Controlling the Experiment: Rhetoric, Court Patronage and the Experimental Method of Francesco Redi
Controlling the Experiment: Rhetoric, Court Patronage and the Experimental Method of Francesco Redi
复制标题
控制实验：修辞、宫廷赞助和弗朗西斯科·雷迪的实验方法
DOI：
10.1177/007327539303100102
复制
发表时间：
1993
影响因子：
0.5
通讯作者：
P. Findlen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Findlen
托斯卡纳宫廷博物学家弗朗西斯科·雷迪(Francesco Redi，1626-97年)在1671年拉丁文版的《昆虫的发生实验》(1668)中装饰了插图(图1)，在实验室里代表了自然。上图中，一个倾斜的缪斯女神可能是大自然自己，吸引了两个Putti的注意，他们开玩笑地收集她凝视的蜜蜂、蝴蝶和其他有翼的生物。在17世纪中叶的哲学和文化宇宙中，这些微小的自然现在已经成为实验价值的对象，它们的生成奥秘和雷迪对它们自发生成的否认在文本的页面中展开。下面，科学的化身密涅瓦对自然进行了考验。她用来观察昆虫的显微镜和左边的玻璃瓶提醒我们注意她工作时所处的类似实验室的条件，这代表了美第奇自然主义收藏品中组织物品的活动。在右边，将自然带入实验室的缪斯女神俯瞰着她的实验姐姐的活动，似乎是为了监督他们，在上面的田园环境和下面的科学飞地之间建立了一座桥梁。当密涅瓦用右手观察和实验时，她的左手拿着一本未指明的权威书籍，提醒我们，只有在过去的话的调解下，观察才是有效的练习。古代权威和当代科学实践之间的辩证关系被印在封面上的座右铭所进一步强化：“最佳顾问莫尔图”(“死者是最好的顾问”)。在桌子下面，密涅瓦漫不经心地把脚放在一只乌龟上，不仅让我们想起了它们被斩首可能产生的令人愉快的实验结果，还让我们想起了17世纪中期最前卫的自然哲学家培养出来的重复的实验精神。雷迪在实验室中的自然图像是一幅双联画的一部分，由他关于各种自然事物的实验的拉丁文文本(图2)完成(图2)，特别是那些从印度带来的(1671年)。在这里，密涅瓦现在坐在一张装饰华丽的实验桌上，接受着“印度群岛”的自然财富。低头看着一个背着一辆
In the illustration (Figure 1) adorning the 1671 Latin edition of the Experiments on the generation of insects (1668) by the Tuscan court naturalist Francesco Redi (1626-97), nature is represented within the laboratory.' Above, a reclining Muse possibly Nature herself enjoys the attention of two putti, who playfully collect the bees, butterflies and other winged creatures which she contemplates. In the philosophical and cultural universe of the midseventeenth century, these bits of nature have now become objects of experimental worth, their generative mysteries and Redi's disavowal of their spontaneous generation unravelled within the pages of the text. Below, Minerva, the embodiment of scientia, puts Nature to the test. The microscope through which she observes an insect, and the glass vials to the left, alert us to the 'laboratory-like' conditions in which she works, a representation of the activities that organize objects in the Medici naturalistic collections. To the right, the Muse who brought nature into the laboratory overlooks the activities of her Experimental Sister, as if to supervise them, establishing a bridge between the pastoral setting above and the scientific enclave below. While Minerva observes and experiments with her right hand, her left hand, holding open a book of unspecified authority, reminds us that observation is a valid exercise only when mediated by the words of the past.' The dialectic between ancient authority and contemporary scientific practice is further reinforced by the motto emblazoned on the frontispiece: Optimi consultatores mortui ("The dead are the best counsellors"). Below the table, Minerva casually rests her foot on a turtle, reminding us not only of the delightful experimental results that their decapitation could produce, but also of the repetitive experimental ethos that the most avant-garde natural philosophers cultivated by the mid-seventeenth century. Redi's image of nature in the laboratory is part of a diptych, completed by the illustration (Figure 2) accompanying the Latin text of his Experiments on diverse natural things, particularly those brought from the Indies (1671). Here Minerva, now seated at a richly bedecked experimental table, receives the natural wealth of the "Indies". Staring down upon a native carrying an