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Description
Inside the field of history of science, a historiography that talked about brilliant minds was often chosen by academics and consequently, leaving behind many of so-called “minor figures of science” whom had worked side by side with those geniuses and trailblazers; sometimes these figures had also passed to posterity their ideas.
That is the case of Florentine scientist Vincenzo Viviani.
Recently, his biography had sparked my interest and he had become, firstly, the topic of my master’s degree thesis and then, the topic of this paper.
This article analyzes, from a historical point of view, the life and work of Viviani, regarding his relationship with several key figures of patrons and scientists of the seventeenth century in order to point out, using Viviani as a case study, the significance of these “minor figures of science” and their role in the transmission process of many trailblazing ideas, in this specific case the ideas of Galileo. Furthermore, inside this paper, it will be pointed out several contributions Viviani had made, through an interdisciplinary way, in the scientific field such as his renovation work of the Dome of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore.
Bibliography
- Favaro A., Cenni biografici inediti intorno a Vincenzo Viviani, in Favaro Antonio 1847- 1922. Scampoli Galileiani, Trieste, Lint, 1992, vol.2, pp. 558-562;
- Feingold M., The Accademia del Cimento and the Royal Society, in The Accademia del Cimento and its European context, a cura di Beretta Marco, Clericuzio Antonio, Principe Lawrece M., Sagamore Beach(USA), Science History Publications, 2009, cap. 15, pp.229-242
- Robinet A., Les rencontres de G.W. Leibniz avec V. Viviani et leurs suites: Florence, novembre- décembre 1689, in Bollettino di storia delle scienze matematiche, A. 7, n.1, 1987, p.61-92;
- Roero C.S., Viviani rival de Leibniz, in Géométrie, atomisme et vide dans l’école de Galilée, Fontenay-Saint Cloud, ENS, 1999; EAD., Leibniz and the Temple of Viviani, in Annals of Science, vol.47, 1990, pp.423-443;
- Segre M., Viviani’s Life of Galileo, in ISIS, vol.80, 2, Chicago(US), The University of Chicago Press, giugno 1989,p.206-231;
- Tenca L., Evangelista Torricelli e Vincenzo Viviani, Faenza, [s.n.], 1954.
