Speaker
Description
I set out to discuss a work of popular astronomy titled Philosophical Letters, in which the weakness of the arguments so far proposed in favour of plurality of worlds is demonstrated (Venice, 1765), by Apulian physician and natural philosopher Giuseppe Corigliano, and the context in which they were written. So far, this work has received little scholarly attention. The Letters are an example of the many works dealing with the extraterrestrial life controversy published in Italy in the latter half of the 18th-century, and a product of the lively scientific and erudite culture which had developed in Naples at the time. Intellectuals in Naples had played, in the decades prior, an important role in the introduction of Cartesian and later Newtonian ideas in Italy, including one specific controversy which was tied to these new forms of natural philosophy: plurality of worlds, or the extraterrestrial life debate. In writing, Corigliano demonstrates his knowledge of popular works dealing with the topic, such as Huygens' Cosmotheoros (1698), and develops original arguments against them. Furthermore, a study of the Lettere is a way to shed some light on Petronilla de Lignéville (1733-1793), a noblewoman to whom the Letters are addressed and dedicated. De Lignéville played a significant role in the cultural life of Naples as a patron of scholars, natural philosophers and literates. From Corigliano's Letters, a profile emerges of a true "Dama filosofante", one of those women who gave an important contribution to enliven the intellectual landscape of 18th-century Italy.