Experiments on the Generation of Insects

From the INTRODUCTION. The life of Francesco Redi centers in a period favorable to his fame. He was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 1626, sixteen years after the publication of Galileo's "Sydereus Nuncius" and six years before his "Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems," at a time when the twenty century old authority of Aristotle was still undiminished. The speculative philosophers Bruno, Campanella, Varini, and Kepler, all critics of Aristotle, prepared the way for the new Master, who was creator as well as critic. There was a third influence, however, to be considered: the Jesuits had monopolized all branches of learning, and had made Aristotle their own. His observations presented in the form of concrete and isolated facts, and especially his theories concerning the stability of the earth and the fixity of species, were not subversive of theological doctrine, hence the fathers invoked his name to clench every proposition. But the Mathematician put the Biologist's simple "qualities" together and on comparing them with his own ascertained "quantities," found new values, hence new truths. The combination of mathematical and natural science was formidable, especially when expressed in the vernacular; the Church, alarmed by Galileo's " Dialogues," demanded his abjuration. Redi was committed early to the care of the Jesuit Fathers. After leaving their school in Florence, he studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Pisa, whence he returned with his Doctor's degree to practice in Florence, where his family, meanwhile, had settled. His parents were of the provincial nobility, and his father, Gregory, a well-known physician, supported the family by his profession. Francesco had the good luck to be called to attend the Grand Duke after a hunting accident. Subsequently he became court physician and was much beloved by Ferdinand II and by his son and successor, Cosimo III. This prince did not resemble his magnanimous father, the founder of the Accademia del Cimento, for he did not protect the arts and sciences through love of them, but rather from vanity and a sense of his own importance. Cosimo was a bigot, whose mind was chiefly occupied in prosecuting religious offenders or in settling matters of etiquette. Small wonder that Swammerdam refused an invitation to this Court, or that Steno, his friend, who accepted it, soon afterwards abjured Protestantism. Redi's training admirably fitted him for this position, which was a difficult one; for besides his duties as physician and head of the Medicean laboratory, he was often commanded to negotiate minor diplomatic matters or requested to act as mediator when friction occurred between the Grand Duke and his son. He was obliged to follow the Court in its migrations to seaside and villa, forced to interrupt his own work, and to add to his troubles, his nephews (Redi was unmarried), who through his influence held lucrative positions, were often in difficulties of a compromising nature....