INTRODUCTION 7 



lini the physician, and Marchetti, mathematician and 

 translator of Lucretius. BelHni wrote of him to Mal- 

 pighi : " Everyone burns incense to the Idol." 



Redi never failed in deference to the Jesuits. Father 

 Segneri, the most celebrated orator of the day, v^^as his 

 close friend, and to Father Kircher, the founder of the 

 collection in the Collegio Romano, is inscribed his re- 

 port on '' Various Natural Curiosities brought from In- 

 dia;" Redi even expressed esteem for Father Gottignes 

 of Brussels, *' a mathematician, who disliked algebra, and 

 an astronomer, who contested Cassini's discoveries." 

 This constant friendship for the Jesuits must have had 

 a maleficent effect on our Author's mind, as it exacted 

 blind faith and put a limit to his, logic. It is pleasanter 

 to think of his relations with such scientists as Borelli 

 and Magalotti, to the latter of whom the '' Observations 

 on Vipers " was written in epistolary form, and Carlo 

 Dati, to whom the present work was addressed ; all were 

 of the Galilean school and members of the Accademia 

 del Cimento, reorganized in 1657 by Leopoldo Medici, 

 Ferdinand's brother, for the purpose of investigating the 

 nature of things according to Galileo's experimental 

 method. Redi was also a member of the Lincei, the 

 earliest scientific academy, founded at Rome in 1603, 

 and an Arcadian, under the patronage of Queen Christina, 

 of Sweden. He was arch consul of the famous Ac- 

 cademia della Crusca, created to preserve the purity of 

 the Tuscan language, and aided in compiling the third 

 edition of its dictionary. 



Redi was a rare combination of naturalist and poet. 

 As the latter, he is best known in Italy, where his writ- 

 ings are admired for their clearness and grace, and where 

 his famous dithyramb on wine is still popular, being sold 



