THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF ITALY. 109 



the middle ages was childish, and, like a child, desired not so 

 much what was accurate as what appealed to the imagination and 

 to the love of the marvelous. 



But in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was an awak- 

 ening in Italy, and when these correct copies of the works of Aris- 

 totle, which Cuvier pronounced " fresh after so many copies and 

 young after two thousand years," and those of other classic writers 

 became accessible, they found eager students. 



From his study of the ancient authors Columbus received 

 knowledge of cosmography and geography, which materially as- 

 sisted him to his discovery of the New World. Anatomy found 

 diligent students; Italian anatomists attained European reputa- 

 tion ; it was at the school of Fabricius de Aquapendente at Padua 

 that Harvey acquired that knowledge which afterward made his 

 name immortal. Even the pencil of Titian was not above illumi- 

 nating the pages of the great anatomical work of Vesalius. Titian 

 was not alone among the artists of this period who became 

 enamored with the new sciences. The greatest of these was Leo- 

 nardi da Vinci, the most universal genius, perhaps, who ever 

 lived. His Last Supper is one of the chief masterpieces of the 

 world ; he distinguished himself in sculpture, architecture, poetry, 

 and music; he performed clever feats in engineering; anatomy, 

 botany, geology, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, and geog- 

 raphy all received valuable contributions from his investiga- 

 tions. He anticipated many of those wonderful discoveries in 

 physical sciences which fell to the succeeding generation to fully 

 develop. 



No better illustration of Da Vinci's acuteness of reasoning 

 could be obtained, perhaps, than by quoting his observations on 

 the origin of fossils. It must be remembered that geology did 

 not become a science or the origin of fossils fully settled until 

 two and a half centuries after this remark was made. He stren- 

 uously asserts the contents of the rocks to be real shells, and 

 maintains the reality of the changes of the domain of land and 

 sea, which these spoils of the ocean supply. 



" You will tell me," he says, " that Nature and the influence of 

 the stars have formed these shelly forms in the mountains ; then 

 show me a place in the mountains where the stars at the present 

 day make shelly forms of different ages, and of different species 

 in the same place. And how, with that, will you explain the 

 gravel which is hardened in stages at different heights in the 

 mountains ? " Had Leonardo labored assiduously in art alone, 

 there never would have been the need of Michelangelo and Ra- 

 phael ; had he confined himself strictly to one science, Galileo and 

 Torricelli would have found their occupation gone. That which 

 proved Leonardo's personal loss was Italy's gain, for his fertile 



