LIFE OF STENO 183 



Among these is a portrait of Steno, by an unknown painter, evidently 

 made in the period when the Prodromus was composed ; this is 

 reproduced in our Plate V. 



On the recommendation of Count Griffenfeldt/ Christian V invited 

 Steno to the Professorship of Anatomy in Copenhagen. The royal 

 order, dated February 13, 1672, is still preserved in Copenhagen, 

 and reads : 



' Know that by special royal grace and favor We have allowed 

 you, until further gracious increase, four hundred reichsthaler a year. 

 This pension shall date from the time of your arrival here. For it 

 is our gracious command and will that you undertake at once your 

 journey to our Kingdom of Denmark, in order to be here as soon as 

 possible. You will comply in humble obedience.' ^ 



Steno's reply to Count Griffenfeldt is dated April 26: 



' I thank your Excellency most humbly for your good will to me 

 and wish with all my heart that God may grant me to prove to you, 

 one day, my gratitude and willing service. I suppose that your 

 Excellency already knows the reason why my answer is so late in 

 arriving. For the letters containing the orders of His Royal Majesty 

 did not reach Holland until April 3. From there they were for- 

 warded to me yesterday, the twenty-fifth of April. I humbly ask 

 you therefore to excuse my delay to our most gracious Lord and 

 King. This morning I went to the Grand Duke to tell him of the 

 command of His Royal Majesty, and I hope to receive leave for my 

 final departure within a few days.' ^ 



Steno arrived in Copenhagen July 3, 1672. His notable address 

 on the reopening of the Theatrum Anatomicum * was as much a 

 valedictory as an inaugural, for it marks the close of his scientific 

 career. He soon became involved in religious controversies which 

 made his tenure so disagreeable that he yearned for the old life at 

 Florence. Accordingly, he resigned his position in the summer of 

 1674, and set out for Florence, visiting the Catholic Duke of 

 Hannover, Johann Friedrich, on the way. Thence he came back to 

 Amsterdam before proceeding to Italy. Upon his arrival in Florence, 

 late in the year 1674, he was appointed tutor to the son of Cosimo HI, 

 and thenceforth gave up natural science, for which his keen powers 



1 See p. 178. ^ Quoted by Plenkers, Niels Siensen, p. 91. 



'Plenkers, op. cit., p. 91. 



* Printed by Maar, Opera Philosophica, Vol. II, pp. 249-256. 



