i8o INTRODUCTION 



which his position at court afforded him, made possible Steno's 

 scientific researches. 



Now followed the happiest and most productive period of Steno's 

 \ life. Ferdinand II, although a weak prince, was a generous patron 

 I of art and science. The Accademia del Cimento, founded in 1657 

 by Leopold de' Medici, the brother of Ferdinand, was the center 

 of a learned group including Vincenzo Viviani, the pupil and 

 biographer of Galileo, Francesco Redi, poet and naturalist. Carlo 

 Dati, the scientist, and Lorenzo Magalotti, the versatile secretary 

 of the society. ' I have the honor,' Redi wrote to Athanasius 

 Kircher,! ' to serve at a court where distinguished men gather from 

 all parts of the world. In their wanderings they bring and seek 

 in exchange the fruits of high endeavor, and so warm is their 

 welcome that they fancy themselves transported to the mythical 

 gardens of the Odyssey.' 



Through the influence of Maria Flavia del Nero, a nun who had 

 long been in charge of the apothecary connected with Santa Maria 

 Nuova, also Lavinia Felice Cenanni Arnolfini, the wife of the 

 ambassador from Lucca, and Emilio Savignani, a Jesuit priest, 

 Steno was induced to embrace Catholicism. He was deeply reli- 

 gious by nature, and there can be no question about the sincerity 

 of his conversion. His seriousness as a lad, and the impression 

 made upon him by the religious tolerance in Holland, have been 

 mentioned. Furthermore, since meeting the eloquent Bossuet in 

 Paris he had been pondering deeply the question of Catholicism 

 versus Protestantism.^ He was finally received into the Church, 

 December 8, 1667. Five days later Viviani wrote to Magalotti, who 

 was then in Flanders : 



'My very dear friend, N. Steno, who lacked only this to make 

 him adorable, so to say, has turned back to life on the day of the 

 dead,^ in that he has confessed the Catholic faith. His decision to 

 take the final step gave great joy to His Highness (Ferdinand II) 

 and all his friends. On the day of the Immaculate Conception, 



1 Quoted by Plenkers, Afzels Stensen, p. 31. 



^ The question of Steno's conversion is treated at length by Plenkers {Niels Stensen, 

 pp. 36-50), who includes in his account many of the letters that passed between Steno and 

 his friends. The reasons which induced Steno to take this step were set forth by him in 

 Epistola de propria conversione (Florence, 1677) and Defensio et plenior elucidatio epistolae 

 de propria conversione (Hannover, 1680). 



* All Souls' Day, November 2, is Giorno de'Morti in Italian. 



