Dottorato di Ricerca in Studi Linguistici, Letterari e Interculturali in Ambito Europeo ed Extraeuropeo. Ciclo XXXII Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere TESI DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA SCIENTIFIC CROSSCURRENTS BETWEEN ITALY AND ENGLAND Italian contributions to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 17th-19th centuries SSD: L-LIN/12 Lingua e Traduzione - Lingua inglese Dott.ssa LUCIA BERTI Tutor Chiar.mo Prof. Giovanni Iamartino Coordinatore del dottorato Chiar.ma Prof.ssa Maria Vittoria Calvi A.A. 2018-2019 SCIENTIFIC CROSSCURRENTS BETWEEN ITALY AND ENGLAND Italian contributions to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 17th-19th centuries Contents List of abbreviations .................................................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 1 Backgrounding the study ...................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 The socio-historical contexts ............................................................................................................ 16 1.2.1. Notes on the history of the Royal Society and Philosophical Transactions, 17th-19th centuries ..........................16 1.2.2 The Italian states and their academies .......................................................................................................................24 1.3 The Royal Society and Italy: a review of the relevant literature ..................................................... 32 CHAPTER 2 Methodological framework .................................................................................................. 39 Chapter overview .................................................................................................................................... 39 2.1. The groundwork ............................................................................................................................... 40 2.1.1. Critical Discourse Analysis ..........................................................................................................................................40 2.1.1.1. The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) ..........................................................................................................41 2.1.1.2. Discourse and social change – Fairclough’s approach .......................................................................................43 2.1.1.3. Systemic Functional Linguistics ...........................................................................................................................49 2.1.1.4. Politeness .............................................................................................................................................................52 2.1.2. A sociohistorical approach to scientific writing .........................................................................................................55 2.2. Approach to text analysis ................................................................................................................. 58 2.3. Collection of the papers and analysis .............................................................................................. 62 CHAPTER 3 Result 17th century ................................................................................................................ 69 Chapter overview .................................................................................................................................... 69 3.1 Social, cultural and historical insights .............................................................................................. 70 3.1.1 Fellows and contributors .............................................................................................................................................70 3.1.2 Creating a discourse community: correspondence and information exchange .......................................................74 3.1.3 Fellows and Englishmen in Italy ..................................................................................................................................78 3.1.4 Topics ............................................................................................................................................................................80 3.1.5 Landscapes of northern and central Italy ...................................................................................................................88 3.2.6 Language of the papers and translation practice .......................................................................................................92 3.2.6.1 English'd out of the Giornale de’ Letterati...........................................................................................................94 3.2 Discourse features............................................................................................................................. 95 3.2.1 Textual dimension ........................................................................................................................................................95 3.2.1.1 Macrostructural features .....................................................................................................................................96 3.2.1.2 Language use ........................................................................................................................................................97 3.2.2 Discursive practice .................................................................................................................................................... 102 3.2.2.1 Discourse representation .................................................................................................................................. 103 3.2.2.2 Meeting minutes and letter exchanges ............................................................................................................ 106 3.2.2.3 Evaluation in the discourse of the PTRS ........................................................................................................... 107 3.2.3 Reporting disputes and disagreements ................................................................................................................... 112 3.2.4 Witnessing ................................................................................................................................................................. 116 3.2.5 Toponymy .................................................................................................................................................................. 118 3.2.6 Interdiscursivity and intertextuality ......................................................................................................................... 120 3.2.6.1 Dialogicity in the discourse on amianthus........................................................................................................ 121 CHAPTER 4 Results 18th century ............................................................................................................ 125 Chapter overview .................................................................................................................................. 125 4.1 Social, cultural and historical insights ............................................................................................ 127 4.1.1 Fellows and contributors .......................................................................................................................................... 127 4.1.2 Fellows and Englishmen in close contact ................................................................................................................ 133 4.1.3 A complex network of exchanges ............................................................................................................................ 137 4.1.4 Topics ......................................................................................................................................................................... 138 4.1.5 Beauties of northern, central and southern Italy .................................................................................................... 145 4.1.6 Language of the papers and translation practice .................................................................................................... 149 4.2 Discourse features........................................................................................................................... 153 4.2.1 Textual dimension ..................................................................................................................................................... 154 4.2.1.1 Macrostructural features .................................................................................................................................. 154 4.2.1.2 Language use ..................................................................................................................................................... 157 4.2.2 Discursive practice .................................................................................................................................................... 160 4.2.2.1 Discourse representation .................................................................................................................................