Il natural desiderio di sapere - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

FEDERICO CESI, THE FIRST ACADEMY, AND UMBRIA 75It can be asserted then with sufficient certainty, Conti insists, that theprincipal lines of research which characterized the cultural horizonof Umbria, and the University of Perugia in particular, constitutean indispensable reference point for understanding the geneticcontext and the initial phases of the tortuous itinerary of theLynceans toward a modern model of scientific research. Thesedirectives are reflected, in fact, in the initial thematic, philosophical,and methodological orientations of the original nucleus ofLynceans, composed in large majority of Umbrians,andalthough filtered and sometimes concealed within an irreduciblerebellion against the worn and often specious tradition of formaleducation, there are constant references among the first Lynceansto the complex cultural map of Umbria, as well as subterraneanaffinities and harmonies with it. 103Thus it is fair to state that the Lyncean project, clearly delineated inCesi’s writings, presents itself as ‘the revolutionary development’ of thethree lines of research conducted with the most interest at the Universityof Perugia: naturalistic investigation, mathematical-astrological investigation,and philosophical-methodological investigation. These threefields of research ‘had found valid cultivators in Umbria and had takenroot in solid traditions of scholarship’ andit is not difficult to recognize that the physiognomy of the studiesand the scientific interests of the four founding members, at thebeginning of the complex and tormented history of the Academy,move precisely along these three lines of research. 104Certainly it cannot be forgotten that the university environment inPerugia did not grant a warm reception to the Sidereus nuncios (TheStarry Messenger), the Galilean cosmological doctrine substantiallydefended, perhaps even anticipated, by the Lynceans, which refuted thePtolemaic and Aristotelian system and proclaimed that the moon wasmountainous, that the Milky Way was a formation of thousands of stars,and that Jupiter was orbited by four wandering stars. The Galilean messageupset age-old beliefs, in the field of astronomy and in other sciencesas well, including medicine. And in Perugia too, as in all the other cultural103 Ibid., p. 57.104 Ibid., pp. 59, 63.