Giambattista Riccioli e il merito scientifico dei gesuiti nell'eta barocca.

Maria Teresa Borgato, ed. Giambattista Riccioli e il merito scientifico dei gesuiti nell'eta barocca.

Biblioteca di Nuncius: Studi e testi 44. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2002. xviii + 483 pp. index. append. illus. tbls. bibl. [euro] 51. ISBN: 88-222-5106-7.

After Galileo and Clavius, Giambattista Riccioli (1598-1671) of the Society of Jesus is the most famous seventeenth-century Catholic astronomer. His work Almagestum novum was a major work of early modern science. This volume of essays, the product of a conference held at Ferrara and Bondeno in October 1998 celebrating the fourth centenary of Riccioli's birth, contains a number of works analyzing the entire spectrum of his thought, as well as aspects of his environment and influence.

This book begins with a useful preface by the editor, Maria Teresa Borgato. A word of warning about Borgato's preface is in order. There is first an Italian version and then one in English, ostensibly a translation of the Italian. The English version is, at times, awkwardly worded and contains some errors. The most egregious error is when the English version of the preface speaks of Arico's essay treating Riccioli's influence on fifteenth-century Bolognese culture! This is correctly given in the Italian version as seventeenth-century Bolognese culture, and we obviously have a case of sloppy proof-reading here. Use the Italian preface.

Naturally, one can find numerous essays in this collection concerning Riccioli's scientific works. In the only work in English, Alfredo Dinis asks the perennial question concerning whether Riccioli was a secret Copernican. His sensible answer is that whereas Riccioli may have had doubts concerning geocentrism, he was neither an open nor a secret Copernican. Juan Casanovas, in his overview of the state of continental astronomy after the death of Kepler, is less sure of the answer to the question of Riccioli's Copernicanism. He discerns an evolution in his astronomical thought and finds that Riccioli accepted the non-uniform motion of the planets and came close to accepting Kepler's elliptical orbits. Of course, Casanovas cites the Catholic Church's prohibition against asserting the motion of the earth as physically true. As he states, Riccioli could never openly reject that pronouncement.

Riccioli's astronomy is also treated in two other contributions. Ugo Baldini, that master of Jesuit science, details the relationship between Riccioli and his famous pupil Francesco Maria Grimaldi, much of which centered on astronomical work. Finally, in this area, Fabrizio Bonoli examines the use of astronomical instruments by Riccioli. Riccioli's scientific work was not confined to astronomy; Maria Teresa Borgato and Jacques Gapaillard investigate Riccioli's contributions to the study of falling bodies and geodesy, respectively.

However, as this book makes clear, Riccioli was more than a student of the physical world. Antonio Poppi, famous for his studies of Italian Renaissance philosophy and theology, offers us an investigation of a theological work Riccioli published at the end of his life, the work on distinctions in God and in creatures. In terms of Riccioli's theology, Cesare Preti also studies the problems Riccioli had with the Inquisition over the Jesuit's work on the Immaculate Conception. Finally, demonstrating the wide range of Riccioli's interests, Renato Raffaeli studies Riccioli's work on metrics and prose, the Prosodia Bononiensis, which seems to have been his most widely diffused book.

Riccioli did not exist in a vacuum. In order to properly understand any historical figure we must place that figure in proper contexts and assess his or her influence, if any. To help us do that for Riccioli, we have essays by Denise Arico on Bolognese schools and Riccioli, and by Alessandra Fiocca and Veronica Gavagna on aspects of the science of the Ferrara region: both were areas where Riccioli lived and worked. Outside of Italy, Riccioli was important, as is made evident by Victor Navarro Brotons in his study of Riccioli's role in the "renewal" of seventeenth-century Spanish science.

Riccioli was a learned man from an extraordinarily learned society, the Society of Jesus. Helping us to place him in this academic environment we also find Giacomo Savioli's study of Riccioli's father (Giambattista Sr.), his will, and the libraries of the Jesuits in Ferrara. This study is complemented by that of Luigi Pepe on the major and minor libraries of the Jesuit College in Ferrara in the late eighteenth century.

As added treats, the book has two appendices. Both are works printed for the first time from manuscript originals. One is a work Riccioli penned on the astronomy of the primum mobile and fixed stars (the Primum Mobile Reformatum). The second is a catalog of books pertaining to the teaching of mathematics by the Jesuits in Ferrara in 1773. We must thank Maria Teresa Borgato for editing these works for us.

The work ends with a biographical timeline and a bibliographical guide to Riccioli's works and works on his science and that of the Jesuits. Finally, there is an excellent index of names, though none of subjects.

Anyone interested in the world of early modern science and the Jesuits should look at this collection of essays.

IRVING A. KELTER 

University of St. Thomas, Houston