FEDERICO CESI, THE FIRST ACADEMY, AND UMBRIA 59history outlined above, but above all in the necessity for an effectiverenewal <strong>of</strong> the pursuit <strong>of</strong> knowledge, a renewal that presupposes newmethods and new subjects, indeed a renewed vision <strong>of</strong> the very idea <strong>of</strong> thefunction <strong>of</strong> the researcher and the scholar. In Cesi the figure <strong>of</strong> the scholarfinds a balance, though <strong>di</strong>fficult and delicate, between pr<strong>of</strong>ound moraland religious motivations and new methodological and epistemologicalconvictions. This balance is not simply the product <strong>of</strong> external behaviorin conformity with the rules imposed by a wise prudence but rather that<strong>of</strong> a mature and modern consciousness <strong>of</strong> the plurality <strong>of</strong> perspectivesand the levels <strong>of</strong> human behavior, <strong>of</strong> the <strong>di</strong>stinction <strong>of</strong> the spheres andmethods which are the very foundation <strong>of</strong> the autonomy and freedom <strong>of</strong>scientific research, <strong>of</strong> philosophizing ‘in <strong>natural</strong>ibus’.To be sure this <strong>di</strong>fficult and delicate balance, in a moment in whichconflicts seem to have reached the point <strong>of</strong> a dramatic explosion, upsettingand calling into question the whole range <strong>of</strong> human experience andenterprise, will not survive the death <strong>of</strong> Cesi, with devastating consequencesnot only for the life <strong>of</strong> the institution, which will look on helplesslyduring the drama <strong>of</strong> Galileo.This does not compromise, on the contrary it exalts, the utopian andrevolutionary modernity <strong>of</strong> Cesi’s ideal and program, the still contemporaryessence <strong>of</strong> his community <strong>of</strong> scholarship that makes science theentire aim <strong>of</strong> its existence.4. Cesi and 17th Century UmbriaOne final point remains to be addressed, namely the relationshipsbetween Cesi and his academy and the Umbrian roots <strong>of</strong> the enterprise. Isit not perhaps true, as more than one critic has affirmed, that Cesi’s biographicaland intellectual experience, along with that <strong>of</strong> the birth and thebrief parabola <strong>of</strong> the Accademia dei Lincei, is a completely Roman episode,or at any rate independent <strong>of</strong> the cultural context <strong>of</strong> Umbria in that period?Our response is rooted in the opposite conviction, perhaps alreadyexplicit in what has been said up to now, especially in the first section:Acquasparta, and with it some <strong>of</strong> the most significant places in Umbria,the entire horizon – historical, geographical and also cultural – <strong>of</strong> Umbriaat that time constitute points <strong>of</strong> reference which are in<strong>di</strong>spensable, evenessential to an understan<strong>di</strong>ng <strong>of</strong> the nature and the peculiarity <strong>of</strong> theevents in question. There exists, to use Gabrieli’s expression, ‘a Cesian andLyncean Umbria’, to be understood in a double and dynamic conception:
60FEDERICO CESI, LA PRIMA ACCADEMIA, L’UMBRIAessi ci hanno lasciato. “Raccogliere le vestigia o memorie cesiane e lincee”(Gabrieli), nelle <strong>di</strong>verse forme in cui esse ci sono pervenute, costituisce unatto <strong>di</strong>rettamente funzionale alla in<strong>di</strong>viduazione delle <strong>di</strong>namiche chehanno contribuito in modo rilevante alla formazione <strong>di</strong> quella identità. 85Per quanto concerne, in primis, l’orizzonte storico-geografico in cui sicolloca la vicenda <strong>di</strong> Cesi e dei primi Lincei, le affermazioni <strong>di</strong> Gabrielinon potrebbero essere più esplicite e puntuali:“L’Umbria cesiana e lincea è propriamente quella centrale, che daPerugia a Terni degrada verso Roma, chiusa tra le due valli delTevere e dei suoi affluenti <strong>di</strong> sinistra (Topino, Maroggia e Naia) trale due o<strong>di</strong>erne ferrovie Terni-Foligno-Perugia e Terni-To<strong>di</strong>-Perugia-Umbertide; traversata per buon tratto della sua lunghezza,da Narni a Bevagna, dalla vecchia famosa via Flaminia e suoi<strong>di</strong>verticoli (Ulpia, ecc.), via che tocca i luoghi e terre propriamenteCesiane, e della quale due Lincei, Francesco Stelluti daFabriano e l’amburghese Luca Olstenio, ricercarono, stu<strong>di</strong>arono,<strong>di</strong>segnarono l’antiche, molteplici tracce”. 86E più avanti Gabrieli tiene comunque a riba<strong>di</strong>re che“il maggior numero <strong>di</strong> memorie cesiane e lincee s’incontranell’Umbria centrale e meri<strong>di</strong>onale, nella valle del Tevere e dei suoiaffluenti, la Naia e la Nera, nella o<strong>di</strong>erna linea elettrizzata della‘Centrale Umbra’, con To<strong>di</strong>, Acquasparta, San Gemini, Cesi”. 8785 Già nel 1940, ad esempio, Gabrieli avanzava doglianze sul fatto che “nel programmaufficiale della prossima celebrazione regionale umbra, fra vari altri ed illustri,è stato omesso il nome <strong>di</strong> Federico [...] il quale, romano <strong>di</strong> nascita, ma <strong>di</strong> famiglia originariadell’Umbria, quivi, fra Acquasparta, Cesi, Narni, To<strong>di</strong>, passò vario tempo, dagiovinetto e da uomo maturo, in particolare gli ultimi anni della sua non longeva vita”G. Gabrieli, Federico Cesi Linceo nella sua “Aba<strong>di</strong>a angelica” presso Narni, in “Latinagens”, XIX, 1941, pp. 5-10, cit. da Contributi, p. 143. Dello stesso avviso del Gabrielianche un attento storico della cultura umbra: “È gloria umbra l’istituzione <strong>di</strong> una dellepiù celebri accademie: quella dei Lincei”, P. Pizzoni, Gli umbri nel campo delle scienze,Perugia 1951, p. 227.86 G. Gabrieli, Umbria cesiana e lincea. Appunti per un itinerario linceografico, in“Latina gens”, XVIII, 1940, pp. 255-271, in Contributi, vol. I, pp. 177-178.87 Ibid., p. 181.
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