The American historian Silvio Bedini, emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, died on November 14, 2007, aged 90. His intellectual heritage includes more than one hundred pathfinding articles and books on scientific instruments, especially early telescopes and mechanical clocks. Unfortunately, Bediniâs major work on these two types of instruments, synthetized in the activity of the three Campani brothersâGiuseppe in particularâremained unpublished. A fifty-year-long study, based on a remarkable quantity of valuable, mostly unedited archival information, was available only in manuscript form. Although the substance of the book had been completed, the fact that the author was unable to make a final revision left several elements incomplete.
The biggest editorial challenge was the extraordinary number of reference notes, many of which were either incomplete or misplaced. To realign and complete the notes and to address the other issues required technical editing by scientific experts familiar with the general subject matter. Unfortunately, this required more time and effort than was originally expected. It was only thanks to the commitment of Silvio Bediniâs long-time friend Antonio Lenner, president of HORAâthe Italian association of antiquarian horologyâthat the revision was made possible. Through his contacts in the history of science community, Lenner identified an opportunity to publish the work as a volume in a series on scientific instruments, and arranged for Dr. Giorgio Strano (curator at the Museo Galileo) to act as technical editor of the work. Strano made good progress on the project, but unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the publishing opportunity became unavailable and the work had to stop. Continuing his quest to see the Bedini book published, in late 2017 Lenner arranged for and financed a second technical editor to complete the work.
Another significant problem was that the text included several mistranslations from the Latin and the Italian, and a number of redundancies and chronological and formal inconsistencies, such as repetition of paragraphs, the alternative use of metric and imperial measures, and a few problematic descriptions of instruments that were actually mélanges of accounts deriving from different objects, which had to be expurgated. However, it was sometimes necessary, for the flow of Bediniâs narrative, to retain some repetitions, such as in chapters 3 and 6, where the same extended passages from historical sources are quoted. The bibliography remained incomplete and the illustrations to be included had not all been identified: the images were carefully collected from both Bediniâs archive and from museums and collections around the world. An important caveat is that I had to decide (together with Antonio Lenner and Alberto Lualdi) which images and where to insert them in this book as an illustrative companion to the text. I therefore decided not to overload their captions with information that Bedini, where he found it important, had already inserted into his text. This is why the captions do not always, as is usual in a scientific catalogue of objects, contain information on dimensions and materials. I am especially grateful to those who provided images with a reduced price or for free. Among them, for the great number of images freely provided, I must especially thank Prof. Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museo Galileo, for his generosity. I am also grateful to Brill for covering the costs for the acquisition of many other images and their publication rights. My gratitude goes also to the staff of museums, archives and libraries for their invisible but always indispensable help, to Leandra and Peter Bedini who provided me with 10 boxes full of relevant material from their fatherâs archive. They also provided with the language editing of the book. I also thank Prof. Beretta and Prof. Dupré for their hospitality in this series, my wife Marta (24/7 librarian), Greta Ferrari for the editing of some illustrations, and to Anatolio Egidii, who generously shared visual and written documents on the Campani brothers. Finally, I am happy to add that this book has been completed as part of a project that has received funding from the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GA n. 818098 TACITROOTS).
Although every effort was made by the editor to identify and access the original archival sources, for several reasons, not least among them the pandemic, such confirmation was not possible in all cases. In particular, where Bedini quotes at length from specific sources, the translations have been validated, but the source material itself was not always consulted. Some evident mistranslations from the Latin and Italian were corrected, but a thorough check was not possible because of the lack ot time and resources. Therefore, it is recommended that the scholar making use of this work always check the original texts. Except for in a few casesâthose works published after 2007âthe bibliography was not updated. Remarkably, within such a long period of time, only a few publications have appeared on Giuseppe Campani, none of them approaching the thoroughness of Bediniâs book.1
Giuseppe Campani, âInventor Romae,â an Uncommon Genius will serve not just as a reference work for any study of seventeenth-century clockmaking, practical optics, astronomy, and science and technology in general, but thanks to Bediniâs narrative, it will also make a complex story an enjoyable read for non-specialists. The rich work of Silvio Bedini provides fresh material for the scholar interested in currently relevant research fields, such as power and knowledge, patronage of scientific and technological activities, technological innovation and invention, competition among inventors and producers of scientific instruments, progress of optical instruments and discovery, circulation of knowledge, and more, not last, the role of women in early modern technolgical activities, from Christina of Swedenâs patronage of science to the production of scientific instruments and the circulation of technical knowledge by Giuseppe Campaniâs daughters. This work provides unique insights into the scientific landscape of baroque Rome and its links to a broader European scene: the Campani brothersâMatteo, Pier Tommaso, and Giuseppeâwere at the core of a thriving activity of technological and scientific innovation and self-promotion that involved popes, the Sun King, and other rulers of baroque Europe. Their story, and especially Giuseppeâs outstanding production of clocks and optical instruments, attracted the attention of the Jesuit scholarly network, of the courts of several popes, of Christina, Queen of Sweden, of the most important European scientific academies of the time, of the Medici Court of Florence, whose pride in its Galilean legacy kept it at the forefront of scientific patronage by promoting the first experimental institution in Europe, the Accademia del Cimento (1657â1667), and of Colbert and Gian Domenico Cassini, who endowed the Observatory of Paris with Giuseppeâs lenses, so that new celestial bodies were discovered with his telescopes. The most important scientific characters of the second half of the seventeenth century, starting with Christiaan Huygens, were impressed by the quality of Giuseppe Campaniâs products. Giuseppeâs fame, and the instruments themselves, reached the four corners of Europe.
The 40-year-long friendship between Lenner and Bedini was built over their shared love for antiquarian horology, and especially for Giuseppe Campaniâs nocturnal clocks. Without Lennerâs determination and generosity, this book might never have been published. Now, at the end of a painstaking editorial process, Uncommon Genius, Bediniâs magnum opus, and the story it tells of the Umbrian Campani brothers in Rome, is finally available to be shared with the world itself.
Cristiano Zanetti
Università degli Studi di Milano
Post-doctoral Research Fellow
I am grateful to Dr. Marv Bolt for helping me with this selection of Campani-related scholarship published in recent years: Anatolio Egidi, I fratelli Campani da Castel San Felice. Vita e opere di tre inventori post-galileiani, (Spoleto: Tipografia Nuova Eliografica, 2011); Matteo Campani, Pier Tommaso Campani and Giuseppe Campani, Opera varia horologica @ microscopica, 1660â1705: raccolta commentata di opere a stampa, manoscritti e lettere autografe, a cura di A. Egidi (Spoleto: Tipografia Nuova Eliografica, 2012); Lavinia Galli (ed.), La forma del Tempo, (exhibition catalogue. Milan: Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Skira, 2020); Walter and Reinhard Oberschelp, âCassini, Campani und der Saturnringâ, Jürgen Hamel and Inge Keil (eds.), Der Meister und die Fernrohre: Das Wechselspiel zwischen Astronomie und Optik in der Geschichte. Festschrift zum 85. Geburtstag von Rolf Riekher (Acta Historica Astronomiae, 33, Frankfurt/M. 2007), 164â184; and in the same volume: Friedrich H. Trier and Karsten Gaulke, âDas Luftfernrohr von Giuseppe Campani im Astronomisch-Physikalischen Kabinett der Museumslandschaft Hessen-Kasselâ, 185â202. Gabriella Bernardi, âParagoni! (Cover Story).â Sky & Telescope 139:4 (2020): 58; Marvin P. Bolt and Michael Korey, âDioptrice: Examining and Cataloguing the Worldâs Oldest Surviving Telescopes,â Journal of Glass Studies 61 (2019): 270â76. Christian Brogna et al., âCommentary: Giuseppe Campani (1635â1715, Rome, Italy): The First Use of a Microscope in Medicine and Surgery,â Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week 82: 2 (2018): E58âE64 Donatella Lippi, âEarly use of the microscope,â Lancet 389: 10081 (2017): 1793â1794; Giorgio Dragoni and Ivana Stojanovic, âPhysical Science in Bologna,â Phys. Perspect. 15 (2013): 92â115; Julien Lozi et al., âCould Jean-Dominique Cassini See the Famous Division in Saturnâs Rings?â 8864 (September 26, 2013): 88641Mâ88641Mâ11; Sebastian Whitestone, âChristian Huygensâ Lost and Forgotten Pamphlet of His Pendulum Invention,â Annals of science 69: 1 (2012): 91â104; Francoise Launay and William Sheehan, âThe Mysterious Lady on the Moon: Is the Moon Maiden on Cassiniâs Famous 1679 Moon Map an Astronomerâs Secret Declaration of Love?â Sky and telescope 120:3 (2010): 26â.