Galileo the Emblem Maker

Transcription

GALILEO THE EMBLEM MAKER
Galileo the Emblem Maker
By Mario Biugwlz~
I
N THE SUMMER OF 1609 Galileo, then a professor of mathematics at the
University of Padua, succeeded in constructing a telescope that was remarkably better than those previously built in northern Europe. With this new instrument he made a number of astronomical discoveries that contradicted the dominant Aristotelian cosmology and supported the claims of the Copernicans. In the
spring of 1610 he presented his exceptional discoveries in the Sidereus nuncius, a
short but revolutionary text dedicated to the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I1
de' Medici. He announced that the surface of the moon was far from being
smooth, as the philosophers had claimed, and that the number of stars was much
greater than had been previously believed. He also made the explosive claim that
there were four more planets-which he called Medicean stars-than the dominant cosmology recognized, and that these circled Jupiter, not Earth. The
Sidereus nuncius brought Galileo international visibility and opened for him the
doors of Medici patronage. By September 1610 Galileo was back in Florence; he
was now philosopher and mathematician of the grand duke, with no teaching load
and with the remarkable stipend of 1,000 scudi a year.
The award of a 1,000-scudi stipend was exceptional by comparison to the salaries of other important artists and officials of the Medici court. Although it is
difficult to produce absolute comparisons of courtiers' incomes, Galileo's stipend
appears to have been at least three times that of any artist or engineer and one
and a half times that of a primo segretario like Belisario Vinta or Curzio Picchena. Galileo's stipend was comparable to that of the maggiordomo maggiore
-the highest court official. Even the sculptor Giambologna-the most famous
among the Medici artists at the beginning of the century, and one who was repeatedly courted by two emperors-made less than half what Galileo would receive a few years laters.' As far as I can tell, Galileo's salary was among the ten
highest in the grand duchy of Tuscany at that time.2
Having been socialized in a culture that takes for granted the scientific impor-
* Department of History. University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024.
This es'say was made possible because Marcello Fantoni introduced me to the Apartments of the
Elements and of Leo X. Important comments came from Piem Bourdieu, Roger Hahn, Keith Hutchison, Nancy Salzer, Randy Stam, Richard Westfall, Robert Westman, and Norton Wise. I would
Wte to thank Jacques Revel and Randy Starn for an insightful introduction to court culture. Special
thanks go to John Heilbron for all his support, suggestions, and criticism.
l Richard Westfall, 'Scientific Patronage: Galiieo and the Telescope," Isis, 1%5, 76:IS-U; and
Westfall, 'Galileo and the Accademia dei Lincei," in Novitd celesti e crisi del sapere, ed. Paolo
Galluui (Florence: Giunti Barbera, 1984), p. 199.
It is diicult to compare incomes because certain courtiers had bonuses--e.g., meals, wood,
candles, and horses-on top of their salaries; see Archivio di Stato di Finze (ASF), Depositeria
Generale 389, pp. 5, 11. Giambologna (Jean de Boulogne) made 300 scudi per year in 1602 (ASF,
Miscellanea Medicea 474, fol. 3) and in 1606 (ASF, Guardaroba Mediceo 279, fol. 13). He appears as
the highest-paid artist in both ruoli: see Hugh Trevor-Roper, Princes and Artists (London: Thames &
Hudson, 1976). pp. 109-1 12, 130.
.-
ISIS, 1990,81 : 230-258
230
23 1
tance of Galileo's astronomical discoveries of 1609-1610, we may think i t natural
that the Medici rewarded him soJavishly. But Galileo did not become philosopher and mathematician to the grand duke because of his contributions to the
acceptance of the Copernican hypothes'ls. The Medici court was not the Nobel
Prize headquarters avant la lettre, and,Cosimo I1 was no Copernican. Richard
Westfall has argued, quite correctly, that the Medici rewarded Galileo's discoveries not because of their technological usefulness or scientific importance, but
because they prized them as spectacles, as exotic marvel^.^ And the Medici must
have perceived the satellites of Jupiter as truly exceptional marvels, because
Galileo's efforts to move to the Medici court, repeatedly frustrated before 1610,
were quickly and--as we have seen-generously welcomed after their discovery.
The explanation for this exceptional reward lies in the fit between Galileo's representation of his discoveries and nonscientific discourse of the Medici court.
Although most courtiers were incompetent in astronomy and mathematics,
Galileo considered the court an important audience for his work: after 1604 he
tried repeatedly to leave the university and move there. And it was more than the
good salary and freedom from teaching that attracted him. By moving t o court,
he also hoped to circumvent the disciplinary hierarchy characteristic of the university, a hierarchy in which mathematicians were subordinated to philosophers
in terms of both professional status and salary.' Philosophy, it was held, dealt
with real causes of natural phenomena, while mathematics could only deal with
their "accidents"-that is, with their quantitative aspects. Consequently, mathematicians were not entitled to produce legitimate physical interpretations of natural phen~mena.~
But if a mathematician qua mathematician could not become a philosopher in
the university, he could do so at court, where one's social and cognitive status
was determined less by one's discipline than by the prince's favor. The court,
then, was a social institution in which Galileo could obtain the title of philosopher that, in turn, would give him the standing to argue legitimately for the
The highest court salary in 1588 was that of Orazio Rucellai-the maggiordomo maggiore--who
made 1,000 scudi per year (ASF, Depositeria Generale 389, p. 1). Belisario Vinta, a segrerario, made
480 scudi (ibid., p. 5); Ostilio Ricci, the court mathematician, made 144 scudi (ibid., p. 9). Rucellai's
was still the highest salary in 1599 (ASF, Guardaroba Mediceo 225, fol. 2r). In 1609 the second
highest salary was that of the maggiordomo Iacopo de' Medici, who made 600 scudi per year (ibid.,
301. fol. lr). In 1624 the highest salary at court was that of the new maggiordomo maggiore, Piero
Guicciardini, who made 1.000 scudi (ASF, Depositeria Generale 3%, fol. 36). Matteo Neroni, the
court cosmographer, made 120 scudi (ibid., fol. 115). The salaries of the chief commanders of the
Tuxan infantry, artillery, and cavalry ranged from 1,000 to 2,500 scudi per year; see 'Relazione delli
Clarissimi Signori Giovanni Michiel et Antonio Tiepolo Cavalieri ritornati Ambasciatori dal Granduca
di Toscana alli 9 novembre 1579," in Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneri a1 Senaro, cd. A. Segarizzi
(Bari: Laterza, 1916). Vol. 111, pp. 256-259, 269.
Robert S. Westman, 'The Astronomer's Role in the Sixteenth Century: A Preliminary Study,"
History of Science, 1980, 18:105-147; and Mario Biagioli, "The S o c 4 Status of Italian Mathqmaticians, 1450-1600," Hisr. Sci., 1989,27:41-95. For Galileo's attempts to move to the Medici court see
his letters in Galileo Galilei, Opere, ed. Antonio Favaro, 20 vols. (Florence: Giunta, 1890-1909)
(hereafter Galileo, Opcrc),Vol. X, no. 97, pp. 106107; no. 99, p. 109; no. 131, pp. 154-15s; no. 190,
pp. 210-213; no. 209, pp. 231-234; no. 211, p. 235. Sec also Westfall, 'Scientific Patronage" (cit. n.
I). pp. 11-17.
5 Peter Dear, 'Jesuit Mathematical Science and the Reconstitution of Experience in the Early
Seventeenth Century," Srudies in History and Philosophy of Science, 1987, 18:133-175; Nicholas
Jardine, The Birth of History and Philosophy of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984),
pp. 225-257; Robert S. Westman, 'Kepler's Thcory of Hypothesis and the 'Realist Dilemma,' " Stud.
Hist. Phil. Sci., 1972, 3:233-264; and Mario Biagioli. 'The Anthropology of Incommensurability,"
Stud. Hisr. Phil. Sci., 1990,21 (in press).
232
233
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
philosophical significance of the Copernican theory and, for the mathematical
analysis of natural phenomena.
This essay has at least a double agenda. While analyzing Galileo's patronage
strategies, examining how he represented his astronomical discoveries within the
discourse of the Medici court, I want also to indicate the role of the court in the
social legitimation of early modern science.
Medici-controlled academies, among them the Accademia Fiorentina and the
Accademia del Disegno, were establighed to manage this cultural program.lo
Although Cosimo did not go so far as to commission a family history in the
form of a Greek-style theogony, he had claisical theogonies allegorically reinterpreted to resemble the history of the house d Medici. This mythological program
was best articulated in Giorgio Vasari's frescoes decorating the Apartment of the
Elements and the Apartment of Leo X in the Palazzo della Signoria-the first
Medici court palace, later known as the Palam Vecchio.ll
The project's basic schema is clear enough. The Apartment of the Elements
was a kind of Olympus divided into several rooms, each dedicated to a specific
god (Hercules, Jupiter, Ops, Ceres, Saturn) or to a predivine entity such a s the
primordial "elements" (Fig. 1). Right below the Olympus of the Apartment of the
Elements we find the Apartment of Leo X, displaying the Medici pantheon. Each
room of the Apartment of Leo X is dedicated to a member of the Medici family
who was instrumental in establishing the dynasty (Fig. 2).
Each room dedicated to a Medici in the Apartment of Leo X was put, as Vasari
says, in plumb-line relation with the god-dedicated room in the Apartment of the
Elements just above it. The frescoes of each room downstairs present a mythologized history of the member of the Medici family it honors. Each history was
made to mirror as closely as possible the classical theogony of the corresponding
god. For instance, the Room of the Elements, the primordial entities that allowed
the formation of all things, corresponded to'the Room of Leo X, the Medici pope
who made the emergence of the Medici dynasty possible. As Vasari put it,
"There is nothing painted upstairs that does not correspond to something painted
downstairs."'* The heavenly order legitimized and naturalid the earthly one.
Appropriately elegant stairs ensured communication between the two floors.
Vasari describes in detail the intricacies of the entire Medici mythology as
represented in these frescoes.'3 What we need to consider here is the specific
correspondence established in it between Jupiter (the greatest of the gods) and
Cosimo I (the founder of the grand duchy of Tuscany), for that mythological
relation played a crucial role in Galileo's patronage strategies.
I. STARS IN CONTEXT
Some reasons for the Medici's interest in the satellites of Jupiter are easy to
grasp. As Galileo asserted in the dedication of the Sidereus nuncius, these bodies
were monuments to the Medici d ~ n a s t y Moreover,
.~
they were monuments of
exceptional durability and worldwide visibility (at least for audiences equipped
with good telescopes). But there were other reasons behind the Medici enthusiasm for Galileo's discoveries, reasons fully apparent to a Florentine audience
familiar with the mythology the Medici had been articulating since Cosimo I
established the dynasty in the middle of the sixteenth century. In this mythology
a correspondence was drawn between cosmos and Cosimo, and Jupiter was regularly associated with Cosimo I, the founder of the dynasty and the first of the
"Medicean gods."' Consequently, while Galileo could have dedicated the newly
discovered planets to any patron, they were particularly significant to the Medici, for whom Jupiter's satellites would appear as dynastic emblems.
Although the Medicis had been de facto rulers of an allegedly republican Florence since the early fitleenth century, the dukedom itself was of more recent
origin. In fact, Cosimo I became duke of Florence in 1537 and was made grand
duke of Tuscany only in 1569. During the 1540s he had to create the political and
administrative structure of the new state, along with a new political mythology
that would legitimize the Medici rule as a dynastic one. The powerful Florentine
families were to be transformed from political leaders into a docile court aristocracy! and the new mythology was to represent the ducal rule as natural and
necessary and indicate the role the Florentine families had to assume within it.
Cosimo's strategy was to represent the Medici rule as Florence's manifest
destiny. The city's horoscope, so commonly cast since the Middle Ages, was
normalized to suggest the astrological necessity of Medici rule by linking that
rule to the history and fate of the city. New Medici-oriented histories and
Medici-sensitive reinterpretations of ancient myths were commissioned, while
Medici-related imagery was introduced into Florentine art.9 Most important,
Galileo Galitei, Sidereus nuncius. tnlns. Albert Van Helden (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Ress,
1989). DD. 29-33.
&&io Vasari, Ragionamenti di Gwrgio Vwan sopra le invenzioni da lui dipinte in Fire= nel
Palauo di loro Alteue Serenissime con 10 Illustriisimo ed Eccellentissimo Don Francesco de' Medici
(published posthumously by Vasari's nephew in 1588), in L.e opere di Giorgio Vasari, ed. Gactano
Milanesi (Florence: Sansoni, 1882), Vol. VIII, p. 85.
q.Burr Litchfield, Emergence of a Bureaucracy: The Florenrinc Patricians, 1530-1790 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. 1986). Standard works on the period are Riguccio Galluui, Istoria
del granducato di Toscana sotto il govern0 della Casa Medici (Florence, 1781); Furio Diaz, I1
Granducato di Toscana: I Medici (TuM: UTET, 1976); and Giorgio Spini, ed., Architetrura e politica
do Cosimo I a Ferdinando I (Florence: Olschki, 1976).
The relationship between the city's horoscope and Medici fate up to Cosimo I is elaborated in
Janet Cox-Rearick, Dynasty and Destiny in Medici Art (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. &ss,
1984); see p. 231 for Medici-related imagery in art. On the early Renaissance city horoscopes in
Florence see Richard Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York: Academic &ss,
-
1980). pp. 73-84. Probably the best example of Mcdici-oriented history is Benedetto Varchi. Storia
jiorentim, 3 vols., ed. G. Milanesi (Florence: Le Monnier, 1857-1858).
10 The Accademia Fiorentina, established in 1540, was the 6sst academy sponsored and controued
by the Medici. It coordinated Cosimo 1's cultural politics and represented them as a natural expression of the uniqueness of Tuscany's historical and Linguistic heritage. Sec Sergio BerteUi, "Egernonia
linguistics come egemonia culturale e politic. n e h Fiinze Cosimiana," BibliothLque &Humanisme
et Renaissance, 1976,38:24%283; and C . Di Fippo B=&, 'In nota alla politica culturale di Cosimo I: L'Accademia Fiorentina," Quaderni Srorici, 1973, 2.3527-574. The main function o f the
Accadcmia del Disegno, established in 1564 and run by a 'lieutenant" appointed by Cosimo, was to
coordinate the work of visual artists working for the Mcdici and .to make sure that the codes of Medici,
cultural politics were respected. These q s t s managed large politi* specFles raaging from weddings to funerals to visits of foreign dignitaries; thus the Ac~&nua del D~segoofunctioned as a
department of public relations for the Medici court. For bibliographical references see note IS.
11 Ettore AUegri and Alessandro Cecchi, Polauo Vecchh e i Medici (Florence: SPES, 1980). pp.
55-182. The letters between Vasari and Cosimo's humanistic advisors on the iconography and emblematic~of the apartments are in I1 carteggio di Gwrgio VwmM,ed. KarI Frey (Munich: Muller,
1923). Vol. 1: no. 220, pp. 409-412; no. 221, pp. 412414; no. 232, pp. 436437; no. 2%. pp. 438-441;
no. 236, pp. 446450. The official nature of the mythological nanative of the two apartments is
confirmed by its having been designed by Vicenu, Borghioi, the first 'lieutenant" of the Accademia
del Disegno.
12 Vasari, Ragionamenti (cit. n. I ) , p. 85. These and all other wadslations are mine.
13 Ibid.
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
7 Terrace of Saturn
17 Room of the
235
27 Roomof ~ e o x
28 Room of Cosimo
ilVecchio
29 Room of Lorenzo
ilMagnifico
30 Room of Cosimo I
31 Room of Giovanni
dalle Bande Nere
Flgure 1. Apartment of the Elements, adapted from Ettore Allegri and Alessandro Cecchi,
Palazzo Vecchio e i Medici (Florence: SPES, 198O), p. xxv.
I
I
I
u,
'JJ
1
;
l
The correspondence between the room of Jupiter and that of Cosirno I is the
pivot for the mythological narratives developed throughout the paintings of the
two apartments. The paintings in the Room of Jupiter, which present his childhood are thus tied to Cosimo as well. Born of Ops and Saturn, the child Jupiter
was saved from the father's cruelty (Saturn tended to eat his offspring) by the
mother, who hid him in a cave in Crete. There baby Jupiter was reared by two
nymphs. One of them, Amalthea, was represented as a goat and was allegorically
associated with divine Providence, while Melissa, the other nymph, was an allegory of divine Knowledge. The message was that Cosimo absorbed those virtues
in the cradle. In memory of Amalthea, Jupiter added the sign of Capricorn to the
zodiac. The seven stars of Capricorn became emblems of the seven virtuesthree theological and four moral. Conveniently, Capricorn happened to be Cosimo's sign, thereby confirming the destiny uniting the first grand duke and Jupiter. In essence Cosimo was endowed with divine providence and knowledge by
Jupiter and received the seven virtues from Capricorn.
In the dedication of the Sidereus nuncius to Cosimo 11, Galileo himself introduced the analogy between the Medicean stars and Cosimo I's virtues-some
moral, others "Augustean." He claimed that the younger Cosimo obtained those ,
same virtues directly from Jupiter, which was just above the horizon at the moment of his birth. Those virtues were "emanatingwfrom the four stars that-like
innate virtues-always revolved very closely around Jupiter and never abandoned him. Therefore, given the link between Jupiter and Cosimo I, Galileo was
suggesting that Cosimo I passed on his virtues to his successor through the Medicean stars, and that Galileo himself, by revealing these stars was somehow
midwife to this astrologico-dynastic encounter. The correspondence between the
Medicean stars and the four moral virtues was accepted by the Medici's human-
Flgum 2. Apartment of Leo X, adapted from Allegri and Cecchi, Palazzo Vecchio e i Medici, p.
xxi. This and other pictures from SPES by permission of the publisher.
istic advisers: even in the thirty years foilowing Galileo's condemnation, the four
moral virtues were used as painterly allegorical representations of the four stars.
These mythologies were more than a sign of the Medici's imaginative pretentiousness. They constituted the "master narrative" that informed the imagery
used in public political ceremonies and festivals as well as the subject matter of
court poetry, theater, painting, and opera.I4 They offered a framework for court
culture. When needed, this mythological imagery could be expanded by means of
emblematic translations, conveniently listed in sixteenth-century catalogues or
dictionaries of emblems like those of Cesare Ripa, Paolo Giovio, and Andrea
Alciati. The entire cultural framework was maintained and articulated by Medicicontrolled institutions such as the Accademia Fiorentina and the Accademia del
Disegno.Is
Court culture itself was permeated by these mythologies from the time of Cosimo I. Familiarity with them allowed the courtiers and the Florentine upper
14Gods' genealogies were a genre commonly used incelcbrating ruling families. On the use of this
genre in theater MC Cesare Molind, Lc no= degli dei (Rome: Bulzoni, 1968). On the use of
mythological imagery and emblems in civic pageantries in Renaissance and baroque Europe see
David Moore Bergcron, English Civic Pageantry, 1558,-1M2 (London: h o l d , 1971); and Roy
Strong. Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals, 1450-1650 (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1984).
a C e w Ripa, Iconologia (Rome, 1593); Paolo Giovio, Dialogo dell'imprese miiitari e amorose
(Rome, 1551); and Andrfa Alciati. Emblematum liber (Augsburg, 1531). A standard second~Wsource
is Mario Praz. Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery (Rome: Ediioni di Storia e Letteratura,
1964). On the Accademia del Discgno see Zygmunt Wazbinski, L'Accademia Medicea del Disegno a
Fireme nel Cinquecenro, 2 vols. (Florence: Olschki, 1987); Karen&
Barunan, "Liberal Academicians and the New Social Elite in Grand Ducal Florence," in World of Art: Themes of Unity and
Diversity, cd. Irving Lavin (Acts of the XXVth Intemtiooal Congnss of the History of Art) (University P&: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1989), Vol. 11, pp. 459-463; and Mary Ann Jack, 'The
Accademia del Disegno in Late Renaissance Florence," Sixteenth Century Journal, 1976,2320. For
bibliographicalreferenceson the Accademia Fiorentina sce note to.
236
classes to engage in the game of interpreting the emblematic natratives displayed
in Medici ceremonies and other political semiologies. As Baldessarre Castiglione
indicated in his Book of the Courtier, skill in emblematics was required of those
who wanted to engage in courtly life.I6 Court society affirmed its own social
identity by differentiating itself from the lower classes, which--although participating as spectators of some of those public ceremonies--could not fathom their
full meaning. In brief, emblematics was to court spectacles what etiquette was to
court behavior: it differentiated social groups and reinforced social hierarchies by
controlling access to meaning."
This mythologico-emblematic framework of Medici court society and culture
constituted the background for Galileo's representation of his astronomical discoveries as emblems of the Medici dynasty. If he wanted to become a courtier by
differentiating himself from the other practitioners of a low-status discipline like
mathematics, Galileo had to play on the same codes that court society had
adopted to differentiate itself successfully from the noncourtly masses.
Yet he also wrote in a Rabelasian or Ruzantian literary style, populated with
sarcasm and jokes that blurred ipto insults. This style was not the sign of a
lower-class background. Ruzante (Angelo Beolco) was himself no member of the
lower classes, and his use of the vernacuYar and his aggressive, obscene language
were addressed to the upper classes, not,the village marketplace. Galileo too was
not the smart "man from the street" who made it at court. Like Ruzante before
him, he knew how to play at "popular culture," how to display spontaneity and
unaffected wit to attract an upper-class audience weary of an increasingly rigid
baroque court etiquette. For example, the Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitzi, which
Drake has, I think correctly, attributed to Galileo, was written in the quite vulgar
Paduan dialect but addressed to an upper-class audience, being dedicated to Antonio Querengo, one of Padua's most important patrons of the arts.19 Galileo's
style was an antidote to an overworked courtly spreuatura that edged over into
pedantry. The same courtly contempt for pedantry is reflected in Galileo's abrasive attacks on the Peripatetics. The Simplicio of Galileo's dialogues (or the
philosopher of the supposed Cecco's Dialogo) was not only Galileo's straw man,
but also a representative of what court culture perceived itself to be rejecting.
University philosophers had been a target of the satires of court writers and
academicians as early as the work of Annibal Caro and they continued to be in
the work of Galileo's friend Jacopo S~ldani.~"
Galileo had access to court as a teenager, for he met his future mathematics
teacher, Ostilio Ricci, there. He probably inherited from his father some of his
early connections with the Florentine court as well as the knowledge of courtly
etiquette. Vincenzio was a well-known musician and music theorist and a
member of the Camerata de' Bardi--an institution that could be considered Florence's first music academy. That a career at court was not an inappropriate
thought for a Galilei is shown by the l i e of Galileo's brother Michelangelo,
w h o - a musician like his father-worked at various European courts.
Galileo's early literary productions were all framed by Florentine academic
and courtly culture of the period. His orations on the geometry of Dante's Inferno, presented at the Accademia Fiorentina in 1588, dealt with what was probaHis critique of Tasso and praise of
bly the canonical text of that instituti~n.~~
Ariosto were equally the product of Florentine academic culture. Quite unoriginally, Galileo represented the official position of the Florentine Accademia della
Cmsca--an academy to which he was elected in 1605-which sided with Ariosto
U. THE MAKING OF A CLIENT
Galileo's understanding of the courtly cultural context did indeed differentiate
him from most other Italian mathematicians of the time. His exceptional career
and the pattern of socioepistemological legitimation he pursued are also related
to his unusual cultural background and to the perceptions of the patronage system associated with it.
He was not wealthy, but, like his father Vincenzio, he knew how to present
himself as a gentiluorno. He knew Giovanni Della Casa's Galateo and owned a
number of texts on rhetoric and literary comp~sition.~~
In the frontispieces of his
books he styled himself a "Florentine Patrician" even before becoming the "Philosopher and Mathematician of the Grand Duke." His Latin style was sophisticated and the character of his Florentine language remarkable.
"Sometimes other discussions would turn on a variety of subjects, or there would be a sharp
exchange of quick retorts; often 'emblems' as we nowadays call them, were devised; io which discussions a mar~elouspleasure was had": Baldessare Castiglione, Book of the Courtier, trans.
Charles Singleton (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 17. See also AMamaria Petrioli
Tofani, 'Contributi d o studio degli apparati e deUe feste medicee," Firenze e In TOSCUMnell'Europa
del '500 (Florence: Olschki, 1983), Vol. XI, pp. 645-661; Petrioli Tofani and Giovanna Gacta BertcP,
Feste e apparati medicei da Cosimo I a Cosimo II (Florence: Olschki, 1%9); Alois Maria Nagler
Theatre Festivah of the Medici. 1539-1637 (New Haven, Corn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1%4); a n i
Strong, A n and Power (cit. n. 141, pp. 3-74, 126152.
l7 Various authors have noticed this process of semiological control. Strong mentions that spectators at Cosimo 1's marriage in 1566complained about the intricacy of the imagery (Art and Power, p.
27). After 1630, once Florentine court society became both socially and spatially enclosed, less
obscure metaphors began to be utilized in court spectacles (ibid., pp. 31-32). In Vasari's Ragiommenti (cit. n. 7) we find that even Don Francesco de' Medici mentioned the obscurity of Vssari's
imagery (p. 22): 'Rincipc: Voi mi fate oggi, Giorgio, udirc cose che non pensai mai che sono questicolon e con queste figwe fussino questi significati." That the dialogue was written by Vasari indicates
that he took the perceived obscurity of his imagery as a tribute to his s U in
the codes of
dynastic imagery. On the development of etiquette see Norbert Elias, The Civdmng Process. 2 vols.
(London: Blackwell, 1982).
Galileo cited DeUa Casa in his "Considerazioni a1 Tasso": Opere, Vol. IX,p. 133. Besides texts
on rhetoric and literary composition, his library contained "how to" books for the courtier such as
Idea di varie lettere usate nella Segreteria d'ogni Principe; see Antonio Favaro, 'La libreria di
Galileo Galilei," Bullettino di Bibliogrqfia e Storia delle Scienre Matematiche e Fisiche, 1886,
19:219-293, esp. pp. 273-275. The adoption of the life-style and culture of the upper classes was a
prerequisite for artists looking for social legitimation and status; see Francis Haskell, Patrons and
Painters (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. &ss, 1980). pp. 18-19.
in
+
237
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
19 Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti da Bruzenc in perpuosito de Ia stella nova (Padua, 1605), trans.
Stillman Drake, in Drake, Galileo against the Philosophers (Los Angeles: Zeitlin & Ver Brugge,
On Ruzante see Ludovico a d s introduction to Ruzante, L' Anconitana, ed.
-1976).
- . -,
, can.
c
-33-53.
zoni (Turin: Einaudi. l?), pp. v-xi.
m Annibal Caro, Comedra degli straccioni (Turin: Einaudi, l%7), p. 24; and ~aco& Soldani? Contro i peripatetici, as quoted in Albcrto Asor Rosa and Salvatore N i ,I podi giocosi dell'etd barocca (Bark Latena, 1975). p. 167. On Galileo's literary style and its audience see Robert S. Westman.
-.-., 'The Rece~tionof Galileo's Dialogue," in Novird celesti e crisi del sapere, ed. Galluui (cit. n.
l), pp. 331-335.
Galileo, 'Due lezioni all' Accademia Fiorentina . . . in Opere, Vol. IX,pp. 29-57. Dante's
work was one of the institutional foci of the Accademia Fiorentina because of its relation to the
Florentine vernacular. The geometry of Dante's I n f e r o was also treated by the architect Antonio
Manetti; see Manetti. '
C
i
r
c
a il sito, fonna e misura dell' Iderno di Dante W e r i , poeta cccellentissimo," in Studi sulla Divina Comedia di Galileo Galilei, Vincenzo Borghini ed altri, ed. Ottavio
G@ (Florence: Le Monnier. 1855). pp. 35-114. Galileo's lectures must have received some attention.
for they were still remembered in 1594; see Luigi Alamanni to Giovanni Battista Strozzi. 7 Aug. 1594,
in Galileo, Opere, Vol. X, no. 54, p. 66.
."
238
239
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
against T a s s ~Similarly,
.~~
Galileo's later letter to Ludovico Cigoli on the status
of sculpture and painting dealt with a topic that was frequently discussed in the
Accademia del Disegno (to which he was elected in 1613) and other Florentine
artistic a c a d e m i e ~ . ~
Galileo's involvement with these literary activities does not mean that he contemplated a career as a writer; rather, like any ambitious young man looking for
patronage, he needed to prove his competence in courtly and academic culture.
During these early phases of his career, Galileo was introduced not only to Florentine court and academic culture but into patronage networks as well. As I have
shown elsewhere, it is to this period of his life, to the culture he absorbed and the
patrons and friends he met (with whom he kept up during regular summer visits
to Florence from Padua), that we can trace most of the patronage strategies he
developed later in his life.24
The social groups Galileo frequented in Venice and Padua after 1592 were
similar to those he was familiar with in Florence, but because Venice had no
centralized court, Paduan and Venetian culture were quite different from the
Florentine, and patronage was of the patrician rather than the princely type. If
Giovanfrancesco Sagredo was a patrician patron in Venice comparable to Filippo
Salviati in Florence, we still cannot find the Cosimo I1 for Galileo's Paduan
period. Salons, casini, and private academies rather than the court or official
academies were the loci of such p a t r ~ n a g e Moreover,
.~~
although Venice was
quite concerned with maintaining its own state myths (especially in its period of
decadence at the turn of the century), these were centered not on a specific
family dynasty but on the idea of the r e p u b l i ~Galileo's
.~
discoveries could not
be made to fit those state myths in any relevant or particularly rewarding way. In
fact, he offered the telescope to theyenetian Senate as an instrument of navigation and warfare rather than as a viewer of dynastic monuments.
The initiation into Florentine court and academic culture provided Galileo with
the competence necessary to see nat~ralia~as
potential Medici dynastic emblems.
Galileo understood that he needed an absolute prince as a patron-and not just
because, as he told Vinta, only a prince could have offered him the salary and
leisure he was seeking. Only an absolute prince could grant him the social legitimation he needed for himself and his work, once he made his marvels fit the
dynastic discourse of such a ruler.n When he discovered Jupiter's satellites at
the end of 1609, he realized that Venice was not the best marketplace for his
marvels.
However, the understanding of patronage dynamics and of the codes of academic culture that Galileo had developed during his Florentine youth was not
wasted in Padua and Venice. He managed to develop patronage relationships
with powerlid Venetian patricians like Sagredo, had access to the most respected
salons, and took an active part in Padua's academic lie. In 1599 he was among
the founding members of the Paduan Accademia dei Ricovrati, taking the name
"Abbattuto." Together with other colleagues he was in charge of designing the
academic impresas for that body.* The impresa Galileo proposed for Cosimo's
wedding with Mary Magdalen of Austria in 1608 showed his mastery in ernblematics and in the culture of the Medici court.
P Galileo, "Considerazioni al Tasso," in Opere, Vol. IX,pp. 59-148;and Galileo, "Postilk all'Ariosto," ibid., pp. 149-194. The dates of these two works are uncertain. Favaro seems to think that the
"Considerazioni" were probably written in the 1590s (ibid., pp. 12-14). On Galileo's election to the
Accademia della Crusca see ibid.. Vol. XIX,p. 221;to the A d e m i a del Disegno, ASF, 'Accademia del Disegno 124," fol. 5%. Galileo's perspectives on Ariosto and Tasso are discussed in Envin
Panofsky, Galileo as a Critic of the Arts (The Hague: Marbus Nuhoff, 1954). Tasso was excluded
from the Vocabolario degli accademici delh Crusca, first published in Florence in 1612;see Salvatore Nigro, 'Dalla lingua al dialetto: La leneratura popolsresca." in I poeti giocosi dell'etd barocca,
ed. Asor Rosa and Nigro (cit. n. 20). p. 66.
Galileo to Ludovico Cigoli, 26 June 1612,in Opere, Vol. XI, no. 713,pp. 340-343. Favaro is
skeptical about the authenticity of this letter, mostly on stylistic grounds. His position was r e f u t e 6 1
think convincingly--by Margherita Margani: "Sull'autenticitA di una lettera attribuita a G. W e i , "
Arri delIa Reale Accademia ddlc Scienze di Torino, 1921-1922. 57556-568. The debate on the primacy of sculpture over painting is a frequent theme in sixteenth-century academic writing on the arts.
The Lezione di Benedetto Varchi nella quale si disputa della maggioranza delle arti, which Varchi
read to the Accademia Fiorentina in 1547,is an example of this academic genre; it is partially reproduced in Paola Barocchi, ed., Scrilti d'arte del Cinquecento (Turin: E i u d i , 1977). Vol. I, pp.
99-105. 133-151.
~pparentlyGalileo's literary efforts were quite successful, for his academic friends in Florence
kept writing him in Padua to ask for comments on their own sonnets and books; sec Galileo, Opere,
Vol. X. no. 52,pp. 63-64;no. 72,pp. 8283;no. 76,pp. 86-87.On the Florentine courtiers who acted
as patrons or brokers for Galileo before his arrival at the Medici court in September 1610 see M&o
Biagioli, "Galileo's System of Patronage," Hist. Sci., 1990,28:l-62,esp. pp. 6-13.
'J Krzysztof Pomian, Collectionneurs, amateurs et curieu (Paris: Gallimard, 1987). pp. 81-158,
213-287;Gino Benzoni, Gli affanidella cultura (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1978),esp. pp. 7-77; Benzoni, "Le
accademie," in Storia della cultura veneta, ed. G. Amaldi and M. Pastore Stocchi (Vicenza: Neri
Pozza. 1984), Vol. IV, Pt. 1; Gactano Cozzi, Paolo Sarpi tra Venezia e I'Europa (Turin: Einaudi,
1979), pp. 135-234;A n t o ~ Favaro,
0
Amici e com'spondenti di Galileo, ed. Paolo Galluzzi (Florence:
Salimbeni, 1983). Vol. I, pp. 65-91, 191-322,Vol. 11, pp. 703-736;Favaro, "Un ridotto scientifrcoin
Venezia al tempo di Galileo Galilei," Nuovo Archivio Veneto, Ser. 2, 1983,5:199-209;and Favaro,
Galileo Galilei e 10 Studio di Padova (Padua: Antenore, 1966). Vol. 11, pp. 69-102.
m Alberto Tenenti, Piracy and the Decline of Venice, 1580-1615 (Berkeley: UNV.W o m i a Press,
Knowing that gold and silver medals were usually struck to commemorate major
dynastic events, in September 1608 Galileo wrote Cosimo's mother, the Grand
Duchess Cristina, to propose an emblem for a medal. The letter is a concise
summary of Medici dynastic ideology and presents a quite subtle "scientific"
metaphor for the "naturalness" of the Medici rule. Referring to the lodestone he
had bought for Prince Cosimo from Sagredo a few months earlier, Galileo compared the power of a future absolutist ruler like Cosimo to that of the lodestone.
Using the terminology of the emblematist Giovio, Galileo proposed that the
"body" (i.e., the image) of the impresa be a globe-shaped lodestone that held a
number of small pieces of iron around it.w The "soul" of the impresa (i.e., the
motto) was Vim facit amor ("Love produces strength").
Galileo recognized the ambiguity of representations of the Medici's absolute
rule that stressed its "naturalness" and the acquiescence of its subjects while
also emphasizing its power and its lack of tol~rancefor deviant behavior; in the
"
'
1%7); James C. Davis. The Decline of the Venetian Nobility as a Ruling Chss (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins Univ. Ress, 1962);Richard T. Rapp, Industry and Economic Decline in SevenfeenthCentvry Venice (Cambridge. Mass.: Harvard Univ. Ress, 1976); and Edward Muir. Civic Ritual in Renuissance Venice (Rinceton, NJ.: Rinceton Univ. Ress. 1982).
Galileo to Belisario Vinta, 7 May 1610,no. 307,in Opere. Vol. X, pp. 348-353.
Favaro, Galileo e 10 Studio di Padova (cit. n. 2% Vol. I, pp. 36-77,Vol. 11, pp. 1-7,18-32;
B e m n i , Mani della cultura (cit. n. 25). p. 176;and Galileo, Opere, Vol. XIX,pp. 207-208.
a Galileo to Cristina. Sept. 1608,no. 199, in Open. Vol. X, pp. 221-223; Giovio, Dialogo dell'impresse militari e amrose (cit. n. IS), ed. Maria Louisa Doglio (Rome: BuIroni, 1978).p. 37. On the
political symbolism of cosmologies during (and before) the Scientitic Revolution see Kerth Hutchison. 'Toward a Political Iconology of the Copernican Revolution." in Astrology, Science, and Society, ed. Patrick Curry (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell &ss, 1987),pp. 95-141.I owe this last rcference to Stephen Pumphrcy.
240
sympathetic attraction between the lodestone and the small pieces of iron he found
a fine metaphor for such a political scenario. According to Galileo's image,
the pieces of iron (the subjects) seemed to be voluntarily driven up (elevated)
toward the lodestone (the Medici power), for its force was not felt by other
materials. They wanted to be attracted. At the same time such an uplifting attraction was powerful and ultimately inevitable. It was based on love but manifested itself as power. The motto Vim facit amor capsulizes the meaning of the
image. According to Galileo, the allegoric meaning of the motto was that
early as 1513 Leo X, the Medici pope who was instrumental in securing the
duchy of Florence for the Medici, had instituted an annual holiday-the Cosmalia--allegedly in honor of Saint Cosma. I? fact the Cosmalia were dedicated to
the memory of Cosimo il Vecchio and were meant as tributes to the Medici
r~le.3~
In the 1560s the logo Cosmos Cosmdi cosmos--Greek for "The cosmos is
Cosimo's world (or domain)" was included in Medici-commissioned works of art.
References to Cosimo qua cosmos continued to emerge in Medici-related cultural
productions, especially when "Cosimo" happened to be the current ruler's
na1ne.~3In his proposal for the impresa of 1608, Galileo reinforced the Cosimocosmos theme by suggesting Magnus magnes Cosmos as the motto of the other
side of the medal, which was to contain Cosimo's effigy. "If taken literally [the
motto] means only that the world is a great lodestone, but, taken metaphorically,
it also confirms the impresa."" By substituting "Magnes" for "Dux" in the standard Latin version of Cosimo's title, "Magnus Dux Cosmos" ("Cosimo Grand
Duke"), Galileo made the magnet metaphor for the ruler by reinforcing the analogy between magnetic attraction and the prince's power.
Besides Galileo's remarkable skills in emblematics, this impresa reveals, I
think, a turning point in his strategies for patronage.35 By 1608 he must have
realized that the invention of military compasses, however useful, would not help
him obtain a high-status position at court. Quite probably the compass brought
him a good number of private students interested in fortifications, but it did not
make him a desirable client to a major prince who was more preoccupied with
the celebration of his own image than with the quality of his court teacher of
mathematics. The Gonzaga appreciated the gift of the compass and the Medici
welcomed the dedication of the book that explained its use, but neither prince
offered Galileo the pqsition he was looking for. I think Galileo realized he needed
to produce gifts whose virtues were less mechanical than those of a compass if he
wanted to go to court as a gentleman rather than as a teacher of mathematics or a
military engineer.
The impresa of 1608 indicates that Galileo understood that marvels such as
"mysteriously" behaving lodestones were more rewarding than instrurnentsespecially when they could be represented as an emblematic articulation of the
discourse of the court. And indeed the imagery Galileo used in the 1608 impresa
had been part of court discourse at least since Baldassarre Castiglione's Book of
as fragments of iron are lifted up and held by the lodestone (but with a sort of loving
violence, for they seek the stone avidly, as if they were rushing voluntarily to it) so
that it is difficult to tell whether such a tenacious bind is the result of the strength of
the magnet, the natural tendency of the iron, or the loving dialectic of power and
obedience, the pious and courteous affection of the prince-represented by the lodestone-does not oppress but rather lifts up his subjects, and makes them-represented by the fragments of iron-love and obey himrn
Galileo then explained to Cristina that the globe-shaped lodestone was itself an
allegory of Cosimo qua cosmos and of the Medici coat of arms, which contains
six spherical balls. Those analogies had been employed fifty years earlier by
Vasari in the Palazzo della Signoria's Room of the Elements. There the painter
presented a Capricorn (Cosimo's ascendant sign) holding in its paws a globe that
signified both one of the balls and the cosmos held in check by Cosimo. The
Cosimo qua cosmos theme recurs in other paintings in the Apartment of the
Elements, as well as in the palazzo's Room of the Geographical Maps. This room
contained a large annillary sphere, as well as a terrestrial globe in the center and
maps representing the entire world, aU designed and partially executed by the
cosmographer Ignazio D a ~ ~ t i . ~ '
The analogy between "Cosimo" and "cosmos" (which Galileo would bring up
again a few years later while negotiating the dedication of the Sidereus nuncius to
Cosimo 11) had been an important part of Medici mythology since the midsixteenth century. Names incorporating the element "cosmos" proliferated. Thus
when in 1548 Cosimo I gained control of Portoferraio, Isola d'Elbals most important harbor, he had it fully fortified and called "Cosmopoli." This onomastic
revisionism found perhaps its strongest expression during the "cultural revolution" that accompanied the constitution of the grand duchy of Tuscany that institutionalized the absolute power of the Medicis. At that time Cosimo replaced
Florence's old patron saints Zenobi and Giovanni, who were perceived as emblems of the old republican tradition, with Saints Cosma and Damiano, who
while on earth were practicing physicians-"medici" being the Italian term for
"physicians." The holiday of Saints Cosma and Damiano coincided with the
birthday of Cosimo il Vecchio-the pater patriae. Like Cosma, both Cosimo I
and Cosimo il Vecchio were represented as the physicians of Florence, becausec
they had saved the city from the deadly plague of political disorder. Even as
U
C.
24 1
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
m Galileo to Cristina, Sept. 1608, p. 222. See also Galileo's previous attempt to develop a politically connoted emblem based on the lodestone: Galileo to Vinta, 3 May 1608, no. 187, in Opere. Vol.
X, pp. 205-209.
3i &e Vasari, Ragionamenti (cit. n. 7). p. 32; Allegri and Cccchi. Palaao Vecchio e i Medici (cit.
n. 11). p. 22, 67, 303; and Detlef Heikamp, "L'antica sistemazione degli strumenti scientifici nelle
collezioni fiorentine," Antichitd Viva. 1970.9:3-25.
U For Galileo's later use of the Cosimo-Cosmos analogy see Galileo to Vita, 10 Feb. 1610, no.
265, in Opere, Vol. X, p. 283. On Cosmopoli see Arnaldo Segarizzi, Relarioni degli ambasciatori
veneri a1 senaro (Bari: Laten, 1916), Vol. 111, p. 256. On the new patron saints of Florence see
Wazbiiski. L'Accademia Medicea del Disegno a Firenze nel Cinquccento (cit. n. 15). Vol. I, p. 83.
On the Cosmalia sec Cox-Rean'ck, Dynasry and Destiny (cit. n. 9). p. 33.
For the art logo see Cox-Rcarick. Dynasty and Desriw p. 279. Cultural productions using'the
Cosimocosmos motif include Gabriello Chiabrera, ta pietd di Cosmo: Dramma musicale rappresentalo all' A l l e m di Toscana (Genoa. 1622); and Giovanni Carlo Coppola, Cosmo, ovvero l'ltalia
triodante (Florence, 1650).
Galileo to Cristiaa, Sept. 1608, p. 223.
U Galileo owned Paolo Givio's and Ettore Tasso's texts on impresas; see Favaro, '
La libreria di
Galileo" (cit. n. 18). pp. 285,287. One of his sonnets is dedicated to the enigma itself: -Enimma," in
Galileo. Opere, Vol. IX,p. 227. As I have mentioned, he was in charge of the impresas of Padua's
Ricovrati (sec at n. 28). Finally, he liked to play with enigmas to communicate his discoveries, as in
the case of the phases of Venus (Galileo to G i d i o de' Medici, 1 Jan. 1611, no. 451, ibid., Vol. XI,
p. 12) or of the shape of Saturn (ibid., 13 Nov., 11 Dec. 1610, nos. 427,435, Vol. X, pp. 474,483).
242
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
the Courtier. There Castiglione discussed the skills exprected of a successful
courtier, one able to develop an elaborate presentation of the self "that will
attract the eyes of the spectators even as the lodestone attracts iron." The same
analogy between the behavior of the lodestone and that of the attractive power of
virtu occurs in the letters Galileo exchanged with Medici courtiers. For instance,
in December 1605 he received a letter from one Cipriano Saracinelli, who concluded by confirming his friendship for and patronage of Galileo: "[But] I would
have done the same even if I did not know you, because what is beautiful and
good-that is, virtue-has the power to attract from far away the soul and the
will of even those who can barely recognize it."= Vinta was even more explicit
about the attractive force of virtue. In a letter to Galileo in March 1608, concerning the purchase of the lodestone impresa for Cosimo, he concluded: "AndYour Lord's value being a lodestone that attracts and forces me to love and serve
you-I beg you to use me for anything you may desire or need." A week later
Galileo returned the courtesy, writing Vinta: "I will never admit that the lodestone of my value could attract the affection of Your Most Illustrious Lord, for I
know that I do not possess those qualities that would deserve so much favor.
Rather, it is my needy status to act as a magnet that moves the pious affection
and most courteous attitude of Your Most Illustrious Lord into loving and protecting me." A month later Galileo presented Vinta with the lodestone-based
impresa he would rework and finally propose to Cristina for Cosimo's wedding's
medal.37
The originality of Galileo's impresa does not lie in the use of technology-based
devices in emblems. Giovio had already discussed them in his emblematics textbook.38 What was new about Galileo's translating scientific mirabilia into the
discourse of the court (or of a specific dynasty, as in the case of the satellites of
Jupiter) was that he did so also as an attempt to legitimize scientific discoveries
and theories.
For instance, Galileo's claim that the motto Magnus magnes Cosmos meant
both that "the world is a great lodestone," as WiIIiam Gilbert had argued, and
that the attractive force of Cosimo's power was legitimate and "natural" had
important implications. It associated Gilbert's theory (one that could be used
against the accepted Aristotelean cosmology) with that of the naturalness of the
Medici absolute rule. By striking such a medal the Medici would help legitimate
Gilbert's theory; at the same time, Galileo's "magneticn interpretation of the
Medici power represented that rule as "natural." The medal Galileo proposed to
Cristina had two inseparable faces and meanings. Galileo's strategy aimed at
legitimizing scientific theories by including them in the representation of his patrons' power, thus securing both their involvement and their endorsement.
Probably the obscurity of the imagery of the impresa (who could distinguish a
magnet attracting iron fragments from a globe surrounded by irregularly shaped
"
''
-'L)
+
Cipriano Saracinelli to Galileo, 5 Dec. 1605, no. 129, in Opere, Vol. X, p. 1%. Sec also Castiglione, Book of the Courrier (cit. n. 16). p. 100.
Vinta to Galileo, 22 Mar. 1608, no. 178, p. 198; and Galileo to Vita, 4 Apr., 3 May 1608, nos.
180, 187, pp. 200,205-209.
Giovio, Dialogo dell'impresse militari c amorose (cit. n. IS), p. 37. See also ibid., pp. 66-68;
Allegri and Cccchi, Palauo Vecchio e i Medici (cit. n. I I), pp. 113, 149; and Karla Langcdijk, The
Portraits of the Medici. 2 vols. (Florence: SPES, 1980). p. 212, n. 110, on the use of technological and
scientific impresas in Medici imagery.
pieces of some unspecified material?) made it ~nacceptable.~~
Nevertheless, Galileo's attempt was not a total failure but one step in a trial-and-error strategy.
What he did two years later in binding the Wedici name to the satellites of Jupiter
was a successful replay of the same strategy. By turning an astronomical discovery into a dynastic emblem he became a very important client--a sort of "c~smic
midwife." At the same time he turned Medici power to the legitimation o f his
discoveries and of his telescope.
I
IV. FROM CLASSIFIED IN=-
TO DYNASTIC HOROSCOPES
After donating his telescope to the Venetian Senate in August 1609 and being
rewarded with tenufe and a remarkable salary increase, Galileo wrote his
brother-in-law Benedetto Landucci that, given the new developments, h e perceived his life and career as permanently bound to Padua and its university.
However, a few months later he was negotiating with Vinta for his position as
"Filosofo e Matematico del Granduca di Toscana," which he f o d y obtained
in July 1610." The four satellites brought about this striking change in socioprofessional status and patronage strategies.
For all the remarkable characteristics Galileo recognized in the telescope in
August 1609, he presented it to the Doge Leonardo Donl as a military instrument. The telescope was a marvel, but one not tailored for any specific patron.
Despite its truly exceptional features, it was patronage-generic, a gift for everybody and for nobody in particular. Galileo correctly perceived the telescope as
belonging to the same patronage category as the military compass, the only important difference being that the telescope was much more useful than the compass and therefore could trigger the curiosity and interest of a much wider audience. From his correspondence of the period we see that until he discovered
Jupiter's satellites, Galileo did not make any serious attempt to use the telescope
to move to the Medici court. At this point in Galileo's career, the telescope was
still a thing: it was not yet a messenger of dynastic destiny. Although Cosimo I1
asked Galileo for a good telescope, his interest in the instrument was not essentially Merent from that he had shown in Sagredo's lodestone a few years before.
Galileo's commitment to Copernicanism seems to fluctuate with his grasp of
possibiities for court patronage. The conditions of his gift of the telescope to the
Venetian Senate indicate that, at that time, Galileo represented the telescope not
as a scientific instrument that could support the Copernican cause, but as a sort
of classified weapon. In this, Galileo's representation of the telescope's use was
identical with that of his Dutch predecessor Hans Lipperhey. In his letter to the
Doge Leonardo Donl, Galileo claimed that, judging the telescope as "worthy of
being received and estimated as most useful by Your Lord, I decided to present
it to you and have you decide about the future of this invention, ordering and
providing according to your prudence whether telescopes should or should not
Giovio, Dialogo dell'impresse militari e amorose, p. 37. On the obscurity of impresas see also
Ftanccs Yates, 'The Italian Academies," in Collecred Essays. Vol.'II (London: Routledge, 1983).
p. 11.
413 Galileo to Benedetto Landucci, 29 Aug. 1609, no. 231; and Cosimo I1 to Galileo, 10 July 1610,
no. 359; in Opere, Vol. X , pp. 253-254,400-401. Favaro questioned the authenticity of the letter to
Landucci, but Edward Rosen convincingly refuted his argument in 'The Authenticity of Galileo's
Letter to Landucci," Modern Lunguage Quarterly. 1%'5,12:4734%.
244
be built."" This last statement indicates that initially Galileo was ready to withhold an effective instrument from other astronomers. Such behavior does not
qualify him as heavily committed to the Copernican cause. But Galileo's Copernican leanings reemerged and his patronage perspectives and strategies changed
abruptly when, four months later, he observed Jupiter's satellites.
The story of the negotiation that Galileo and Cosimo 11 conducted through
Vinta during the first half of 1610 has been told many times." What has not
received much attention is Galileo's strategy for gaining social status for himself
and epistemological legitimation for the Medicean stars by representing them
within the discourse of the Medici mythology, as he had previously tried to incorporate Gilbert's views on magnetism.
Astrological predetermination was a recurrent theme in Galileo's presentation
of his discoveries to the Medici. What he had observed, Galileo claimed, was not
a discovery but a confirmation of the Medici's d e s t i n y - h o s t a scientific proof
of their dynastic horoscope. As he told Cosimo in the dedication of the Sidereus
nuncius, it was not by chance that the "bright stars offer[&] themselves in the
heavens" right after Cosimo 11's enthronement. It was not by chance that these
stars were circling around Jupiter (Cosimo 1's planet) like his offspring and that
Jupiter was actually just above the horizon at the time of Prince Cosimo's birth,
thus passing on to him the virtues of the founder of the dynasty. A n h n e might
add-it was not by chance that the stars were four in number, like Cosimo I1 and
his brothers." Consequently, Galileo's role in the appearance of this dynastic
omen could not have been a casual one either.
In the dedication Galileo tended to hide the economic dimensions of the patronage relationship he was trying to establish. As he presented it, he was not
trying to sell the Medici a particularly fitting dedication. His relationship with
them was a most disinterested one. It was more than completely voluntary: it
was predetermined. Yes, the Medici and Galileo were brought together by the
stars. It could not be by chance that Galileo, a Medici subject and the private
mathematics tutor of Prince Cosimo 11himself, had discovered the stars: only he
could discover them. And in a sense the stars did not need to be dedicated to the
Medici: they had always been theirs. As Galileo put it, four stars had been reserved for the illustrious name of Medici-assigned to them, like Galileo himself,
from the beginning.u
Appropriately, Galileo referred not to a discovery but to an "encounter" be-
tween the Medici and their destiny. His role in this encounter was that of the
mediator, and a lowly one at that. As he told Vinta, it was in the best interest of
the Medici to "ennoble" him because "there is only one thing that largely diminishes the greatness of this encounter, and that is the ignobleness and low status
of the mediator. Nevertheless . . . the enmblement of the mediator is no less in
the range of possibilities of His Most Serene Highness than the demonstration of
my most devout observance was in mine."45 If the Medici hesitated, the celestiality of the encounter might be polluted by the hands of the lowly mediator.
However, Galiileo was not asking the Medici for a title in exchange for a dedication. If the "encounter" was a predestined one, then his role as mediator was
predestined too. He was de facto (or ex Deo) the Medici oracle. The Medici
needed only to recognize it. And, with some help from Galileo, they eventually
did.
Cosimo's "ennoblement" of Galileo was more than a simple matter of noblesse
oblige. The more the Medici recognized Galileo's "nobility" and disinterestedness, the more they legitimized their dynasty by representing his discovery as a
preordained celestial encounter with their destiny. For this discovery t o be an
omen from the stars (a sidereus nuncius) Galileo must be given the status of
stany ambassador-that is, of philosopher of the grand duke. Similarly, Galileo
presented the telescope to the Medici both as a scientific instrument and a s a sort
of dynastic relic. When, in March 1610, he sent the telescope to Cosimo I1 together with the presentation copy of the Sidereus nuncius, Galiieo told him that
the rough-looking and unpolished instrument should be left in its state, for it was
the "instrument through which such a great discovery was achieved." The grand
duke, Galileo continued, would receive many and more elegant-looking telescopes, but only this one was "there" at "that time."& It alone, of all possible
telescopes, carried that special aura of hinc et nunc with it. It alone was not just a
telescope but a nuncius.
In a sense, Galileo was perfectly right in presenting himself as a "natural"
client of the Medici. When he observed the satellites at the end of 1609, he realized that, given the structure of the Medici's mythology and the patronage connections he had developed over the years, the Medici were the best (if not the
only) patrons he could possibly attract. Quite probably Jupiter played a role in
the political mythologies of other European dynasties, but there is no evidence
that Galileo knew of them or had brokers in those courts who could help him
quickly negotiate a dedication.
''
,
245
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
Galileo to Doge Leonardo Do&, 24 Aug. 1609, no. 228 in O p , Vol. X, p. 251 (emphasis
added). Lipperhey tried to obtain a patent for his telescope in 1608. In presenting the instrument to
Prince Maurice, he--like Galileo a year later--stressed its military usdulness; see Albert Van Helden, "The Invention of the Telescope," Transactions of the American Philosophical Sociefy, 1977,
6220-21. 26. 36.
w e s k i , Scient$c Patronage (cit. n. l), pp. 16-21; Stillman Drake, d . , Diccovcrics and Opinions of Galileo (Garden City. N.J.:Doubleday, 1957). pp. 1-20; and Galileo. Sidereus nuncius, trans.
Van Helden (cit. n. 6). pp. 1-24.
43 Galileo, Sidereus nuncius, trans. Van Helden, pp. 30-31. Galileo did not make this last point, the
connection between the four stars and the four brothers, explicit in the Sidereus nuncius, merely
claiming that they were "children of the same family" (ibid., p. 31), but he did make it in the letter to
Vita of 13 Feb. 1610 (no. 265, p. 283, cit. n. 32).
Galileo, Sidereus nunciccs, trans. Van Helden, pp. 32, 31. The theme of the predestination of a
patronage relationship was not a new one. Vasari used it a few decades &er when he signed his
letters to Cosimo I "Servitor per fortuna e per istella, Giorgio Vasari"; see Carteggio di Vasari, cd.
Frey (cit. n. 11). p. 443.
V. SUSPICIOUS STARS
Galileo's strategy for the legitimation of both his new instrument and the discoveries it made possible does not seem essentially diierent from the one he .had
tried out with Cosimo's 1608 impresa. By transforming the instrument and the
discoveries into Medici fetishes, he tried to tie his patron's image and power to
them. But the use of patrons as legitimizing institutions was not an unproblematic
strategy. Patrons did not usually want to risk their status for their clients', even
U Quoting Galileo to Vinta, 19 Mar. 1610, no. 277 in Opere, Vol. X, p. 301. For the theme of the
encounter see ibid., p. 298, and Galileo to Vinta, 13 Mar. 1610, no. 271, p. 289.
U Galileo to Vita. 19 Mar. 1610, pp. 297-298.
246
.
.
when an important contribution to their own image was at stake.47The cautious
Cosimo I1 was not always quick to uphold Galileo against his challengers, and his
son Ferdinand I1 would be even less supportive.
Just a week after the publication of the Sidereus nuncius in March 1610, Galileo wrote Vinta that, it
Although by the time Galileo sent this letter he had been assured by Vinta of his
position at the Medici court, it may be not by chance that he had not yet received
a contract, which in fact reached him only in July.
Cosimo I1 was not alone in his cautiousness. The Florentine academicians and
court writers were not celebrating the Medicean stars as enthusiastically as Galileo hoped and expected they would. Two weeks after the publication of the
Nuncius, Alessandro Sertini-a longtime Florentine friend of Galileo's and a
member of the Accademia Fiorentina-wrote him saying that his efforts t o mobilize the "Tuscan Muses" had not been very successful. The Medici court writers
seemed to be waiting for one of them to give the signal: "The Muses are moving a
bit slowly, because nine of them are lagging behind waiting for a tenth one to take
the lead. Your Lord should write him if you want to make sure that he will write
something on the Medicean Stars.""
In a letter of 10 July, Sertini informed Galileo that attacks by Giovanni Magini
and Martinus Horky on his discoveries had been widely publicized in Florence
and that Ludovico delle Colombe seemed to join the challengers' side, Thus
Sertini was unsure of the Florentine writers' willingness to publish their sonnets
on the stars. Galileo had proposed to the grand duke the publication of a more
elegant version of the Sidereus nuncius in the Florentine language, one including
the sonnets dedicated to the Medicean stars." Such a version would have been
tailored for the Florentine court audience, for the sonnets would spell out the
connections between the stars and the Medici mythology. Those connections
were not elaborated in the first Latin version of the Nuncius because the European audience to which it was primarily addressed could not have understood
them. In fact, it was, I think, because he had a European audience in mind that
Vinta, when consulted by Galileo on the name to be assigned to the satellites in
the Sidereus nuncius, replied that, of the two names proposed by Galileo, "Medicea Sydera" seemed more appropriate because "Cosmica Sydera" might have
A Florbeen misunderstood as referring to "cosmosn rather than to "Co~imo."~~
entine audience would have not made that mistake.
The writers were still unenthusiastic in August, when Sertini wrote Galileo:
"everybody here is wonied because you said you wanted to print [the poems].
[Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger] would prefer not to have his name
printed but-like Piero de' Bardi-he would be happier if it would say: 'Made by
the Impastato, Member of the Academy of the Crusca.' " The court writers,
knowing that Galileo now wanted to publish not only their sonnets but the challenges to his discovery, together with his responses, in the new edition of the
Nuncius, were uncomfortable with the idea of being perceived as Galileo's allies
in his predictably aggressive counterattacks. S e M went so far as to suggest that
being most true that our reputation begins with our own self-confidence. and that
whoever wants to be esteemed ought to have self-esteem first, when His Most Serene
Highness will demonstrate recognition of the importance of this encounter [the discovery of the Medicean stars], no doubt not only all his subjects but all nations will
recognize its importance too, and there will remain no feather in the wings of fame
that will not write praising the glory of this event.
Galileo then suggested that the distribution of copies of the Siderius nuncius and
of telescopes to European kings and princes would be most appropriately carried
out by the Medici ambassadors in the various Italian and European states." That
would have lent legitimation to his discoveries while giving those princes a reliable "viewer" and the related "instructions" to observe the Medici's glory. But
while the Medici accepted Galileo's proposal of distributing the books and instruments through their official diplomatic channels, they avoided taking an official stand on the reality of the satellites of Jupiter."
Writing again to Vinta on 7 May, Galileo went back to the same issue. After
reassuring Vinta and the Medici that he had both publicly refuted his challengers
at Padua and received a long and very supportive letter from the "Mathematician
to the Emperor," Galileo claimed that the Medici's image in connection with the
discoveries had been safely defended. But now: "We-but especially our Most
Serene Lords-have to sustain the importance and reputation of the discovery by
demonstrating the esteem such a remarkable novelty deserves, it being so considered by everybody who speaks sincerely." But the Medici maintained their
cautious stand. Vincenzo Giugni-the supervisor of the Medici artistic workshops-wrote Galileo on 5 June to say that production of the dies to strike the
medal celebrating the discovery of the Medicean stars had been put on hold by
the grand duke himself. Cosimo I1 had told Giugni to wait until the debate on the
stars was settled.%
By this time Galileo had received a long letter from Johannes Kepler (published soon after as Dissertatio cum Nuncio sidereo) in which he confirmed Galileo's observations. Confident of the international credibility brought him by
Kepler's endorsement, Galileo showed himself annoyed by the grand duke's extreme caution and mentioned to Giugni that the king of France had intimated his
willingness to accept the dedication of whatever planets Galileo might discover in
the future. Therefore, Galileo suggested to Giugni that, "whenever possible,
please make sure that Your Most Serene Highness would not delay the flight of
fame by taking an ambiguous stand about what he has seen many times by himself-something that fortune reserved to him and denied to everybody else."s1
" Biagioli, 'Galileo's
System of Patronage" (cit. n. 24).
Galileo to V i t a , 19 Mar. 1610, pp. 298 (quotation), 299.
.
! V i t a to Galileo, W May 1610, no. 31 1, in Opere, pp. X, pp. 355-356.
Galileo to Vinta, 7 May 1610, no. 306; and Vincenzo Giugni to Galileo, 5 June 1610. no. 326,
ibid., pp. 349,368-369.
Galileo to Giugni, 25 June 1610, no. 339, ibid., pp. 381-382 (see also pp. 379-380); and Johannes
Kepler to Galileo, 19 Apr. 1610, no. 297, ibid., pp. 319-340. We know of a number of people who
L.
247
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
U
tried to replicate Galileo's patronage strategies; sec Westfall,'Scientific Patronage" (cit. n. 1). p. 20,
n. 36. It s e a m that Nicolas Claude Fabri de P e i planned a 'French version" of the Sidereus
nuncius dedicated to Maria de' Medici. The sketch for the frontispiece survives. It depicts Maria
sitting on Jupiter surrounded by the four stars, which k h s c had named after the four grand dukes:
Cosmus Major, Fmciscus, FerdinaMius, and Cosmus Minor. La corn. LI mare, i mercanti; La
rinascita delh scienza; Editoria r socirtd; Astrologia, magia e alchimia (Florence: B i z b n i Medicee,
1980) (an exhib'ion catalogue), pp. -231.
Alessandro Sutini to Galileo, 27 Mar. 3610, no. 282, in Opere, Vol. X , pp. 305-306.
a Sertini to Galileo, 10 July 1610, no. 3.57, ibid., pp. 398-399; and Galileoto Vita, 19 Mar. 1610, p.
299.
Galileo to Vita, 13 Feb. 1610, no. 265; and Vinta to Galileo, 20 Feb. 1610, no. 266; ibid., pp.
283.284-285.
MAR10 BXAGIOLI
Galileo answer everybody "without mentioning an)cbody, and by remaining
within the specific boundaries of the issue, for it seems the best thing to do, and
the one I would prefer."ss
Although the Medici and the court writers were not Galileo's scientific peers,
their behavior is reminiscent of colleagues' cautious evaluations of a scientific
discovery. At first glance it may seem odd that neither Cosimo nor the court
writers seemed to take the opinions of members of the professional elite of astronomers, like Kepler, as decisive in determining their own endorsements.%But
Cosimo and the writers were in fact Galileo's peers or superiors by virtue of
belonging to the same institution: the court. The court was not a scientific institution, but the place where representations of the prince's power were produced;
and Galileo was hired there less as an astronomer per se than as a producer of
spectacular dynastic emblems. Therefore, he needed the writers to accept and
articulate his discoveries in court cultural productions and representations of the
grand duke's power. On the other hand, the Florentine courtiers did not need to
believe Kepler or, for that matter, Galileo himself. The opinions of leading astronomers were not binding on courtiers. The only authority they knew was that
of their prince or of their prince's patrons.
Galileo's delicate position in this phase of his transition from the university to
the court reflects the novelty of the socioprofessional identity he was trying to
establish for himself. In a sense, Galileo was a socioprofessional hybrid. He
presented himself as a "new philosopher," a role that--given the disciplinary
hierarchy structuring the university--could be legitimized only at court. Yet,
even though the people who had the p~fessionalskills to judge his achievements
were not court writers and gentlemen, but mathematicians, and even though
Galiieo might have been in serious trouble had Kepler turned down his claims
about the existence of the satellites of Jupiter, Kepler's recognition of his
discoveries was not sufficient to win over the courtiers. Galileo needed the
endorsement of courtiers and prince because only at court could he become a
phidosopher, Schematically put, the mathematicians' endorsement of Galileo's
discoveries would have been necessary and sufficient to establish his credibility
as a mathematician, but that same endorsement was only necessary (and no
longer sufficient) in certifying Galileo's credibility as a court philosopher.
Steven Shapin's study of the seventeenth-century "house of experiments"
suggests that the legitimation of experimental practices in England was caught in
an analogous social paradox. Those who had the technical skills to perform experiments (and quite likely to understand them) did not have the social status
needed to be perceived as having "the qualifications to make kn~wledge."~
Conversely, many of the gentlemen who had the social qualifications to "make
.-
5 '.
Sertini to Galileo, 7 Aug. 1610, no. 372, ibid., pp. 411413, quoting from p. 412. For Galileo's
plan see Galileo to Vinta, 18 June 1610, no. 332, ibid., pp. 373-374.
S Medici respect for the Jesuits' scientific authority may seem to wntradict my point. However.
the Medicis' appreciation of Jesuit recognition in December 1610 that Galileo's telescopic discoveries
were reliable is not a sign of the Jesuits' 'technical credib'ity" only. Their opinion was probably
more influential than Kepler's because they were w m t l y perceived as the mathematicians of the
pope. This was particularly true in Florence. where, with the kgitimacy of the Medici dynasty precariously dependent on the pope, religious orthodoxy and respect for the church's positions were
crucial. So, in respecting the Jesuits' views, the Florentine wurtiers were bowing to the authority of
the papal court.
fl Steven Shapin. "The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-century England," Isis. 1988,
79:373-404, on p. 395.
Figure 3. Gaspare Mola, oval medal struck around 1610 to commemorate Cosimo I1 and the
discovery of the Medicean stars. From Karla Lengedijk, The Portraits of the Medici (Florence:
SPES, 1983). Vol. I, p. 579.
knowledge" did not have skills. They could certify, but they often could not
figure out how or what to certify.
W.THE CAREER OF THE MEDICEAN STARS
Although Galileo was not successful in his first attempts to tie the court writers
to his wagon, the Medicean stars eventually became an integral part of the discourse of the court." The medal celebrating Galileo's discovery of the satellites
was eventually struck. Jupiter sitting on a cloud with the four stars circling about
him was presented as an emblem of Cosimo 11, whose effigy occupied the other
side of the medal (Fig. 3). The stars were represented in sonnets, in theatrical
machines, in operas, in medals, and in frescoes celebrating the divine pedigree of
the house of Medici. We encounter them again in the most important court spectacle of the carnival of 1613--the barriera of 17 February.
It began at two o'clock Florentine time in the theater of the Pitti Palace in front
of a selected courtly audience." After a virtuoso display of spectacular theatrical
machines and effects designed by the court engineer Giulo Parigi, the spectacle
deployed its mythological plot.
=The vernacular version of the Sidereus nuncius was never printed. Surviving sonnets to the
Medicean stars include those of Buonarroti (in Galileo, Opep, Vol. X, p. 412). Salvadori (ibid., Vol.
IX,pp. 233-2721. and Piero Bardi (ibid., Vol. X , p. 399). Claudio Seripandi's is lost; Niccol6 Anighetti's was left in manuscript form until it was published in Nunzio V a c c a l u ~Galileo
,
Galiki nella
poesia del suo sec010 (Milan: Sandron, 1910), pp. 59-60. We do not know whether Chiabrera wrote a
sonnet after Sertini's invitation, only that Galileo sent him an autographed wpy of the Sidereus
nuncius (now at the University of Oklahoma at Nonnan). Salvadori's "Per le SteUe Medicee tcmerariamcnte oppugnate" makes explicit the use of patronage for the legitimation of Galileo's discoveries.
After retracing a mythological history of the Medici family that stresses the link between the Medici
and Jupiter (and his tremendous power), Salvadori displays his incredulity at the arrogance of those
who, by challenging the existence of the Medicean stars, were challenging Jupiter's (or Cosimo's)
own power (Galileo, Opere, Vol. IX, p. 272).
\
Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (cit. n. 16). pp. 119-121.
250
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
25 1
Cupid set his own realm over Tuscany, inaugurating a Golden Age, but peace
was soon threatened. Cupid and his knights (six court pages) were faced by a
monstrous dragon spitting flames and smoke and twelve Furies led by Nemesis.
Although the dragon, Nemesis, and the Furies were eventually made to disappear into a trap conveniently connected to hell, Cupid and Tuscany were not safe
yet. Sdegno Amoroso (Disdain of Love) and his five ferocious and barbarouslooking "Egyptian knights" jumped on stage from the hellmouth." A new tilt
began, but peace and Tuscany's Golden Age were quickly reestablished by divine (Cosimo I's?) intervention.
Thunder was heard, and Jupiter anived on a shimmering cloud (part of a very
complicated machine that changed in appearance as it moved about the stage).
Jupiter was not alone:
Down below, among the clouds, appeared the four stars that circle Jupiter discovered
by Galiieo Galilei from Florence, Mathematician to His Highness, with the marvelous
spyglass, and like the ancients who transposed to the sky their greatest heroes, he+
having discovered these stars-dled them Medicee, and has dedicated the first to
His Most Serene Highness, the second to Prince Don F y c e s c o , the third to Prince
Don Carlo, the fourth to Prince Don L ~ r e n z o . ~ '
The machine brought Jupiter close to the grand duchess, to whom he sang an
aria; then it slowly disappeared from the stage. In the process the four Medicean
stars turned into four flesh-and-blood knights: "After Jupiter finished his song
some thunders were heard, the cloud vanished and there appeared four stars
which soon turned into four knights who stood up." The Cyclops (who had come
on stage right before Jupiter's arrival) handed thunderbolts to the four knights.
With such weapons, they were ready to start the new joust in Jupiter's name.
The name of the tilt was "The Arrival of the Knights of the Medicean Stars."
Peace soon followed. The ladies in the audience joined the knights on stage and
the final ball began."
The rest of the city had its share of the Medicean stars: two days later a
simpler version of the barriera went through the city as a carnival procession.
The Medicean stars, together with the Furies and Nemesis, were in the second
troupe of the pageant.
Probably as a result of the Bellarmin's admonition to Galiieo in 1616 and of
Cosimo II's declining health and control over cultural and political policies, Galileo's discoveries did not continue the career in the Medici mythology they had
begun so brilliantly. Their visibility declined even further after 1621 when-following Cosimo 11's death-the Grand Duchess Cristina and her counselors took
over the government of Tuscany and the management of court culture. Carnival
festivals were played down, and sacred comedies became the dominant
Moreover, the lack of an actual prince (Ferdiinand I1 would reach majority only
in 1628) made it difficult to develop new prince-centered cultural productions. '
Jupiter was unemployed.
When Ferdinand I1 finally took power in 1628, Galiieo had already developed a
"Ibid., pp. 121, 122.
61 Giovanni Villifranchi. Descrizione della barricra e della mascheratafatte in Firenrc a' XVII & a'
(Florence: Sermartelli, 1613), pp. 3M3.
XIX di febbraio 1613
U Ibid., p. 38; and Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (cd. n. 16). pp. 123-125.
a Ludovico Zoni, I1 luogo teatrale a Firenze ( M iElccta, 1979, p. 88.
.. .
Flgure 4. Pietro da Cortona, Jupiter, Accompanied by the Cardinal Virtues. Florence, P a l e u o
Pitti, Room of Jupiter, detail of ceiling. From Langediik. Portraits of the Medici. Vol. I, p. 209.
new patronage niche in Rome. However, the Medicean Stars enjoyed a minor
revival during the later part of Ferdinand's reign. As a result of the court moving
from the Palazzo della Signoria to Palazzo Pitti, a new Medici Olympus was
painted in the new palace's Planetary Rooms. Just as Galileo l i e d the Medicean stars to Jupiter-Cosimo I's virtues in the dedication of the Sidereus nuncius, the P a l a m Pitti's Room of Jupiter (one of the Planetary Rooms) presented
the god surrounded by the Medicean stars qua the four cardinal virtues (Fig.4).@
The Medicean stars 'gured even more conspicuously in Medici mythology
during the reign of Cosimo 111. The grand duke's name lent itself to references to
the Medicean stars-especially because, having five ancestors, he could be portrayed as directly related to Jupiter and the four stars. Cosirno 111's revival of the
Medicean stars was most evident in 1661, on the occasion of his marriage to
Marguerite-Louise d'orleans-the cousin of Louis XIV. The Mondo festeggiante, an equestrian ballet, was the highlight of a long series of ceremonies,
pageants, and spectacles celebrating this important political event. According to
the official description, twenty thousand spectators_attended the ballet."
The spectacle began with the entrance of an exceptionally large theatrical
The frescoes in the room of Jupiter were begun by Pietm da Codona and completed around 1665
by his pupil Ciro Fem, see Langedijk. Portraits of the Medici (cit. a. 38). Vol. 11, pp. 210-212.
U For accounts of the wedding festivities see Memorie delle feste fatte in F i r e m p e r k reali nouc
de' Serenissimi Sposi Cositno Principe di Toscana c Margherita Luisa &Orleans (Florence, 1662)
(for the size of the cmwd see p. 106); and AIessandro Carducci, I1 mondo festeggiante, balletto a
cavallo fatto nel teatro congiunto a1 P d a u o del Sereniss. Gran Duca per Ie reali twue de' Serenissimi Principi Cosimo Teno di Toscana c Margherita Luisa &Orleans (Florence, 1661). See also
Harold Acton, The Last Medici (London: Methuen, 1958). pp. 68-83.
252
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
Flgum 5. From Alessandro Carducci, II mondo festeggiante (Florence, 1661). Courtesy of the
Haward Theatre Collection, Haward University.
machine representing Hercules carrying the cosmos on his shoulders (Fig. 5).
Once Hercules reached the center of the stage, the machine slowly transformed
itself into Mount Atlas. Numerous knights representing the earth's four continents entered the stage, paying homage to Hercules and-implicitly-to
the new
"Herculean" couple being celebrated there. But while the knights of Europe and
America were happy about the wedding, those of Asia and Africa felt threatened
by such a powerful union. An elegant duel-ballet between the two factions began
but did not last long.66
Powerful thunder was heard, announcing Jupiter's anival on a very tall theatrical machine surrounded by clouds. Immediately all the knights stopped dueling.
As soon as the machine had lowered Jupiter to the level of the stage, the clouds
disappeared and "four knights riding four elegant horses appeared very close to
Jupiter. They symbolized the four Medicean stars which [this is a quotation from
the Sidereus nuncius] never depart from his side" (Fig. 6). Jupiter then sang a
song celebrating the wedding, which would make Cosimo's Medicean stars even
more beautiful and shining because of the new splendor contniuted by the
golden lilies of Marie-Louise. Apollo joined Jupiter in praising the wedding as the
union of the "French sun and the Medicean stars." As the spectacle continued,_
"four Medicean stars reached His Highness and took their places around him,
that is, around the Tuscan Jupiter, and they never left him during the remaining
part of the ceremony, but they always accompanied him and remained orderly
and close to him in all his pageant^."^'
The Medicean stars also appeared in a medal struck on the occasion of Cosimo
'h
0
Carducci, I1 mondo festeggiante, p. 46.
Ibid., quoting from pp. 49.53, 61; for Jupiter's song sec p. 51.
253
Figurn 6. From Carducci, II mondo festeggiante. Courtesy of the Haward Theatre Collection.
Jupiter arriving among clouds appears at the rear center, with the four "Medici star" knights
just below (see arrow).
III's wedding. His impresa was a ship at sea guided by the Medicean stars, with
the motto Certa fulgent sidera (Fig.7). When Cosimo 111 died in 1723, a similar
medal with the Medicean stars was placed on his chest (Fig. 8). The Medici
dynasty survived him by only fourteen years.
M.COURT CULTURE,ABSOLUTISM,AND THE LEGITIMATION OF SCIENCE
Even as the Medicean stars began to reappear in court mythology during the
reign of Ferdinand 11, their association with Galileo was on the wane. His condemnation in 1633 hastened the process. Galileo's role in the satellites' discovery
was mentioned in the barriera of the carnival of 1613, but no such reference
occurs in the Mondo festeggiante of 1661. By that time Medici court culture had
severed the Medicean stars not only from their discoverer but from astronomy as
well, so that, stars no longer, they became a dynastic fetish, a name ritualistically
assigned to Jupiter-Cosimo's knights. Analysis .of this process of fetishization
uncovers both the avenues and the limits Medici court patronage offered t o the
legitimation of science.
Because Medici patronage rewarded marvels that would fit the discourse of the
court but not scientific theories or research programs, Galileo tended to present
the satellites of Jupiter not as astronomical discoveries supporting a new cosmology but as dynastic emblems, and himself not as a discoverer, but only a s the
mediator of an encounter. Thus, paradoxically, for Galileo's patronage strategy
to be succesful, he had to efface his authorship in the discovery so as to become
a more legitimate author-that is, a philosopher. Or, to put it differently, he
needed to efface both the astronomical relevance of his discovery and the role his
-
254
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
255
skills as a mathematician and an instrument maker had played in it in order to
gain the title of philosopher that, in tum,could offer epistemological legitimation
to both Copernican astronomy and the mathematical study of nature he practiced.
Moreover, to succeed. Galileo could not simply donate to the Medici what he
had discovered; rather, he had to spin a mythological narrative according to
which the discovery of the stars had never "belongedn to him. He claimed to
present the Medici with something that had never been his but had always been
theirs. Although he was offering them a most prized marvel, Galileo-with an
extreme expression of courtly spreuatura4ad to represent himself as giving
them nothing. The complete alienation of the stars and their discoverer displayed
in the Mondo Festeggiante and in other later representations of the Medicean
stars was already inscribed in the patronage strategy Galileo had implemented
fifty years before.
In the long run Galileo's extraneousness to the discovery of the stars, which he
had claimed rhetorically, became a reality. The Medicean stars became nothing
but Medici fetishes and were celebrated as such within Medici court culture until
the very end of the dynasty. Galileo left the stage much sooner. To sum up,
because he understood the codes of Medici fetishism, Galileo obtained the title of
philosopher, but he was not able to gain full Medici support for his attempt to
legitimize Copernicanism and the mathematicaI anaIysis of nature.
Although the practices of Medici court patronage were both a blessing and a
curse for Galileo, they represented-as the saying goes-an offer he could not
refuse. The paradoxes inherent in Galileo's patronage-bound representation of
the Medicean stars were connected to the other paradox embodied in his moving
to court, that is, to an institution that could legitimize the new socioprofessional
role he was seeking but could not understand or care about the technical dimensions of his work.
Although the Medici's patronage agenda may have overlapped only locally or
temporarily with G a l i ' s strategies for social and cognitive legitimation, the
overlap was of great historical significance. Besides its obvious importance for
Galileo's own career, his being hired at the Medici court with the title of phiiosopher may mark the intersection between two more general historical processes:
the formation of court culture associated with the emergence of the absolutist
state, and the process of the social legitimation of science. Let me briefly outline
certain traits of court society and culture, then turn to how Galileo's strategies
for the social and cognitive legitimation of science, as they emerge from an anaysis of his career, may be compared to other patterns of socioprofessionai legitimation associated with that culture.
Recent works on early modem courts suggest that although baroque courts
differed, their culture--being closely associated with the discourse of increasingly absolute princesdisplayed a number of commensurable features across '
national boundaries." One of them was its self-referentiality. Especially after
"
See, e.g., Norbert E h . Coun Society (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983); E h , The Civilizing Process
kit. n. 17); Louis Marin, Portrait of the King (Minncapolis: Univ. Minnesota Press, 1988); JeanMarie Apostolides, Le prince sacrm *S:
Minuit. 1985); Apostolides, & roi machine (Paris: Minuit. 1981); Sergio B-Ui
and Giuliaao Crifb,cds.. Ritude, cerimoninle, etichcrra (Milan: Bompiani,
1985); Amedw Quondam and Marzio Achille Romani, eds., Le corti Fanesiane di Parma c Piacenza, 2 vols. (Rome: Bulzoni, 1978); Adriano Pmspcri, La cone e il "Conegiano": (In model10
Flgum 7. Francesw Travani, later copy (1666) of a medal Travani made on the occasion o f the
marriage of Cosimo 111 and Marie-Louise d'Orleans in 1661. From Langedijk, Portraits o f the
Medici, Vol. I, p. 640.
1550, court culture tended to close itself off (both culturally and geographically)
from surrounding society to focus on and refer exclusively to itself, to the prince,
or to the culture of other courts. It is to this process that we can relate the
development of the closed theatrical court spaces that then replaced public spectacles. Similarly, if we look at court literature and poetry, we soon notice that
their subject matter was a more or less subtle mix of the ruling family's mythologies with contemporary events (ceremonies, military exploits, public works and
monuments) and the lives and works of living courtiers. The works of the writers
Galileo hoped would celebrate the Medicean stars (GabrieUo Chiabrera, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, Andrea Salvadori) and those of his friend Salvadore Coppola are full of references to actual court life. A similar pattern can be
found in court paintings.@
The effect was a cultural closure that sometimes accompanied the geographical
isolation of the court from the rest of society. Versailles is probably the most
visible example of this process, but the various Medici's ville in the countryside
near Florence shared Versailles's political function. They were princely =Gardens of Eden." Together with this cultural-geographical isolation of the court
from the city and the crowds that populated it, we find the formation of a new
social group, court society, out of the former patriciate of commercial origins.
This closure gave the would-be courtiers a sense of differentiation from the urban
crowds and helped shape their new social identity. Contemporary treatises on
the court refer to its culture with a specific term: civiltd. As Matteo Peregrini put
it in 1624, "The hince is the heart and the court the limbs of civilized living (vita
civile)," and courtly life-style is civility itself.1°
europeo (Rome: Bulzoni. 1980); and Frank Whigham, Jr.. Ambition and Privilege: The Social Tropes
of Elizabethan Courtesy Theory (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1984).
See. e.g., Allegri and Cecchi, Palauo Vecchio e i Medici (cit. n. 1 l), pp. 145-147. See also note
*
17.
m Matteo Peregrini, Che a1 savio c convenevole il corteggiare (Bologna, 1624). pp. 82, 171. The
sociogenesis of the notion of civilit4 as found in French court literature is analyzed throughout E h ' s
256
MAR10 BIAGIOLI
But the formation of court society and its increasing isolation from the lower
classes did not affect the status only of the upper classes that it included or
controlled. The development of court society required more than the formation
of a court aristocracy, that is, of a collusive audience for the representations of
the prince's power. Competent producers of those representations were needed
as well. Although artists have always celebrated the image of the powerful, we
find that with the emergence of the baro'que court and the centralized state, the
artistic representations of the prince's power began to be controlled by specialized institutions: the official academies of fine arts. As a result of their incorporation in this sort of "artistic bureaucracy," academic artists obtained a much
higher social status than the nonacademic craftsmen who practiced the visual
arts."
It is here that the development of court society and culture intersects with the
process of the social legitimation of science. While princes like the Medici were
trying to develop absolutist states and needed legitimizing representations of
their power, university mathematicians like Galileo were facing a status gap between themselves and the philosophers. As mentioned earlier, this gap delegitimized the use of mathematics as a tool for the study of the physical dimensions
of natural phenomena. Therefore, in the same way that artisans had become
academic artists by representing the prince's mythologies of power in painting,
sculpture, and architecture, Galileo turned himself from a mathematician into a
philosopher by representing the satellites of Jupiter as Medici dynastic emblems.
Although the court was not a scientific academy, it was an institution that could
offer some level of social legitimation, and that, in turn, could help establish the
credibility of mathematicians-turned-philosophers. Given this scenario of disciplinary hierarchies, existing social institutions, and patterns of sociocultural
change, the court represented Galileo's most promising option for socioprofessional legitimation-althougha problematic one.
There is a last specific aspect of court patronage that played an important role
in Galileo's strategies of social legitimation. While negotiating with Vinta about
his position at court, Galileo stressed his desire to serve only one patron rather
than the many he had in Padua and Venice. He also insisted that a republic was
not the kind of state that could give him the kind of status he was looking for."
Then, in the dedication of the Sidereus nuncius, he effaced the economic dimensions of the patronage relationship he was seeking and presented it as "astrologically predetermined."
As I have shown elsewhere, Galileo's relationship with Cosimo I1 reflected a
type of patronage that occurred between a great patron and a high-visibility
client-a type of patronage encountered in important courts. Michelangelo's relation with Julius I1 and Corneille's and Racine's with Louis XIV also fell in this
Court Society (cit. n. 17). On the court as Eden see Apostolides, Le roi machine (cit. n. 68), esp.
"Les plaisirs de I'ile enchant&," pp. 93-113.
Vasari, a founding member of the Accademia del Disegno, expressed the gap between his own
social status and that of Perino del Vaga, a nonacademic painter, by describing the latter as 'one of
those who keep an open shop and stand there in public, working at all sorts of mechanical tasks";
quoted in Peter Burke, The Italian Renaissance (Rinceton, N.J.: Rinceton Univ. &ss, 1987). p. 81.
For a general treatment of the topic see Nikolaus Pevsner, Academies of Art (Cambridge: Cambridge
Univ. Press. 1940). For the A d e m i a del Disegno see note IS.
n Galileo to Vinta, 7 May 1610, in Opere, Vol. X, no. 307, p. 351. See also Galileo to "S. Vesp.,"
Feb. 1609, no. 209; pp. 232-233; and Galileo to Cristina, 8 Dec. 1606, no. 146; ibid., pp. 232-233, 165.
j/
Flgun 8. Antonio Selvi, reverse of an...undated
-.
~
ienting cosrmo 111 -ram
Giuseppe Toderi, .a
Tosca.na (Florenc :SPES,
category." The peculiarity of this type of patronage is to be found in the denial,
on both sides, of the economic basis of the relationship. Great patrons could not
present themselves as buying a client's celebration of their image without staining that image. Only those who did not have an imposing image would have to
pay somebody to produce one. Symmetrically, important clients tended to deny
the cash nexus in order to present themselves as "disinterested," that is,
"noble." A client seeking high status through the support of a great patron could
not be perceived as having the ethos of a shopkeeper, of someone who sold
artifacts to whoever entered the shop at whatever price the market would bear.
But high-visibility clients did not simply deny their interest in entering a patronage relationship with a great patron. If they wanted to qualify for exclusive
and powerful patronage, they also needed to celebrate the image of their patrons
in innovative, provocative, and risk-taking ways. They had to present themselves
as sharing the aristocratic ("heroic") ethos of their great patrons?' Such hghpatronage relationships were important tools of self-fashioning. used by court
visual artists like Michelangelo and court writers like Racine and Corneille to
gain high social status and to differentiate themselves from the less original, less
daring, profit-seeking members of their professions. Michelangelo remarked that
he "was never a painter or a sculptor like those who set up shop for that purpose." Through similar patronage dynamics, Racine and Corneille managed to
upgrade their own social status. They were perceived not as paid pens, but as
litee-ary a u t h o d c r i v a i n ~ ? ~
Galileo's strategies for patronage were not unlike those of Michelangelo, Racine, and Corneille. He did not present his discoveries as something useful t o be
a On Racine see Raymond Picard, La carriere de Racine (~ri;: Gallimard, 1961); A d Alain Viala,
Naissance de I'Ccrivain (Paris: Minuit. 1985). On Corneille see ibid. On Michelangelo see the interestingly b i d Giorgo Vasari. La vira di Michelangelo nelle redazioni del l550 e 1568. 5 vols. (Milan1
Naples: Ricciardi, 1%2). I have analyzcd this type of patronage in "Galileo's System of Patronage"
(cii. n. 24).
"Aussi peut-on bien parler 'd'htroisme litttrairc': leur gloire d'tcrivain leur conquiert la noblesse wmme jadis les exploits au combat faisaient de I'homme libre un chevalier": Viala, Naissance
de ~'dcrivain.-~.
222.
This is the argument of Viala's book; see esp. pp. 217-236, 270-299. For the quotation from
Michelangelo see Burke, fialian Renaissance (cit. n. 71). p. 80.
MAN0 BIAGIOLI
.%
rewarded economically. Useful devices were the domain of engineers. Galileo,
instead, presented himself as a disinterested messenger of dynastic destiny. By
denying his economic interest and by celebrating the power of a great patron in a
very personalized way, Galileo managed to be transformed from a mathematician
into a philosopher. But the social escalation so obtained had cognitive implications. Being disinterested-that is, not having one's mind clouded by the idols of
the marketplace-was a prerequisite for having credibility, and a gap in epistemological credibility separated mathematicians from philosophers. The peculiar
type of patronage relationship Galileo developed with Cosimo I1 was instrumental in closing this gap. This is also why, as he told Vinta, Galileo needed the
absolute prince he could not find in Venice. He needed a patron important
enough to give him not only money and free time, but also cognitive legitimacy.
And, in general, great patrons were absolute princes with courts.
My concern here is not to present Galileo's career as determined by the court
and its forms of patronage. Galileo did not need to move from the university to
the courts, and he did not discover the satellites of Jupiter because he was a
client of the Medici. However, the historical processes, institutions, and patronage dynamics that made Galileo's career possible were not unique to him. Similarly, the fundamental aspects of baroque court culture and patronage related to
the discourse of the absolute ruler, and the low epistemological status assigned to
mathematics by a university disciplinary hierarchy that privileged theology and
philosophy, were by no means exclusive to the Florentine context.'6
To say that Galileo was simply lucky with his patronage strategies--as to say
that he was just an exceptional scientist-is to ignore the more general sociohistorical processes that made possible his unusual career and framed his strategies for the legitimation of Copemicanism and mathematical physics. Rather, I
would say that Galileo was a great bricoleur. Many of the ingredients of his
career, from telescopes to courts, were already there. The bricolage was not.
Westman, "Astronomer's Role in the Sixteenth Century" (cit. n. 4); and Biagioli, ''Social Status
of Italian Mathematicians" (cit. n. 4).

Galileo the Emblem Maker

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