From Naples to Goa and Back: A Secretive Galilean Messenger and a Radical Hermeneutist

Schipano is an enigmatic figure little known to us. Two dictionaries of biographies of Calabrians mention him as a physician and a poet: Luigi Aliquò Lenzi and Filippo Aliquò Taverriti, Gli scrittori calabresi: Dizionario bio-bibliografico (Reggio di Calabria, 1955), iii, 205; Accattatis Luigi , Le biografie degli uomini illustri delle Calabrie (Cosenza, 1869), ii, 409.

This letter was titled as Risalah-I Padri Khristafarus Burris Isavi dar tufiq-I jaded dunya, and in Italian as Compendio di un trattato del Padre Christoforo Borro Giesuita della nuova costitution del mondo secondo Tichone Brahe e gli altri astrologi moderni (Vatican Library: Persian, no. 9). However, I will refer to it as “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī”. The letter has been mentioned by Aydın Sayılı who describes the astronomical content without paying any attention to the significance of, e.g., discussions on biblical passages; Sayılı, “Tycho Brahe sistemi hakkinda XVII. asır başlarına ait farsça bir yazma / An early seventeenth-century Persian manuscript on the Tychonic System”, Anatolia, iii (1958), 79–87.

Valle Della , De viaggi di Pietro della Valle il pellegrino: Descritti da lui medesimo in lettere familiari all'erudito suo amico Mario Schipano (Brighton, 1843).

Bellori Giovanni Pietro , Le vite de' pittori, scvltori et architetti moderni (Rome, 1672).

Bellori Giovanni Pietro , Vita di Pietro della Valle il pellegrino ([n.p.], [1662]).

A recent survey of the historiography of the Galileo affair can be found in Maurice Finocchiaro, “Science, religion, and the historiography of the Galileo affair: On the undesirability of oversimplication”, Osiris, xvi (2001), 114–34.

Biagioli Mario , Galileo, courtier: The practice of science in the culture of absolutism (Chicago, 1993).

See Brentjes Sonja , “Western European travelers in the Ottoman Empire and their scholarly endeavors (sixteenth—eighteenth century)”, in The Turks (Ankara, 2002), iii: The Ottomans, 795–803. For literature on travellers, see Penrose Boies , Travel and discovery in the Renaissance, 1420–1620 (Cambridge, MA, 1953); and Haynes Jonathan , The humanist as a traveler (London, 1986). On specific literature that treated della Valle as a humanist traveller, see Anthony George Bull, The pilgrim: The travels of Pietro Della Valle (London, 1990). 9. Galileo made this statement in a letter to the Grand Duke through the Tuscan secretary of state, Curzio Picchena, who conveyed the news of the decision of the Inquisition; see Galileo , Opere, ed. by Giuseppe Saragat (Florence, 1968), xii, 243–5.

Blackwell Richard , Galileo, Bellarmine and the Bible (Notre Dame, 1991), 122.

de Zuñiga Diego , Commentary on the Book of Job, transl. by Brotons Victor Navarro in his “The reception of Copernicus in sixteenth-century Spain”, Isis, lxxxvi (1995), 52–78, p. 64.

Westman Robert S. , “The Copernicans and the Churches”, in Lindberg David Numbers Ronald (eds), God and nature: Historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and science (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984), chap. 3.

On the principle of accommodation, see Funkenstein Amos , Theology and scientific imagination: From the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century (Princeton, 1986), 213–19; and Ginzburg Carlo , Wooden eyes (New York, 2001), 117–18, 145–7.

Foscarini Paolo Antonio , Concerning the Pythagorian and Copernican opinion of the mobility of the Earth and stability of the Sun and of the New Systeme or Constitution of the World , in Salusbury Thomas , Mathematical collections and translations (London, 1667), i, 475 seqq.

He mainly cited Ambrose, who argued that Pythagoras taught that we should abstain from certain foods, that there is only one God even though he said that the angels are secondary gods, and that all things are numbers (as did Moses in the construction of the Tabernacle, and Solomon, who said [Wisdom 11:21] all things were created “in numbers, weight, and measure”). See Ambrose , Epistolae, VI, 1. See also Campanella Tommaso , Apologia pro Galileo (Frankfurt, 1622), 56. There are several English translations of Campanella's Apologia; see Blackwell Richard J. (transl.), Apologia pro Galileo: A defense of Galileo the mathematician from Florence, which is an inquiry as to whether the philosophical view advocated by Galileo is in agreement with, or is opposed to, the sacred Scriptures (Notre Dame, 1994); McColley Gant , “The Defense of Galileo”, Smith College studies in history, xxii/3–4 (1937). The view that Pythagoras was Jewish was shared by other Copernicans of the early seventeenth century. John Wilkins, who wrote a book about the habitable moon, asserted that “some think him a Iew by birth, but most agree that hee was much conversant amongst the learneder sorr, & Priests of that Nation, by whome he was informed of many secretes…”. Wilkins John , The discovery of a world in the moone: Or discourse tending to prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable world in the moon (London, 1638), 81.

Campanella , Apologia pro Galileo (ref. 15), 10.

Campanella , Apologia pro Galileo (ref. 15), 56.

On the academy, see Alemanno Laura , “L'Accademia degli Umoristi”, Roma moderna e contemporanea, iii (1995), 97–120.

Bull , The pilgrim (ref. 8), p. xi.

In this letter he mentioned the following books: Mirkat, Mirah, Macsud, Izah, Bina Emthelesi and Camus: “Mirkat” refers to Mirkat al-wusul ila al-'Ilm al-Usul (The ladder of access to the science of jurisprudence). “Macsud” (“the desired”) refers to a treatise of Arabic grammar attributed either to Nu'man Ibn-Thabit (d. 767) or Muhammad al-Birgawi. “Izah” could stand for Izzi fi Nahw (an “explanation of syntax”) by Abu Hassan al-Farsi (d. 987). “Camus” stands for the dictionary Qamus. See, De viaggi (ref. 3), i, 146–52.

Ibid., 146–52.

Ibid., 149–52.

Ibid., 150.

Ibid., 153–55.

These two portrait mummies date to about the fourth century A.D. and show a man and a woman; they were found at Saqqara by della Valle and were sold by the estate of Count Chigi and acquired by the Municipal Office of Dresden in 1728. They are now part of the Egyptian Section of Dresden's Art Gallery. See Bull , The pilgrim (ref. 8), p. xii; also the letter on Egypt, De viaggi (ref. 3), i, 192.

De viaggi (ref. 3), i, 215–38, and the letter written on 7 March 1616: De viaggi, i, 239–50.

De viaggi (ref. 3), i, 309.

De viaggi (ref. 3), i, 310.

De viaggi (ref. 3), i, 328.

De viaggi (ref. 3), ii, 326–7.

De viaggi (ref. 3), ii, 326.

De viaggi (ref. 3), ii, 326.

Thus, modern studies mention al-Lārī only through the della Valle connection. See Lockhart Laurence , “European contacts with Persia, 1350–1736”, and Kennedy E. S. , “The exact sciences in Timurid Iran”, in Jackson Peter Lockhart Laurence (eds), The Cambridge history of Iran, vi: The Timurid and Safavid periods (Cambridge, 1986), chaps. 7 and 10, respectively. The latter's description of the exact sciences mentions Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī based upon information from De viaggi (ref. 3).

See Buzurg Agha , al-Dhari'ah ila tasanif al-Shi'ah, ta'lif Muhammad al-shahir bi-al-Shaykh Agha Buzurg al-Tihrani (al-Najaf, 1936); and idem, Tabaqat a'lam al-Shi'ah (Beirut, 1971). See also Munzavi Ahmad , Fihristvarah-i kitabha-yi Farsi (Tehran, 1995).

See catalogues of Islamic manuscripts on natural philosophy: Osmanli astronomi literaturu tarihi [History of astronomic literature during the Ottoman period] (Istanbul, 1997); and Fihras almakhtūtāt al-'ilmīyya al-mahfūzah bi Dār al-Kuttub al-Masrīyya [Catalogue of the scientific manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library], ed. by King David (Cairo, 1981).

For a traditional account of this role see Nicolini G. B. , History of the Jesuits: Progress, doctrines, and designs (London, 1854), 96–133.

See for instance another case of Manuel Godinho, a Portuguese traveller whose itinerary was similar to della Valle's, but with different motives. See Intrepid itinerant: Manuel Godinho and his journey from India to Portugal in 1663, ed. by Correia-Afonso John , transl. by Lobo Vitalio Correia-Afonso John (Bombay, 1990).

Thomas Herbert , Some years travels into divers parts of Africa and Asia the Great describing more particularly the Empires of Persia and Industan (London, 1662), 40.

Ibid., 126.

Ibid., 129.

Ibid., 137.

Ibid., 238.

De viaggi (ref. 3), ii, 541.

In accounts of Neopolitan scholarship he is described as a doctor and a friend of della Valle; see Paolino Giangiuseppe Origlia , Istoria dello studio di Napoli (Naples, 1754), ii, 415. In a general history of Naples he is mentioned as a doctor interested in botany and, once again, as a friend of della Valle; Giannone Pietro , The civil history of the Kingdom of Naples, transl. by Ogilvie James (London, 1723), ii, 715, 843.

Archivio manuscriti Lincei, no. 30, 72v.

Olmi Giuseppe , “La colonia Lincea di Napoli”, in Lomonaco Fabrizio Torrini Maurizio (eds), Galileo e Napoli (Naples, 1987), 23–58, p. 50.

Ibid., 54.

On the connection between the Lincei society and the Galilean debate, see Baroncelli Giovanna , “L'astronomia a Napoli al tempo di Galileo”, in Lomonaco Torrini (eds), Galileo e Napoli (ref. 46), 197–225. On the connection of Colonna to Galilean discoveries, see ibid., 205–10.

See Baroncelli , “L'astronomia” (ref. 48), 209. This interest necessitated knowledge in the Islamic languages. Diego Urrea Conca, another Neapolitan and an Arabist, joined the Lincei Academy five days after Colonna, on 27 January 1612. The Linceans needed an expert Arabist, at least partly in order to have him translate classic works of Arabic science. They enrolled Diego de Urrea Conca, who, as interpreter at the court of Fez and for the King of Spain, knew Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. See Freedberg David , The eye of the lynx: Galileo, his friends, and the beginnings of modern natural history (Chicago, 2002), 114. See also Gabrieli Giuseppe , Contributi alla storia dell'Accademia dei Lincei (Rome, 1989); and idem, I primi Accademici Lincei e gli studi orientali (Florence, 1926).

Speciale Gabriella Belloni , “La ricerca botanica dei Lincei a Napoli”, in Lomonaco Torrini (eds), Galileo e Napoli (ref. 46), pp. 60, 74, 75, 77.

Giannone , Civil history (ref. 44), ii, 715. For the description of the 1616 reforms at Naples University, see pp. 712–15.

Valle Della , “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī” (ref. 2), 1. I would like to thank Isaac Haleluya for his help in assessing the problems with Persian linguistic corruptions.

Ibid., 4–5.

For an extensive study on Borrus, see dos Santos Domingues Maurício Gomes , “Vicissitudes da obra do Pe. Cristóvã Borri”, Anais da Academia Portuguesa de Historia, 2nd ser., iii (1951), 117–50.

Borrus's work was printed in 1940 by the Portuguese government as part of an effort to revive its imperial heritage, and his stay in Goa would have made him part of that attention. See Bruno Cristóvão , Arte de navegar (1628) (Lisbon, 1940). Borrus was also known to be an expert on the history of the Chinese and Vietnamese uses and adaptations of cannon technology; see Tana Li , Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Ithaca, 1998), 44.

See Mercati Angelo , “Notizie sul Gesuita Cristoforo Borri e su sue ‘inventioni’ da carte finora sconosciute di Pietro Della Valle il pellegrino”, Pontificia Academia Scientiarvm acta, xv (1951–53), 25–46.

Thrower Norman J. W. , “Edmond Halley as a thematic geo-cartographer”, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, lix (1969), 652–76, p. 664.

Borri Cristoforo , Collecta astronomica: Ex doctrina P. Christophori Borri, mediolanensis, ex Societate Iesu; De tribus caelis. Aereo, Sydereo, Empyreo; Iussu, et studio Domini D. Gregorii de Castelbranco Comitis Villae Nouae, Sortelliae, & Goesiae domus dynastae, Regij corporis Cnstodi maximo, &c. Opus sane mathematicum, philosophicum, & theologicum, sive scripturarium. Superiorum permissu (Lisbon, 1631), 135–6.

Borrus takes the time to speak of the telescope in this way: “[It] finally was perfected in all its measurements for common (widespread) use by Galileo Galilei of Florence.” Borri , Collecta astronomica (ref. 58), 135–6. Luís Miguel Carolino has recently published an illuminating paper on the evolution and nuances of Borrus's support for the Tychonic cosmology. See Carolino Luís Miguel , “The making of a Tychonic cosmology: Cristoforo Borri and the development of Tycho Brahe's astronomical system”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxix (2008), 1–32.

Borri , Collecta astronomica (ref. 58), 141.

See Borri Cristofer , An account of Cochin-China: The first treatise of the temporal state of that Kingdom and second of what concerns the spiritual (1633) (London, 1704), 803–4.

Ibid., 828–9.

Since he mentions “the end of Kepler's life” it seems that the letter-translation was begun in Goa in 1623 and finished in Rome after Kepler's death in 1630. This is further evidence that the version of this letter that is in the Vatican was actually completed in the early 1630s, after Kepler's death in 1630.

Valle Della , “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī” (ref. 2), 2–3.

Ibid., 5.

Priolkar Anant Kakba Dellon Gabriel Buchanan Claudius , The Goa Inquisition: Being a quatercentenary commemoration study of the Inquisition in India (Bombay, 1961), 176.

Valle Della , “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī” (ref. 2), 25.

This verse elicited medieval commentaries that were, ostensibly, utilized by de Zuñiga. Rashi's twelfth-century exegesis stated: “God looks at earth and its shaking”; Metzudat David states that “God moves earth from its place”; Biur Milim declares that “God tells the sun not to rise or not to move”; and Biur ‘Inyan: “God is the one that determines the generation and decay of earth, and shaking it means he would destroy it”.

De Zuñiga , In Job commentaria, transl. by Brotons (ref. 11), 67. See also Blackwell , Galileo, Bellarmine and the Bible (ref. 10), 180–1.

Borrus also cites the Book of Job in his Collecta astronomica (ref. 58), but he could not have been the source for della Valle. His interest was in other verses, e.g., 38:8–9, which were pertinent to his attempt to reconcile the biblical account of the creation with Aristotelian physics. Borrus writes:. Father Francisius Suarius [Francisco Suárez?] in The six days of Creation [Opus sex dierum], ch. 5, p. 8, relates that this same opinion was held by several authorities along with Pereira. These affirmed that the air was made on the second day in the following way: On the first day the whole space between the earth and the moon was filled not with the three other elements, but with a kind of cloudy material or thin vapour, intermediate as it were between Air and Water. They infer this not only from the aforementioned passage in Ben Sirach [otherwise Ecclesiasticus; Wisdom is speaking]: “As a cloud I covered all the earth”, but also from another one, in Job: “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as if issuing out of the womb: When I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands?” According to Suarius, they say that it was therefore from this material that Air was made — And in fact Fire too — On the second day, through a kind of thinning and rarefaction caused by a divine miracle. Suarius quotes these statements from others, and though he himself tries to refute their opinion, nevertheless anyone who reads the arguments that he gives to the contrary will see that they have too little or no force. See Borri , Collecta astronomica, 414–15. The same biblical quotations are repeated on pp. 435–6 to make the same cosmological point.

Valle Della , “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī” (ref. 2), 25–26.

See Hoffman Yair , Shelemut pegumah: Sefer Iyov ve-rik'o [Blemished perfection: The Book of Job in its context] (Jerusalem, 1995), 132.

Valle Della , “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī” (ref. 2), 25–26.

He made this comment even though in Europe bibles in ancient Near Eastern languages were available. On the manuscripts and printed Chaldean-Aramaic versions existing in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, see Stec David M. , The text of the Targum of Job (Leiden, 1994).

See the commentary of Ibn 'Ezra on the Book of Job 2:12. Ibn 'Ezra also comments on the fall of linguistic knowledge since Babel. Moreover, in different places of the Bible he expresses his argument that there were original scriptures that preceded the Mesoraic tradition. See for instance his commentary on Genesis 11:1 “the whole earth was one language”, the introductory verse on the Tower of Babel. See also Ibn 'Ezra's commentary on Exodus 25:31 on the word tei'aseh (will be made) which was ‘misspeld’ with an additional letter ‘yod’. For Ibn 'Ezra the addition raised an important question about the source of Scripture; he writes: “I have seen books [i.e., manuscripts] which have been examined by the Masoretes of Tiberias, and fifteen of their elders have sworn that they have looked closely three times at each word and dot, and the word is written with a yod … however in manuscripts from Spain, France and overseas I did not find a yod … anyway, if there is a yod there, it is a foreign word”.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries both the astronomical and exegetical writings of Ibn 'Ezra were translated and published in Latin. For instance, Archbishop Ussher relied on Ibn 'Ezra's biblical commentaries, especially the Book of Job, in order to compose a biblical chronology. See Ussher James , “Chronologia sacra”, in Elrington Charles Richard (ed.), The whole works of the Most Rev. James Ussher (Dublin, 1864), xii, 50–51. For the availability of Ibn 'Ezra's commentary for Hebraist ideas, see In decalogum commentarius: Doctrina et eruditione non careens (Paris, 1568); Hosee cum Thargum, id est Chaldaica paraphrasi Jonathan, et commentariis R. Abraham Ezra et R. D. Kimchi (Geneva, 1556); and Peter Rooden, Theology, biblical scholarship and rabbinical studies in the seventeenth century (Leiden, 1989), 44. For the incorporation of the commentary of Ibn 'Ezra into Cabala, see Moses Ben Israel de Joseph Voisin , Dispvtatio cabalistica R. Israel filii R. Mosis de anima: Et opus rhythmicum R. Abraham abben Ezra de modis, quibus Hebrailegem solent interpretati verbum de verbo expressum extulit nobilis Ioseph de Voysin (Paris, 1635); for Hebrew grammar in Hebraism according to Ibn 'Ezra, see Pagnino Santi, Institvtionvm hebraicarvm abbreuiatio (Lyons, 1528); for his astrological writings, see Epistola astrologie defensiva (Lyon, 1508); and also Opusculum repertorii prognosticon in mutatione aeris (Venice, 1485); by the early eighteenth century his full commentary on the Bible was also printed in Latin by Lundius Daniel, Commentarius R. Aben Esrae in Prophetam Habacuc: Quem ex Hebraeo in Latinum sermonem versum & brevibus notis illustratum (Uppsala, 1706).

On this tradition, see Sinai N. H. Tur , The Book of Job: A new commentary (Jerusalem, 1967), pp. xxxi, 111; see also Hoffman , Blemished perfection (ref. 72), 183–223.

The word in question was “shaken”; the Hebrew word and the Chaldean or Aramaic word are both usually translated as “upsetting”; some; some medieval commentators, e.g., Rashi, suggest other meanings like “shaking”, or “moving”.

Valle Della , “Letter to Zayyn al-dīn al-Lārī” (ref. 2); De viaggi (ref. 3), ii, 27.

See Catholic encyclopedia (New York, 1908), iii, s.v. “Chaldean Christians”, pp. 559–61. See also Borges Charles J. , The economics of the Goa Jesuits, 1524–1759: An explanation of their rise and fall (New Delhi, 1994).

For a survey of sources and documents on Foscarini's life and works see Boaga Emanuele , “Annotazioni e documenti: Sulla vita e sulle opera di Paolo Antonio Foscarini teologo ‘Copernicano (1562c. — 1616)”’, Carmelus, xxxvii (1990), 173–216. One of the few clues we have about Foscarini's motives in writing his work concerns another enigmatic Neapolitan, Vincenzo Carafa. According to Foscarini, Carafa ordered him to write and publish the great compromise of Scriptures with Copernicanism for the defence of Galileo. Some scholars identify Carafa as the famous Jesuit professor at the College of Naples who was eventually appointed as seventh General of the Society of Jesus from 1646 to 1649; see Caroti Stefano , “Un sostenitore napoletano della mobilità della terra: Il padre Paolo Antonio Foscarini”, in Lomonaco Torrini (eds), Galileo e Napoli (ref. 46), 81–121, p. 97; Boaga , “Annotazioni”, 183–94. In fact there are indications supplied by Foscarini that suggest the existence of another Vincenzo Carafa, son of Fabrizio, fourth Count of Ruvo, and a knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. However, in 1615, this Vincenzo Carafa had already been dead for four years; see B. Aldimari, Historia genealogica della familiglia Carafa (Napoli, 1691), iii, 83–90. It is not certain that this was Carafa the Jesuit, since the Vincenzo Carafa who became seventh General of the Company of Jesus did not belong to the Order of St John of Jerusalem, but this may indicate the Neopolitan practice whereby men of the apostolic missions appealed to Neapolitan nobility by carrying cavalry titles; see Bartoli D. , Della vita del P. Vincenzo Carafa, settimo generale della compagnia di Giesú (Rome, 1651). Although the Catholic encyclopedia mentions certain writings of Carafa the General of the Jesuits, it does not mention that he encouraged Foscarini to write the compromise. Thus, if we deduce that Carafa was not the seventh General of the Jesuits, we might also explain the lack of biographical evidence on Carafa as a result of his membership and practices in secret circles. See Catholic encyclopedia, iii, s.v. “Caraffa Vincent”.

Campanella , Apologia pro Galileo (ref. 15), 57.

For more details on this fascinating story see Malcolm Noel , “The Crescent and the City of the Sun: Islam and the Renaissance Utopia of Tommaso Campanella”, Proceedings of the British Academy, cxxv (2005), 41–67.

See Blackwell's introduction to Campanella's Apologia pro Galileo (ref. 15), 9. In addition, one of the few sources we have on Schipano is an entry under his name in a dictionary of biographies of the Lincei Society, where he is called a friend of Campanella; Gabrieli, Contributi alla storia dell'Accademia dei Lincei (ref. 49), ii, 1523–9.

See Amabile Luigi , Fra Tommaso Campanella, la sua congiura, i suoi processi e la sua pazzia (Naples, 1882), i, 7.

See Amabile Luigi , Fra Tommaso Campanella ne' castelli di Napoli, in Roma e in Parigi (Naples, 1887), i, 171. For other connections between Schipano and Campanella, see ibid., i, 93, 151, 171; ii, 38, 133.

Bellori , op. cit. (ref. 5), 9–10.