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Ulisse Aldrovandi and the Origin of Geology and Science See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279407051 Ulisse Aldrovandi and the origin of geology and science Chapter in Special Paper of the Geological Society of America · January 2006 DOI: 10.1130/2006.2411(04) CITATIONS READS 22 896 2 authors: Gian Battista Vai William Cavazza University of Bologna Mansfield University 166 PUBLICATIONS 3,253 CITATIONS 62 PUBLICATIONS 1,900 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: History of geology View project All content following this page was uploaded by Gian Battista Vai on 16 January 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Geological Society of America Special Paper 411 2006 Ulisse Aldrovandi and the origin of geology and science Gian Battista Vai* William Cavazza* Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali, Università di Bologna, via Zamboni 67, I-40127 Bologna, Italy ABSTRACT The Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605)—often reductively consid- ered as a mere encyclopedist and avid collector of natural history curiosities—lived an adventurous youth and a long maturity rich of manuscripts, books, and outstand- ing achievements. He assembled the largest collections of animals, plants, minerals, and fossil remains of his time, which in 1547 became the first natural history museum open to the public. Shortly after that, he also established the first public scientific library, and he proposed a complete single classification scheme for minerals and for living and fossil organisms and defined the modern meaning of the word “geology” in 1603. Aldrovandi tried to bridge the gap between simple collection and modern sci- entific taxonomy by theorizing a “new science” based on observation, collection, description, careful reproduction, and ordered classification of all natural objects. In an effort to gain an integrated knowledge of all processes occurring on Earth and to derive tangible benefits for humankind, he was a strenuous supporter of team effort, collaboration, and international networking. He anticipated and influenced Galileo Galilei’s experimental method and Francis Bacon’s utilitarianism, providing also the first attempts to establish the binomial nomenclature for both living and fossil species and introducing the concept of a standard reference or type for each species. His books and manuscripts are outstanding contributions to the classification of geological objects, and to the understanding of natural processes such as lithification and fossilization, thus also influencing Steno’s stratigraphic principles. The impor- tance given to careful observation induced Aldrovandi to implement a uniformitarian approach in geology for both the classification of objects and the interpretation of processes. Aldrovandi influenced a school in natural history that reached its climax with the Istituto delle Scienze of Bologna in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with scientists such as Cospi, Marsili, Scheuzer, Vallisneri, Beccari, and Monti in geology, and Malpighi, Cassini, Guglielmini, Montanari, Algarotti in other fields. Keywords: collection, natural history, new science, public museum, public library, scientific library, classification, scientific taxonomy, teamwork, utilitarianism, binomial nomenclature, standard reference, type, lithification, fossilization, geology, observation, experiment, uniformitarianism. *[email protected]; [email protected]. Vai, G.B., and Cavazza, W., 2006, Ulisse Aldrovandi and the origin of geology and science, in Vai, G.B., and Caldwell, W.G.E., The Origins of Geology in Italy: Geological Society of America Special Paper 411, p. 43–63, doi: 10.1130/2006.2411(04). For permission to copy, contact [email protected]. ©2006 Geo- logical Society of America. All rights reserved. 43 44 Vai and Cavazza INTRODUCTION During this period, technological evolution continued, as witnessed by the Christian cathedrals and Muslim mosques, tech- Known worldwide as a polymath, encyclopedist, collector, nological wonders of their ages. Culture at large evolved as well, and natural philosopher, Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) wrote for example, with the birth of the cities and universities in Italy the word “giologia” [geology] for the first time in its proper and Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However, sense in his will published in 1603 (Vai, 2003a). This fact, how- this was not accompanied by scientific conceptual elaboration, ever, was long neglected both in Italy and elsewhere. It was only which at the time was focusing mainly on theology, philosophy, between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of and literature, leaving arts and mechanics to the craftsman. the eighteenth century that the word geology started emerging in The turning point occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth common use (Gortani, 1931, 1963; Adams, 1938; Dean, 1979; centuries in the affluent Italian society of the humanists when Carapezza, 1984; Ellenberger, 1988, p. 191; Oldroyd, 1996, p. craftsmen and savants started to interact. Universities founded 323; Vai, 2003a, p. 74). by the Church and think-tanks sponsored by princes or Signori Several sources attribute the first use of the term “geologia” promoted the development of a network of productive botteghe to Richard de Bury (1473, according to Adams, 1938/1954). The (workshops) and planning studioli (little court studios) where Scottish bishop, however, introduced the term with a meaning artisan experience backed up the new theoretical paradigms of which was completely different from today’s, to indicate earthly savants. Among the protagonists of this productive period we philosophy as opposed to theology, the study of spiritual facts. would like to remember Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), De Bury’s suggestion never took off and left Aldrovandi an open Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1466), Nicolò Cusano (1401–1464), field to define the term geology in the sense that it has been used Paolo Uccello (1397–1475), Piero della Francesca (1416–1492), ever since. It is mystifying that some researchers and dictionaries Luca Pacioli (1445–1517), Aristotele Fioravanti (1420–1486), still indicate the Swiss naturalists Jean-André Deluc and Hor- Vanoccio Biringuccio (1480–1537), Marsilio Ficino (1433– ace-Bénédict de Saussure as the definers of the modern meaning 1499), Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (ca. 1469–1533), Paolo of the term geology in the years 1778–1779 (e.g., Encyclopedia dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1397–1482), and Nicolaus Copernicus Britannica, fifteenth edition). (1473–1543), who was a student in Bologna and Padua. Many Naming a discipline is no mean achievement. However, of these were savants and craftsmen at the same time and gave one could ask whether this was the only contribution Aldrovandi special attention to observation and experimentalism. gave to the development of geology. And more generally, what Such attention to observations and experiments, coupled was Aldrovandi’s contribution to the origin of modern science? with the discovery of the New World, implied de facto to over- Answering these two relevant questions is the aim of this article. come the limits of the past authorities and Aristotelianism, with- out refusing Aristotle himself. The late Renaissance scientific TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE VS. ORIGINAL blooming, first in Italy and then in Europe, was not sudden. RESEARCH Instead, it had been prepared more than a century before Galilei. Even an isolated and unique genius such as Leonardo benefited The experimental approach is considered as marking the from the special innovative cultural environment of the second beginning of modern science and the starting point for its expo- half of the fifteenth century Table( 1). nential growth. Such an approach is commonly referred to as The role of a scientist like Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) “Galilean science,” after the late Renaissance genius who gave can be correctly understood only in a similar perspective, beyond elegant operational and theoretical bases to the scientific method. the dangers of either hagiography or under evaluation as a sim- Nevertheless, experimentation and speculation have always gone ple collector, encyclopedist, and erudite polymath. Aldrovandi hand in hand as complementary facets of the curiosity of human- is the paradigm of the scientists, naturalists, and natural philoso- kind and its need to understand nature. In fact, the development phers of the second half of the sixteenth century (Fantuzzi, 1774, of culture is punctuated both by technological discoveries, such 1781; Costa, 1907; Frati, 1907b; Mattirolo, 1897; Olmi, 1976, as fire control, stony tools, writing, implementing the wheel, 1985; Findlen, 1989, 1994; Simili, 2001; Tugnoli Pàttaro, 1977, building the arch, etc., and by conceptual assessments in religion, 1981, 2000, 2001; Tosi, 1989; Vai, 2003a). Aldrovandi clearly painting, poetry, legislation, and philosophy. Even the develop- transcended simple collecting or encyclopedism. He marks ment of logic occurred by the concurrent use of both deductive the passage from the Medieval monastery library, devoted to and inductive approaches. collecting, keeping, and copying ancient codices, to the mod- During the Middle Ages, the body of natural science knowl- ern library, which aims to integrate its holdings with new edge developed earlier by the ancient Greek and Latin civili- zations was for the most part simply
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