342 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



and medicine. While from such centres flowed whole 

 rivers of learning, there sprang countless rivulets from the 

 societies and academies which arose all over Italy. The 

 purely literary gatherings which had met for many years 

 and which had become a part of the social life of the 

 country, were now promoting scientific culture and the 

 interchange of philosophical thought. Such, for exam- 

 ple, were the ridotti of Andrea Morosini the historian, of 

 Paolo and Aldo Manuzio, "princes in the art of typog- 

 raphy," and of the famous merchant Sechini, in Venice. 

 And, of all, perhaps the most famous was that which Gian 

 Vicenzo Penelli held in his magnificent house in Padua. 

 Here the discussions took place between such intellect- 

 ual giants as Fra Paolo, Galileo, Santorio, Fabricius of 

 Acquapendente, Alpino, Mercuriale, Ghetaldo, Antonio de 

 Medici and Fra Fulgenzio. Here was one of the finest 

 libraries and scientific collections ever gathered by private 

 munificence a treasure-house of rarities, of globes, maps, 

 mathematical instruments and fossils presided over by a 

 man who had made its establishment a labor of love, and 

 had devoted to it a great fortune; in order, as Peiresc re- 

 ports after visiting its marvels, to furnish "all the learned 

 men of the age, both far and near, with such books and 

 other things as they stood in need of." 1 Gian Francesco 

 Sagredo maintained another museum in Venice, his house 

 resembling a Noah's Ark, having in it, as he tells us, "all 

 manner of beasts." 2 In Milan were the magnificent miner- 

 alogical and zoological collections of Aldrovandus. Fin- 

 ally there was the Academy of the Lyncei or Lynxes (so 

 called with reference to its desire to pierce lynx-eyed into 

 the depths of truth) devoted especially to physical science, 

 and, although founded in 1603 by Frederic Cesi, then a 

 boy of eighteen, soon numbering among its members such 

 men as Porta, Galileo and Colonna. 



In a country imbued with so great a taste for learning, 



'Gassendus: Mirrour of Nobility, cit. sup. 

 2 Celeste: Private Life of Galileo, Phila., 1879. 



