INTRODUCTION 



The life of Francesco Redi centers in a period favor- 

 able to his fame. He was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 

 1626, sixteen years after the publication of Galileo's 

 " Sydereus Nuncius " and six years before his " Dia- 

 logues on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems," at a 

 time when the twenty century old authority of Aristotle 

 was still undiminished. 



The speculative philosophers Bruno, Campanella, Va- 

 rini, and Kepler, all critics of Aristotle, prepared the way 

 for the new Master, who was creator as well as critic. 

 There was a third influence, however, to be considered : 

 the Jesuits had monopolized all branches of learning, and 

 had made Aristotle their own. His observations pre- 

 sented in the form of concrete and isolated facts, and 

 especially his theories concerning the stability of the 

 earth and the fixity of species, were not subversive of 

 theological doctrine, hence the fathers invoked his name 

 to clench every proposition. But the Mathematician put 

 the Biologist's simple '' qualities " together and on com- 

 paring them with his own ascertained " quantities," 

 found new values, hence new truths. The combination 

 of mathematical and natural science was formidable, espe- 

 cially when expressed in the vernacular; the Church, 

 alarmed by Galileo's " Dialogues," demanded his abjura- 

 tion. 



Redi was committed early to the care of the Jesuit 

 Fathers. After leaving their school in Florence, he 



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