper to man as theacquisition <strong>of</strong> wisdom, and particularly with the means <strong>of</strong> the principle<strong>di</strong>sciplines, to this end and with this intention the Lyncean<strong>Academy</strong> or assembly has been erected, and with a proportionateunion <strong>of</strong> subjects suited and prepared for such work, it seeks, wellregulated, to compensate for all the above-mentioned defects andlackings, to remove all <strong>of</strong> the obstacles and impe<strong>di</strong>ments and to fulfillthis good desire, having proposed for itself the keen-eyed lynx asa continuous spur and reminder to procure for ourselves that acutenessand penetration <strong>of</strong> the mind’s eye that is necessary to theknowledge <strong>of</strong> things, and to regard minutely and <strong>di</strong>ligently, bothinside and outside, in so far as licit, all <strong>of</strong> the objects that presentthemselves in this great theatre <strong>of</strong> nature.64 Below, p. 125.65 Below, pp. 125-127.
48FEDERICO CESI, LA PRIMA ACCADEMIA, L’UMBRIACon questo metodo sicuro, “coltivando particolarmente questi due grancampi delle filos<strong>of</strong>iche e matematiche dottrine”, si arriverà “a satiar il <strong>natural</strong>appetito e darci la cognitione della natura”. 66Siamo ai passaggi propositivi del <strong>di</strong>scorso ed è qui che, come ha scrittoRigobello,“il Cesi può dar libero campo alla sua ideale proposta. <strong>Il</strong> <strong>di</strong>scorsoabbandona il tono polemico per assumere quello costruttivo e persinocelebrativo”. 67Egli traccia con mano sicura le linee fondamentali della struttura della“or<strong>di</strong>nata institutione”, della “filos<strong>of</strong>ica militia”, della “stu<strong>di</strong>osa compagnia”,le linee <strong>di</strong> comportamento “de’ soggetti atti e preparati” ad una ricercaveramente nuova e moderna immune dai veleni dell’ambizione politicae degli interessi mercenari.Cesi intende anzitutto sottolineare che la “esentione e libertà” chel’Accademia deve garantire ai suoi componenti “da tutte le occupationi ebrighe <strong>di</strong>pendenti dal corpo” e “dalli negotii domestici e familiari e da qualsivogliastrepito e molestia” non è richiesta da un atteggiamento aristocraticodel ricercatore nei confronti degli impegni mondani bensì dallacoscienza che “per inalzar la mente e mantenerla sempre valorosa nell’opra”c’è bisogno <strong>di</strong> una assoluta libertà dei con<strong>di</strong>zionamenti materiali, c’èbisogno che “le stu<strong>di</strong>ose fatiche” non siano piegate imme<strong>di</strong>atamente e “sinistramente”al guadagno, “come aviene a me<strong>di</strong>ci e legisti”; la libertà dai con<strong>di</strong>zionamentimateriali garantirà che la ricerca non “sarà limitata ad annio terminata con corso, laurea o tempo prefisso, ma con la vita stessa de’soggetti” e potrà da essi pretendere un impegno libero e totale:“Sarà dunque assiduo, in<strong>di</strong>fesso, anzi sempre maggiore senz’alcuninterrompimento o stanchezza; né si restringerà alli scritti o detti<strong>di</strong> questo o quello maestro, ma in essercitio universale <strong>di</strong> contemplationee prattica si riceverà sempre e cercarà qualsivoglia cognitioneche per nostra propria inventione o per altrui communicationeci possa venire”. 68Ecco riba<strong>di</strong>to il modernissimo ideale cesiano della ricerca: partire dalla tra<strong>di</strong>zionesenza essere schiavi degli scritti “<strong>di</strong> questo o quel maestro”, senza66 Infra, p. 126. Su questo si vedano le incisive considerazioni <strong>di</strong> G. Olmi, op. cit.,pp. 187-188.67 A. Rigobello, L’ideale del ricercatore in Federico Cesi, in Id., Struttura e significato,Padova 1971, p. 426. <strong>Il</strong> testo riproduce un saggio già apparso in Aa.Vv., Filos<strong>of</strong>ia e culturain Umbria tra Me<strong>di</strong>oevo e Rinascimento, Perugia 1967, pp. 605-623.68 Infra, p. 128.
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