This article focuses on the presence in Italy of the English anatomists John Finch and Richard Baines. The two befriended each other at the University of Cambridge and became inseparable (a homosexual love relationship between the two is more than probable). Both Royalists, they studied at the University of Padua and then moved to Tuscany where Finch was appointed lecturer of anatomy in the University of Pisa. After the Restoration, Finch was appointed diplomatic representative in Tuscany for King Charles II. Villani emphasizes their apparent loss of interest in natural philosophy after Finch became a diplomat to the distress of the Royal Society. Significantly, in the battle between innovators and conservatives that was being fought in Italian scientific circles, Finch sided many times and unambiguously with the latter. His role as a cultural mediator between the English scientific world and the Italian one was also disappointing. Finch, rather than becoming the celebrated promoter of exchanges between the Cimento and Royal Society, was possibly even an obstacle to communication at a time when news of what was going on in the panoply of English science was anxiously sought in Italy.
Between Anatomy and Politics: John Finch and Italy, 1649-71
VILLANI, STEFANO
2005-01-01
Abstract
This article focuses on the presence in Italy of the English anatomists John Finch and Richard Baines. The two befriended each other at the University of Cambridge and became inseparable (a homosexual love relationship between the two is more than probable). Both Royalists, they studied at the University of Padua and then moved to Tuscany where Finch was appointed lecturer of anatomy in the University of Pisa. After the Restoration, Finch was appointed diplomatic representative in Tuscany for King Charles II. Villani emphasizes their apparent loss of interest in natural philosophy after Finch became a diplomat to the distress of the Royal Society. Significantly, in the battle between innovators and conservatives that was being fought in Italian scientific circles, Finch sided many times and unambiguously with the latter. His role as a cultural mediator between the English scientific world and the Italian one was also disappointing. Finch, rather than becoming the celebrated promoter of exchanges between the Cimento and Royal Society, was possibly even an obstacle to communication at a time when news of what was going on in the panoply of English science was anxiously sought in Italy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
