FEDERICO CESI, THE FIRST ACADEMY, AND UMBRIA 71ture death in 1630, he lovingly hosted his Lyncean companions, and ‘visitingand observing’ the surroun<strong>di</strong>ng environment, but also engaging in animated<strong>di</strong>scussions in front <strong>of</strong> the fireplace – as happened during the memorablevisit <strong>of</strong> Galileo in 1624 – he me<strong>di</strong>tates on the ideals <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Academy</strong>and scientifically organizes his research. With the aid <strong>of</strong> an ‘eyeglass’(microscope) made by Galileo himself, he conducts his zoological andbotanical investigations, without, however, being able to complete thestu<strong>di</strong>es that were meant to lead to the realization <strong>of</strong> the grand project forthe encyclope<strong>di</strong>a Theatrum totius naturae.Giuseppe Gabrieli, the great historian <strong>of</strong> the first <strong>Academy</strong>, has this tosay about the love <strong>of</strong> Federico Cesi for the land <strong>of</strong> Umbria and for hishome in Acquasparta:He loved it greatly; it was there that he spent the most serene andleast tormented years <strong>of</strong> his life, attentive to family cares, agriculture,domestic economy, much more so to the study <strong>of</strong> botany, toscientific me<strong>di</strong>tation, to the joyful contemplation <strong>of</strong> nature, to theactivities and the honor <strong>of</strong> his <strong>Academy</strong>. 99And in a letter to the Lyncean Johannes Faber, dated 17 April 1624,Johann Baptist Winther, physician to the Cesi family, expressed his feelingsabout the marvelous place surroun<strong>di</strong>ng the Palace <strong>of</strong> Acquaspartathat was home to the me<strong>di</strong>tations <strong>of</strong> the Prince and his friends:The eminent site <strong>of</strong> the Palace, together with the indescribable loveliness<strong>of</strong> the fertile green fields lying beneath it, terminating in beautifulmountains, seemed to me on first glance to resemble the wondrousElysian Fields celebrated by poets, or heavenly gardens towhose beauty no painter with mortal hand, even with the most curiousmixture <strong>of</strong> <strong>di</strong>fferent colors, accompanied by the most exacting<strong>di</strong>ligence not only can add nothing but cannot even approach in anyway; [they] left me stunned with excess admiration, in such a waythat, already tired from admiring, though still not satiated by admiringAcquasparta, I admired that earthly para<strong>di</strong>se. 100Traces <strong>of</strong> this industrious activity and <strong>of</strong> the methodological, moral,and spiritual ideals that guided them, are visible in the mural paintings as99 Ibid., p. 187.100 J.B. Winther to Giovanni Faber, 17 April 1624, in Carteggio, p. 856. For the relationshipbetween Acquasparta, the Palace, and the <strong>Academy</strong> cf. G. Gabrieli, Umbriacesiana e lincea. Appunti per un itinerario linceografico, op. cit., pp. 187-190, but especiallyId., Galileo in Acquasparta, in ‘Atti Accademia d’Italia’, Mem. Mor., s. 7, III, 1942,pp. 1-28, now in Id., Contributi, pp. 195-221.
72FEDERICO CESI, LA PRIMA ACCADEMIA, L’UMBRIAiscrizioni, cioè nelle sentenze e negli ammonimenti fatti incidere dallostesso Cesi in latino, greco, ebraico sulle pareti, sugli architravi delleporte e delle finestre delle <strong>di</strong>verse stanze del Palazzo, ideali efficacementee sinteticamente riassunti nell’epigrafe che sovrasta una delle portedella sala della “Genealogia dei Cesi”, sede delle riunioni del 1609, subitodopo la fine della <strong>di</strong>spersione dei membri fondatori; ideali e precettiripresi poi e continuamente riconfermati nelle speculazioni istituzionali enegli scritti del Principe e dei suoi compagni. 101Sicuramente queste ragioni <strong>di</strong> or<strong>di</strong>ne biografico, oltre che, genericamente,<strong>di</strong> or<strong>di</strong>ne storico-geografico, non sono le sole che qui inten<strong>di</strong>amorichiamare per giustificare la collocazione degli scritti <strong>di</strong> Cesi nel cuoredella tra<strong>di</strong>zione della cultura scientifico-letteraria umbra. Ve ne sono <strong>di</strong>più cogenti le quali evidenziano, con le precedenti, un ulteriore legametra l’Umbria, Cesi e l’Accademia dei Lincei, un legame peculiarmente culturalelegato al fatto che nel gruppo iniziale la componente umbro-marchigianaè nettamente prevalente e soprattutto al fatto che la figura <strong>di</strong> JanHeckius “la vera anima culturale dei quattro fondatori” la prima Accademia,“emblematica figura <strong>di</strong> <strong>natural</strong>ista rinascimentale”, stu<strong>di</strong>a e si laurea aPerugia in me<strong>di</strong>cina nel 1601 all’età <strong>di</strong> 22 anni, “unico fra i quattro socifondatori a possedere una preparazione universitaria [...] determinò lacurvatura intellettuale della prima fase dell’Accademia dei Lincei”; eglicostituisce “il canale principale attraverso cui gli interessi astronomici, glistu<strong>di</strong> botanici e gli orientamenti filos<strong>of</strong>ici coltivati nell’Università <strong>di</strong>Perugia raggiunsero i Lincei e penetrarono all’interno del loro inizialetentativo <strong>di</strong> delineare un nuovo accesso conoscitivo alla realtà <strong>natural</strong>e”,è per suo tramite che“i modelli <strong>di</strong> indagine <strong>natural</strong>istica e le concezioni me<strong>di</strong>co-astrologichecircolanti nello Stu<strong>di</strong>o perugino confluirono imme<strong>di</strong>atamentenella fondazione della prima accademia scientifica delmondo”. 102101 Su questo ci permettiamo <strong>di</strong> rinviare a C. Vinti, L’epigrafe <strong>di</strong> Acquasparta e gliideali della “stu<strong>di</strong>osa compagnia”, in G. Sapori, C. Vinti, L. Conti, <strong>Il</strong> Palazzo Cesi <strong>di</strong>Acquasparta e la rivoluzione scientifica lincea, cit. pp. 41-56.102 L. Conti, Sotto il segno degli astri: lo stu<strong>di</strong>o perugino e i Lincei, in G. Sapori, C. Vinti,L. Conti, <strong>Il</strong> Palazzo Cesi <strong>di</strong> Acquasparta e la rivoluzione scientifica lincea, cit., pp. 57, 63.
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