| Born
in Arezzo, Francesco Redi studied in the Jesuit school in Florence and graduated
in medicine from Pisa in 1647. After some trips to Rome, Naples, Bologna,
Padua and Venice, he began to work in medicine. In 1666 he was appointed
Chief Physician by the Grand Duke Ferdinando
II and was responsible for the granducal "spezieria" [pharmacy]
and "fonderia" [foundry], a job which was also assigned to him
by Cosimo III (1642-1723) and which he kept until his death, embodying the
classic example of a scientist and courtier. He effectively applied himself
to the natural
sciences and the Accademia del Cimento's experimentalism. His first
scientific work was Osservazioni intorno alle vipere [Observations
concerning vipers] (Florence, 1664) [fig.1].
Addressed to Lorenzo
Magalotti, this was a memoir about how he found the location of the
viper's poison, clarifying the way in which it wielded its toxins. Redi's
true masterpiece, destined to signal a milestone in the history of modern
science, was his Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti
[Experiments concerning the generation of insects] (Florence, 1668) [fig.2].
In this work, dedicated to Carlo
Dati, he refuted the age-old theory of spontaneous generation of insects
and parasites with a telling experiment, which introduced into the scientific
method a serial procedure and a comparison between experimental research
and controlled experiments. He prepared eight receptacles filled with various
types of meat, four of which were left in open air while the others were
carefully sealed. The result was unequivocal: only the first specimens,
upon which flies stopped to lay their eggs on the flesh, provided a source
for grubs that then developed into flies. Meanwhile, the meat in the sealed
containers became putrid, but without generating any form of life. Furthermore,
to avoid that the hermetic closure of the receptacles impeding the influx
of air should alter the grub's life cycle, Redi produced a variation, utilising
two other identical series of receptacles. He closed the control sample
using a filter of thin fabric in a way that would permit only pure air to
access the container, that is, without any contaminating element coming
from flying insects. In the Esperienze intorno a diverse cose naturali,
e particolarmente a quelle che ci son portate dall'Indie [Experiments
concerning various natural things, particularly those that come to us from
the Indies], published in 1671 and dedicated to Father Athanasius
Kircher, who had been criticised in the preceding work for his defence
of spontaneous generation, Redi intensified his attack on the unreliability
of Jesuit experimental science. In 1684 Redi completed his biological tetralogy
with the publication of the Osservazioni intorno agli animali viventi
che si trovano negli animali viventi [Observations concerning live animals
found in live animals] [fig.4],
a treatise on the study of parasites and on comparative anatomy. This was
completed with a second section fated never to see the light. In the field
of medicine Redi made himself a representative of a reform of the therapy
which recommended the prescription of simple remedies, which according to
the rules of Hippocratic humourism, should serve to cleanse the organism
of the superfluous impurities. Furthermore Redi played a decisive role in
identifying the aetiology of scabies studied by Giovan Cosimo Bonomo (1666-1696)
and Giacinto Cestoni (1637-1718), showing that infection depended on the
attack of the microscopical mite that reproduced through eggs deposited
under the skin. Redi was also a fine man of letters. As a member of the
Accademia della Crusca, he was an active participant in the drafting of
the third edition of the Vocabolario released in 1691. Amongst his
literary works he had great success with the famous dithyramb Bacco in
Toscana [Bacchus in Tuscany], published in 1685 with many erudite annotations.
From 1670 onwards he also worked diligently on a Vocabolario di alcune
voci aretine [Vocabulary of some words from Arezzo]. |