594 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



tilings perhaps fifty thousand times, so that a fly is seen as large as a hen. He 

 remained here a few days, and returned to Florence. . . ." 



Galileo left Rome only on the 11th June, but probably Aleandro had not seea 

 him after that visit to the Cardinal, and therefore thought he 'was gone. 



I'rom Peiresc to Aleandro : — 



"Aix, July 1st, 1624. — As to the occhiale, I am pleased that Signer Galileo 

 understood it, but I am sorry that you should not have had as clear an effect as it 

 gives in its proj^er adjustment, if the object be lighted up by tlie rays of the sua. 

 Perhaps Signer Melano will be of some use to you if you will try him. In the 

 meanwhile I thank you for the kindness shuwn to Signer Melano. But the occhiale 

 mentioned by Signor Galileo, whicli makes flies as large as hens, is of the same 

 invention as this one, of which the author made a copy for the Arcliduke Albert, 

 of pious memory, which used to bs placed on the ground, when a fly was seen the 

 size of a hen and the instrument was no higher than an ordinary diuing-table." 



(9) Eezzi (see note 16), speaking (p. 102) of the Cardinal of Santa Susanna, calls 

 him Girolamo Eusticucci, whilst in 1622 Scipione Cobellucci, from Viterbo, was the 

 Cardinal bearing that title, having been made cardinal by Paul V. on the 19th 

 September, 1616. Cobellucci died on the 29bh June, 1626. 



(10) Don Baldassare Boncompagni, with that great kindness which he has always 

 shown me, has generously allowed me to make notes of all those facts which might 

 be useful to me, fi'om the very precious collection of MSS. which he possesses, and 

 for a part of which there is a printed catalogue, compiled with great care and 

 erudition by Sig. Enrico Narducci. In this collection is to be found a volume 

 entitled, 'Lettere di molti accademici Lyncei scritte al Sig. Principe Cesi fond''''- di 

 detta Accademia'; it is from this volume that I have extracted the passage of 

 Faber's letter reported in the text, and several other extracts of letters whicli are 

 also here reproduced, and which are indicated as drawn from the Codice 

 Boncompagni. 



(11) Cardinal ZoUern (Itelio Federico, Count of), made cardinal by Paul Y. on 

 January 11th, 1621, received the hat from Gregory XV. on November 15th, and the 

 title of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, December 15th of the same year. He died on 

 the 19th September, 1626. at Osnabrlick, where he was bishop. 



(12) As to Galileo's Microscope, which he asserted enlarged objects 50,000 times 

 (in volume that is, 36 times in diameter), we have no other data except this of its 

 magnifying power, and (from one of Peiresc's letters), the distance from the object to 

 the ocular, a distance pretty nearly equal to the height of a dining table (which is 

 genera ly 80 centimetres). This is supposing that Galileo's " Occhialiuo " of 1610, 

 and the Microscope mentioned by Peiresc were one and the same thing. Making 

 use of these two indications, and the distance of the object from the objective being 

 taken arbitrarily, we can calculate its focal length. . . . 



Galih^o could therefore very well have constructed in 1610 a Microscope magni- 

 f>ing 36 times, with the concave ocular 80 centimetres from the place occupied by 

 the object. The length of the Microscope, that is, the distance of the objective from 

 the ocnlar, would have been 40 centimetres. 



(13) Here are the books in which the different letters quoted in the text are to be 

 found. 



Letter of Bartolomeo Imperiali, Gal. Opere, t. ix. pj). 64-5 ; of Galileo to 

 Federico Cesi, Gal. Opere, t. vi. pp. 297-8 ; Federico Cesi to Galileo, Gal. 

 Opere, t. ix. p. 71; Bartolomeo Balbi 1o Galileo, ' Lettere inedite a Galileo Galilei 

 raccolte dal Dott. Arturo Wolynski,' Firenze, 1872, letter 126, p. 75 ; of Galileo to 

 Cesare Marsili, Gnl. Opere, t. vi. p. 301. 



(14) 'Nova Plantarum, Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia, a 

 Francisco Hernandez Medico in Indiis preestantissimo primum compilata, dein a 

 Nardo Antonio Pi.eccho in volumen digesta, a Jo. Terentio, Jo. Fabro, et Fabio 

 Columna Lyuceis, notis et additionibus longe doctissimis illustrata. Cui demum 

 accessere aliquot ex Principis Federici Cffisii Frontispiciis Theatri naturalis Phyto- 

 sophicaj Tabulfc, una cum quampluribus Iconibus, ad octingentas quibus singula 

 coutemplanda graphice exhibentur. Eomse, mdcli. sumptibus Blasij deuersini et 

 Zanobij Masotti Bibliopolarum. Typis Vitalis Mascardi.' 1 vol. fol. 



The title of the edition of 1630 was rather diffeient, and appears on the second 

 leaf of the volume, engraved on copper by Federico Greuter. Omitting the details 

 relating to the different writers of the work, this title is as follows : — 



'Eerum Medicarum Novpo Hispauia3 Thesaurus, sen Plantarum, Animalium, 

 Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia. Eomse, ex typographcio Jacobi Mascardi, 



