no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mind started trains of thought which lesser men could prosecute 

 but could not have originated. 



The Academy of Milan, instituted in 1485 for the study of the 

 arts and sciences, of which he was director, had a far-reaching 

 effect upon the youth of Italy of that day. 



Later on Bruno and Da Porta arose to carry on a similar 

 work for southern Italy. Bruno early espoused the Copernican 

 system, and by the brilliant and fearless manner of his teaching 

 did much to popularize this condemned doctrine. 



Bruno was a philosopher rather than an experimenter, and 

 his influence upon the science of the times was not so much 

 what he himself contributed as what he inspired others to do 

 after him. Yet in his work, Del Inftnito Universo e Mundi, he 

 makes an advance upon the Copernican system in declaring his 

 belief in innumerable worlds besides that on which we live, and 

 also that each star is a sun, about which revolve planets like 

 our earth. In no country at this date was science being ap- 

 proached from so many sides or by such an array of minds as 

 in Italy during the sixteenth century. With such a beginning 

 the Renaissance ought to have done for Italy in science what 

 it did for her in art, music, and architecture — made her the 

 master and teacher of all Europe. But there was a repressive 

 power in Italy, which chilled and stunted every shooting ten- 

 dril which science put forth, and only when transplanted in 

 France and England attained those fair proportions natural to 

 its growth. 



Art and architecture could be appropriated to the service of 

 the Church, and flourished under the favor of the authorities ; but 

 the sciences as they grew became iconoclastic, and threatened the 

 existence of some of the most cherished doctrines of the Church. 

 It was decreed in Rome that all such dangerous questionings 

 should cease, or else, as the shrewd politicians there foresaw, the 

 authority of the Church over men's minds and thoughts would 

 be soon overturned. 



Adverse indeed were the times for the organization of a scien- 

 tific society ; yet the generous and enthusiastic Frederico Cesi 

 undertook this very thing, in establishing the Accademia dei 

 Lincei, within three years of Bruno's execution, and in Rome at 

 that. 



The story of this unfortunate young nobleman's unselfish yet 

 misjudged labors is one of the most pathetic in the history of 

 science. The Accademia dei Lincei antedates the Royal Society 

 by sixty years, and the French Academy of Sciences by even 

 more ; yet, though at times its torch burned fitfully, this vener- 

 able body still exists and fills a place of honor and influence in 

 its country similar to that occupied by the Royal Society and the 



