Accademia Del Cimento - Members

Members

• Prince Leopold of Tuscany – considered by many to be the founder of the Academy, Prince Leopold was known for his interest in astronomy. When he was made a Cardinal in 1667 and moved to Rome the Accademia del Cimento ceased to exist.
• Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany – Ferdinando was an influential patron of Galileo and supporter of learned men. Ferdinando was known within the society for his interest in experiments concerned with what we now call physics.
• Giovanni Alfonso Borelli – Chair of Mathematics at the University of Pisa during the time of the Accademia del Cimento. Borelli is the best known of the members but also known for his intolerance of criticism and quarrelsome disposition. There is speculation his peevish nature caused Leopold’s final dissolution of the Academy. Borelli was also the only member who strenuously objected to merging his work with others of the Academy, and extensively published works under his own name.
• Candido and Paolo del Buono – Not much is known of Candido but Paolo was personally invited by Prince Leopold to become a member of the society. He was a contemporary student of Galileo with Viviani. Was in service to the Polish court during much of the existence of the society.
• Alessandro Marsili – Highly thought of by Galileo who wrote a letter to Prince Leopold in 1640 praising him. This praise seemed to have secured his position as the chair of philosophy at Pisa and membership in the society. He was not liked by the other members because he was a “rotten and mouldy peripatetic” according to Borelli in a letter to Paolo del Buono in 1657. The historian W.E.Knowles Middelton suggests that Marsili was added to the group to act as the simpleton used by Galileo in his work Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.
• Francesco Redi – Although letters from Redi to others which state Redi was a member of the Accademia del Cimento there are no corroborating evidence from other members.
• Carlo Rinaldini – First to lecture on works of Galileo as the chair of Philosophy at Padua. Proposed an experiment on the diffusion of heat which gives him claim to be the discoverer of the convection in air.
• Nicolas Steno – A pioneer in anatomy, paleontology, geology and stratigraphy, and crystallography, he made observations and discoveries still recognized today. Brought up as a Lutheran, he converted to Catholicism and later became a bishop.
• Antonio Uliva – Libertine who was totally undisciplined and no records exist of any input into the experiments of the society exist. Was arrested for scandalous conduct in Rome in 1667 and threw himself out a window and died.
• Vincenzio Viviani – Famous scholar, and student of Galileo. He was offered positions by Louis XIV, King of France, and John II Casimir of Poland. He took the position of court mathematician offered by Duke Fedinando. Viviani had a reputation for being slow on completing his work. Borelli and Viviani were considered to be the most brilliant of the members of the society, but they could not get along.
• Secretary (1657–1660) – Alessandro Segni – Made no ascertainable contribution to the Academy but as Prince Cardinal’s Superintendent of his secretariat, became the owner of the Academy’s papers. His heirs are responsible for the loss of the originals.
• Secretary (1660–1667) Lorenzo Magalotti – Main author of the only publication of the Academy, the Saggi. Known for his meticulous attention to detail and his growing disinterest in the work of the Academy, both of which contributed to the 5 year process it took to publish the work.