The Neoterics and Political Power in Spanish Italy: Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and His Circle

For an elementary but useful survey see Boeré Y.-M. Delille G. Sallmann J.-M. Waquet J.-C. , L'Italie au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1989).

See Malpighi's M. autobiography, in Opera posthuma (London, 1697), 29, referring to the 1665 controversy with the Galenists at Messina. An equivalent term often occurring was ‘novatores’. See also Verbeek T. , Descartes and the Dutch (published for the Journal of the history of philosophy, 1992), ad indicem.

The following two works on the revolt are fundamental and include ample surveys of other sources: Laloy E. , La Révolte de Messine, l'expédition de Sicile et la politique française en Italie, 1674–1678 (3 vols, Paris, 1929–31). Di Bella S. (ed.), La Rivolta di Messina (1674–78) e il mondo mediterraneo nella seconda metà del Seicento (Cosenza, 1979).

Dollo C. , Filosofia e scienze in Sicilia (Padua, 1979); Modelli scientifici e filosofici nella Sicilia spagnola (Naples, 1984). Nastasi P. , “Una polemica giovanile di Giovanni Alfonso Borelli”, Physis, xxvi (1984), 215–47; “Galileo e la Sicilia”, in Lomonaco F. Torrini M. (eds), Galileo e Napoli (Naples, 1987), 499–529. Baldini U. , “Galileismo e politica: Il caso Borelliano”, Annali dell 'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, iii (1978), 81–93.

Alessandro Marchetti, a pupil and close friend of Borelli for many years, wrote to Magliabechi about Borelli's reticence on such matters: Fabroni A. , Lettere inedite di Uomini Illustri (2 vols, Florence, 1773–75), i, 279–84. Dollo , Filosofia (ref. 4), 119. Campanella T. , Astrologicorum libri VII (Frankfurt, 1630), 248. Borelli referred to Campanella T. , Medicinalia juxta propria principia (Lyons, 1635), in Delle cagioni delle febbri maligne (Cosenza, 1649), 154, 157, and 172. A. Scorsone has recently challenged this interpretation in Giovanni Alfonso Borelli: Ricerche e considerazioni sulla vita e sulle opere (Palermo, 1993).

On Campanella see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (hereafter DBI), entry by Firpo L. Amabile L. , Fra Tommaso Campanella: La sua congiura, i suoi processi, la sua pazzia (3 vols, Naples, 1982). Pagden A. R. , Spanish imperialism and the political imagination (New Haven, Conn., and London, 1990), chap. 2.

On Giovanni Alfonso and Filippo Borelli see DBI, entries by U. Baldini and L. Firpo. See also Dictionary of scientific biography , entry by T. B. Settle. Dollo , Filosofia (ref. 4), 346–9.

On the struggle for the control of the University see Tropea G. , “Contributo alla storia dell'Università di Messina”, in CCCL anniversario della fondazione dell'Università di Messina (Messina, 1900), 37–122. A vivid description of those contrasts is in the letters by the Messina professor of medicine Pietro Castelli to his colleague at Naples, Marco Aurelio Severino, Biblioteca Lancisiana, Rome, manoscritti Severino, xi, esp. ff. 377 (20 September 1638) and 380 (4 January 1639).

On S. Rao e Requesens (1609–59) see Mongitore A. , Bibliotheca Sicula (2 vols, Palermo, 1707), ii, 231–3. Dollo , Filosofia (ref. 4), 113–16. Rao S. , Rime (Venice, 1672).

La Lumia I. , Storie Siciliane (4 vols, Palermo, 1881–83; reprinted 1969), iv, 55–56, 64, 70, 86–87, 89, 197, 119–20. Rao's friends included Pietro Opezzinga, who put himself forward with Trasmiera to stab Alesi in a church, and the lawyer Antonino Lo Giudice, who was initially requested by Alesi to act as an adviser, but later actively helped dismantling all legal advantages obtained by the rebels. On Opezzinga see Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), ii, 131–2. The Sicilian Inquisition was under the control of the Spanish Monarch. By contrast, in the Kingdom of Naples the Inquisition was under papal control.

Analogous events took place in the Kingdom of Naples. Before the outbreak of the popular rebellions at Naples in July 1647, the nobles were organizing a rebellion with opposite social motivations and intents, as documented by Villari R. , La rivolta antispagnola (Bari, 1967). See also the English translation with additional material, The revolt of Naples (Cambridge, 1993). Besides Rao, Opezzinga and Lo Giudice were also part of the aristocratic plot.

Di Marzo G. , Biblioteca storica e letteraria di Sicilia (19 vols, Palermo, 1869–86), iii, 354–69, and iv, 279–91. Di Blasi G. E. , Storia cronologica dei Vicerè (4 vols, Palermo, 1842; reprinted Palermo, 1974), iii, 184–8. Caruso G. B. , Memorie istoriche di quanto è accaduto in Sicilia, part III, vol. iii (Palermo, 1745), 132. The rival nobles were the Duke of Montalto and the Count of Mazzarino. The priest Giovanni Gaetani was the conspirator active at Messina.

The Count of Mazzarino, whom we shall meet again in the 1670s, was spared with the excuse that he had contributed to the unmasking of the plot. The Duke of Montalto was sent to Spain like Rao, and later made cardinal.

Moscheo R. , “Galileans in Sicily: A hitherto unpublished correspondence of Daniele Spinola with Domenico Catalano in Messina (1650–1652)”, in North J. D. Roche J. J. , The light of nature (Dordrecht, 1985), 237–64. On p. 249, n. 38, Moscheo also suggested that Famiano Michelini resigned his Pisa chair of mathematics in favour of Borelli in order to save him from the ban, but this interpretation is based on the erroneous dating. See also Moscheo R. , Francesco Maurolyco tra rinascimento e scienza galileiana (Messina, 1988), 117–18.

Galluzzi P. Torrini M. , Le opere dei discepoli di Galileo: Carteggio (Florence, 1975–), ii, 321, Viviani to Cosimo Galilei, Florence, 21 March 1656.

Kamen H. , Spain in the later seventeenth century (London and New York, 1980), chap. 13. Only a few years earlier, in 1669, Don Juan had won a bitter struggle with the Austrian Jesuit Eberhardt Nithard, confessor to the Queen. She managed briefly to make Nithard General Inquisitor of Spain and put him in the key ruling council. Following his defeat by Don Juan, Nithard had to leave Spain, and the Queen created for him a position of special ambassador to Rome, where we shall find him in 1676 spying on Borelli.

Guardione reached a similar conclusion about the Sect rather than about Borelli: He claimed that the 1672 Sect dated back to 1649. The Sect, however, was present only at Messina, whereas Rao's plot involved the entire kingdom. Guardione F. , Storia della rivoluzione di Messina contro la Spagna (1671–1680) (Palermo, 1907), 37. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 82.

Ventimiglia On G. (1624–65) see Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), i, 367–8. Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), 78–79. On Ruffo and Catalano see The correspondence of Marcello Malpighi , ed. by Adelmann H. B. (5 vols, Ithaca, N.Y., 1975; hereafter MCA), i, 8 and 94. The monumental Adelmann H. B. , Marcello Malpighi and the evolution of embryology (5 vols, Ithaca, N.Y., 1966), esp. vol. i, is a mine of information on Messina life, particularly for the years 1662–66. On Spinola see Moscheo , “Galileans in Sicily” (ref. 14) and Gatto R. , “Un matematico sconosciuto del primo seicento napoletano: Davide Imperiali”, Bolletino di storia delle scienze matematiche, viii (1988), 71–135, espec. pp. 106–18.

Moscheo , “Galileans” (ref. 14). On the polemic with Emmanuele see Nastasi , “Una polemica” (ref. 4).

Di Capoa L. , Parere divisato in otto ragionamenti (Naples, 1681), 586, mentions Spinola as an Investigante. On Cornelio see DBI and Torrini M. , Tommaso Cornelio e la ricostruzione della scienza (Naples, 1977). On Spinola see Mastellone S. , Francesco d'Andrea politico e giurista (1648–1698): L'ascesa del ceto civile (Florence, 1969), 53. Maylender M. , Storia delle Accademie d'Italia (5 vols, Bologna, 1926–30), provides information on academies.

Blasi Di , op. cit. (ref. 12), iii, 203. Caruso , op. cit. (ref. 12), part III, vol. iii, 140–1. Privitera S. , Storia di Siracusa (2 vols, Syracuse, 1879), ii, 224–5.

Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), i, 201. Middleton W. E. K. , “Borelli and the eruption of Etna in 1669: Some unpublished papers”, Physis, xv (1973), 111–30; “Some unpublished correspondence of G. A. Borelli”, Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, ix/2 (1984), 99–132, pp. 126–7. On Vincenzo Mirabella see Nastasi , “Galileo” (ref. 4), 504–7, where the view that academies were suspicious congregations is instantiated for another episode a quarter of a century earlier.

MCA, v, 1916.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 230 and 757, erroneously called “Juridia”.

There was no Giovanni Ruffo, Viscount Francavilla: Iacopo inherited his title from his father Pietro: See Litta P. , Famiglie celebri Italiane, 2nd ser. (Milan, 1902–23), sect. 55, tav. XI.

Giarrizzo G. , “La Sicilia dal Cinquecento all'Unità d'Italia”, in Galasso G. (ed.), Storia d'Italia , xvi, ed. by D'Alessandro V. Giarrizzo G. , La Sicilia dal Vespro all'Unità d'Italia (Turin, 1989), 97–783, p. 322, proposed that the intellectual alliance between Syracuse and Messina went hand in hand with a parallel political alliance with republican ideals. Tentatively, one could also see a connection with the contemporary landing by the Duke of Guise near Naples and his failed attempt to induce an insurrection in that kingdom.

I recall Rao's lost manuscript on Galileo and his poem dedicated to Iacopo Ruffo referring to “canne occhiute”, in Rao , op. cit. (ref. 9), 103. Spinola D. , La Bietolata (Macerata, 1647), published under the pseudonym Landino Alpesei, p. 122, praises Galileo's dangerous theory of tides. See also G. B. Valdina's obituary of Giovanni Ventimiglia, significantly entitled “Il Cannocchiale Siciliano”, in Prose degli Accademici della Fucina (Monteleone, 1667), 139–86, esp. pp. 144–6. A wonderful passage by Valdina, where he considered Galileo the most illustrious modern philosopher, is in ibid., 253–4. On G. B. Valdina see Section 5.

Dionisi G. Nigido , L'Accademia della Fucina di Messina (1639–1678) (Catania, 1903). In 1653 Senator Alberto Tuccari, patron of Malpighi and a supporter of the revolt, founded another academy, the little known Abbarbicati. Maylender , op. cit. (ref. 20), i, 3–4.

Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence (hereafter BNF), Ms Gal. 312, cc. 122–3, Pisa, 7 December 1657, Borelli to Leopold, contains information about Rao's return from Spain. Fabroni, op. cit. (ref. 5), i, 166–81, Michelini to Leopold, Patti, 20 June and 8 July 1659. Galluzzi P. , “Lettere di G. A. Borelli ad Antonio Magliabechi”, Physis, xii (1970), 267–98. MCA, i, 124–5, Messina Senate to Malpighi, 25 April 1662.

The main secondary source on Oliva is Baldini U. , Un Libertino Accademico del Cimento: Antonio Oliva (Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della scienza , Monografia 1, 1977), esp. p. 24. De Franco L. , Filosofia e scienza in Calabria nei secoli XVI e XVII (Cosenza, 1988), chap. 11. Oliva's only writings available in print are his letters to Redi on oak galls, in Redi F. , Lettere: Seconda edizione Fiorentina (3 vols, Florence, 1779–95), iii, 70–84. On oak galls as colour indicators see Debus A. , “Solution analyses prior to Robert Boyle”, Chymia, viii (1962), 41–60, esp. pp. 45–46 and 49–50, also in Debus , Chemistry, alchemy and the new philosophy 1550–1700 (London, 1987), same pagination.

Villari , Rivolta (ref. 11), 216. Baldini , op. cit. (ref. 30), 18–20.

Fisch M. H. , “The Academy of the Investigators”, in Underwood E. Ashworth (ed.), 'Science, medicine and history (2 vols, Oxford, 1953), i, 521–63. Badaloni N. , Introduzione a G. B. Vico (Milano, 1961). De Giovanni B. , “La vita intellettuale a Napoli tra la metà del Seicento e la restaurazione del Regno”, in Storia di Napoli , ed. by Pontieri E. , vi (Naples, 1970), 403–42. Torrini M. , “L'Accademia degli Investiganti: Napoli 1663–1670”, Quaderni storici, xlviii (1981), 845–83. MCA, i, 349–50, Borelli to Malpighi, Naples, 20 June 1667.

García L. A. Ribot , La Revuelta Antiespañola de Mesina: Causas y antecedentes (1591–1674) (Valladolid, 1982), 37 and 57.

Blasi Di , op. cit. (ref. 12), iii, 127. García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 54–56. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 44. Petrocchi M. , La rivoluzione cittadina messinese del 1674 (Florence, 1954), 38.

Arenaprimo G. , “I lettori dello Studio messinese dal 1636 al 1674: Notizie e documenti”, in Reale Accademia Peloritana, CCCL anniversario della Università di Messina (Messina, 1900), 183–294, esp. pp. 185, 264, and 269. Also the Abbarbicat were financed by the Senate. Petrocchi , op. cit. (ref. 34), 66–67 and 79–80. Nigido-Dionisi , op. cit. (ref. 28), 45–46. MCA, i, 199–200 and 258–9, Borelli to Malpighi, Pisa, 1 Feb. 1664 and Florence, 23 May 1665. Adelmann , op. cit. (ref. 18), i, 270–7. Originally the university was funded on different taxes: Romano G. , “Gli statuti dell'antico studio messinese”, in CCCL anniversario (ref. 8), 123–208, p. 134 (this is a different volume from that by the Accademia Peloritana).

On artistic production and patronage see Moschella O. , L'attività di Antonio Catalana il Vecchio divulgatore della corrente baroccesca in Sicilia (Messina 1975), 8–9, and the more extensive Il collezionismo a Messina nel secolo XVII (Messina, 1977).

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 209. Arenaprimo , op. cit. (ref. 35), 244–5 and 269. MCA , i, 357–9, Borelli to Malpighi, Messina, 28 November 1667. Fabroni A. , Historiae Academiae Pisanae (3 vols, Pisa, 1791–95), iii, 292–3. Romano , op. cit. (ref. 35), 135 and 172.

García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 214–15. This important information is usually omitted, but coming from a contemporary document generally reliable and siding with the Malvizzi, it may well be based on inside information and appears therefore highly convincing.

MCA, ii, 603, Messina, 9 January 1672, Fracassati to Malpighi.

Mosca G. , Vita di Lucantonio Porzio (Naples, 1761), 94–96, Borelli to Porzio, Messina, 24 December 1671. Galatti , La Rivoluzione e l'assedio di Messina (Messina, 1899), 85.

García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 163–5. Lancina J. A. , Historia de las reboluciones del Senado de Messina (Madrid, 1692), 92–93. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 162. Even the Viceroy stated in a letter to the Queen that the lootings and fires had been arranged in advance, relying on the superior strength of the Merli over the nobles.

Colonna G. B. Romano , Congiura de i Ministri del Re di Spagna contro la fedelissima, ed esemplare città di Messina (3 parts, Messina, 1676–77), Part I, Book 2, 184–5. Borelli's salary as Professor of Mathematics was 60 onze; 400 onze = 1000 scudi was the salary of primary Professors of Law and Medicine, such as Massini and Malpighi. Arenaprimo , op. cit. (ref. 35), 269.

Colonna Romano , op. cit. (ref. 42), Part 1, Book 2, 213–33.

Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter AGS), Secret. Prov., leg 1235, quoted in García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 163; AGS, Secret. Prov., leg. 1240, report by Pedro Guerrero, Messina, 23 Sept. 1678: “Y por esto [i.e., being leader of the Sect] de orden del Prinzipe de Ligni desterrado el Borreli de Sizilia, refugiado muchos messes en cassa del Conde de Prades en Palermo, de donde passo a Roma.”.

An interesting analysis of the 13 April ban is in the letter by Ligné to the Queen of 22 June 1672 in AGS, Estado, 3495. AGS, Secret. Prov. 1244, Ligné to Queen, 23 November 1972, quoted in García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 197. The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg , ed. and transl. by Hall A. R. Hall M. Boas (13 vols, Madison and London, 1965–86), ix, 579–80. Concern over Borelli's situation was expressed by Francesco d'Andrea (see below) in a letter from Bologna to Francesco Redi dated 7 January 1673 (Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, Ms Redi 219, ff. 2–3, on 3v): “V.S. poi havrà saputo le tragedie seguite in Messina e la resolutione del Principe di Ligni di voler gastigare anche le colpe passate; il che mi dispiace sommamente pel nostro Signor Borelli, quale Dio faccia, che non si habbia a pentire di haver voluto troppo confidar nella sua bontà col presentarsi.” It is interesting that d'Andrea, though loyal to Spain, expressed anxiety for his friend Borelli.

Giarrizzo , op. cit. (ref. 26), 330–1. Messina celebrated “with obstentation” the Catanese feast of S. Agata, and Catania replied by celebrating with pomp the Messina feast of the Madonna of the Letter. In 1672–73 the Palermo magistrate Ignazio Migliaccio, father-in-law of the Count of Prades, diverted to Messina wheat destined for Palermo. The Messina Senate replied by sending to their Palermo counterparts and city magistrates gold chains holding a medal inscribed with the text of the letter allegedly written by the Madonna to the Messinese. The Palermo Senate returned the gift by sending a silver statue of the city patron S. Rosalia with a relic of the Saint.

It is also worth noticing an anonymous document claiming that there was an entente between Messina and Palermo before 7 July 1674 for a common revolt. However, Messina acted alone against the advice of the Palermo faction and before the assurance of French support. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 161–2, dated 11 April 1675. See also p. 631, n. 4, for doubts on its attribution.

A further episode allegedly occurred around November 1673 and involved Pietro Opezzinga, Rao's associate in the 1649 plot. This episode, in which Opezzinga would have acted as a Spanish spy, is considered by Laloy (op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 209–11) to have been invented.

Marzo Di , op. cit. (ref. 12), vi, 233–65, dated Palermo, 15 December 1675. For a survey of the entire document see Giarrizzo , op. cit. (ref. 26), 341–2.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 429.

Dollo , Filosofia (ref. 4), 332. Mosca , op. cit. (ref. 40), 92 and 95, Messina, 9 October and 24 December 1671, Borelli to Porzio.

MCA , i, 125–8, p. 127, Florence, 3 June 1662. Galluzzi , op. cit. (ref. 29).

Lancina , op. cit. (ref. 41), 47. On “romantic” Borelli see Arenaprimo G. , “Diario Messinese (1662–1712) del Notaro Giovanni Chiatto”, Archivio storico messinese, i (1900), 209–39, p. 228. Guardione , op. cit. (ref. 17). Nigido-Dionisi , op. cit. (ref. 28).

BNF, Ms Magliab. VIII, 1200, f. 50, Ricci to Magliabechi. For Borelli's contacts with Oliva in Rome between 1674 and 1677 see Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, Ms. Redi 219, ff. 95, 107–8, 145–6, letters by the Jesuit Antonio Baldigiani to Redi.

Marzo Di , op. cit. (ref. 12), vi, 295, Del Hoyo to Ligné; Lancina, (ref. 41), 329.

Burke P. , “The Virgin of the Carmine and the revolt of Masaniello”, Past and present , no. 99 (1983), 3–21. Colonna Romano , op. cit. (ref. 42), Part I, dedicatory letter, and esp. pp. 332–3.

These events are recounted in detail by Moscheo , Maurolyco (ref. 14) 113–31 and 441–53.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 428–37. The expatriates were Filippo Cigala and Giuseppe Balsamo.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 257; iii, 177.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 367–8 and 445–6; ii, 165–6. Baldini , op. cit. (ref. 4), 92–93. Borelli is also mentioned in connection with the project for the Torre Vittoria, a fortification west of Messina: Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 92n; Colonna Romano , op. cit. (ref. 42), Part I, Book 2, 358, states that this fortification was unfinished (see also Part III, 184f).

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 359–60. Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, Ms Redi 219, ff. 107–8, Antonio Baldigiani to Francesco Redi, Rome, 3 June 1675.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 641, Nithard to the Queen, 25 January 1676. Di Blasi , op. cit. (ref. 12), iii, 271, claims that the naval battle had no clear victors.

Interestingly, the Count of Mazzarino was also implicated in the 1670s events. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 157–66.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 650. Giarrizzo , op. cit. (ref. 26), 342–3.

This view was expressed by the Cardinal D'Estrées in a letter to the King of 23 October 1675: Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 337.

That is, where infidels or subjects of enemy nations could operate, as in Livorno, Civitavecchia, and Ancona. Di Marzo , op. cit. (ref. 12), vi, 213–23, esp. p. 216. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 388–9. García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 83.

Colonna Romano , op. cit. (ref. 42), for example Part II, Book 2, 30.

Arrosto A. , “Enumerazione delle piante esistenti nell'Hortus Messanensis”, CCCL anniversario (ref. 8), part 2, 99–113. Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), 149–55. Guardione F. , La rivoluzione di Messina contro la Spagna (1671–1680): Documenti (Palermo, 1906), 437–8. Archivio Generale Scolopico, Rome, Ms. 183; Borelli's draft is on a letter of 15 July 1679 addressed to him. The original reads: “… nella nostra nobile Italia della quale non [so] per qual sciagura le nazioni straniere.”.

Galatti , op. cit. (ref. 40). Guardione , op. cit. (ref. 17). Villari R. , “La rivolta di Messina”, in Di Bella (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 3), 19–39, p. 21, claims that Laloy also shared the political side of this interpretation.

MCA , i, 170, Borelli to Malpighi, Firenze, 24 June 1663. Rivero A. Sanchez de Sanchez Rivero A. Mariutti (eds), Viaje de Cosme de Médicis por España y Portugal (1668–9) (Madrid, n.d.), 47 and 65. On the scientific revolution in Spain see Pinero J. M. Lopez , Ciencia y tecnica en la sociedad española de los siglos XVI y XVII (Barcelona, 1979). Nastasi , “Una polemica” and “Galileo” (ref. 4). Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), esp. pp. 72–74, 178–9, and 189. Baldini U. , “La scuola galileiana” and “L'attività scientifica del primo Settecento”, in Micheli G. (ed.), Storia d'Italia. Annali 3: Scienza e tecnica (Turin, 1980), 383–545, esp. pp. 460–1.

Croce B. , Storia del regno di Napoli (Bari, 1925), esp. chap. 2. See the essay by N. Cortese in Storia della Università di Napoli (Naples, 1925), also in Cortese N. , Cultura e politica a Napoli dal Cinque al Settecento (Naples, 1965), 31–119. Cortese's essay was commissioned by Croce. For the enormous bibliography on the Kingdom of Naples compare Bercé , op. cit. (ref. 1), esp. the works by G. Galasso.

Villari , Rivolta (ref. 11), 200; op. cit. (ref. 69), 36–39. Trasselli C. , “Messina 1674”, in Di Bella (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 3), 193–234. The adjective “pathetic” is used by Trasselli, p. 233, and Giarrizzo , op. cit. (ref. 26), 343.

Seventeenth-century social distinctions were notoriously problematic. On social distinctions in the Spain of this period see Kamen , op. cit. (ref. 16), chaps. 8–10; Petrocchi , op. cit. (ref. 34), chap. 3 and esp. p. 65.

García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 218ff. His work relies largely on a manuscript listing 142 Merli and 343 Malvizzi with their social positions and occupations, showing that the greatest number of the Malvizzi were cavaliers, members of the list of those eligible for the Senate, and ecclesiastics. Romano Colonna Even , op. cit. (ref. 42), Part I, Book 2, 407, talks of the unity between nobles and citizens in 1674.

Petrocchi , op. cit. (ref. 34), 75. Giarrizzo , op. cit. (ref. 26), 341.

Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), 179 and 258, makes much of Michele Lipari's case. Lancina , op. cit. (ref. 41), 372–3. Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), ii, 77–78.

Giarrizzo , op. cit. (ref. 26), 327. Mutoli P. M. , Del movimento della cometa apparsa nel dicembre 1664 (Pisa, 1665). Borelli's cometography relied extensively on the views put forward by Galileo in Il saggiatore.

Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), i, 91. Lancina , op. cit. (ref. 41), 290–1. Rudwick Martin , The meaning of fossils (London and New York, 1972), 56–59. Rossi P. , I segni del tempo (Milan, 1979), chap. 4.

Ruffo V. , “Documenti inediti sulla rivoluzione messinese del 1674–78”, Archivio storico messinese, xvi-xvii (1917), 1–42, pp. 35ff.

MCA , ii, 707–9, p. 708, Capucci to Malpighi, Crotone, 24 April 1675. MCA, i, 122–3, Borelli to Malpighi, Pisa, 1 April 1672. Arenaprimo , op. cit. (ref. 35), 219–20.

On this last episode see Marzo Di , op. cit. (ref. 12), 6, 21, and Chiaramonte S. , “La rivoluzione e la guerra messinese del 1674–8”, Archivio storico siciliano, xxiv (1899), 51–209 and 498–585, pp. 547–51. Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), i, 337. On Giovanni Valdina, Prince of Valdina, see Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 638–50 and passim. Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), 71–74.

Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 331, 486. Marabottini A. , “Arte, architettura e urbanistica a Messina prima e dopo la rivolta antispagnola”, in Bella Di (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 3), 549–81, pp. 565–6. Moschella O. , “II depauperamento del patrimonio artistico messinese dopo la rivolta”, ibid. , 595–604, pp. 600–2. Moschella , op. cit. (ref. 36). Ruffo , op. cit. (ref. 79) and ibid. , xix–xxi (1920), 89–120. García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 154.

Simone Carafa refused to degrade Tommaso Lipari before the execution on the ground that remaining loyal to his king was not a crime. Despite many attempts by the French, the octuagenarian Archbishop from one of the great Neapolitan noble families remained loyal to Spain until his natural death, days after the Lipari brothers. On Simone Carafa and his family see Litta , op. cit. (ref. 25), sect. 51, tav. IV. Carafa became Archbishop of Messina in 1646. Information on his behaviour in Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 44 and 471–2.

On Bottone (born 1641; died after 1721), see DBI. Dollo , Filosofia (ref. 4), 169–77. Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), i, 165–6. Torrini M. , Dopo Galileo (Firenze, 1979), 188–9. Nocera G. , Opus medico-physicum contemplativum (Messina, 1695), 127. Bottone D. , Pyrologia topographica idest de igne dissertatio (Naples, 1692; erroneously dated 1676), 125. The book is dedicated to Francisco Benavides and contains frequent references to the neoteric literature, including Gassendi, Descartes, Boyle, Borelli (see pp. 86–87 for the discussion on the void), and Malpighi, who is called “nostrae Italiae decus” (p. 205).

Dollo , Filosofia (ref. 4), 167. Mongitore , op. cit. (ref. 9), i, 395.

See DBI. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 486–8. Nicolini N. , “Romanzesco Barocco: L'assassinio del Marchese di Arena (1675)”, Atti della Accademia Pontaniana, xvi (1967), 96–122. On Naples and the Messina revolt see Galasso G. in Storia di Napoli (Naples, 1970), vi, 179–216; on p. 188 he claims that several nobles from Calabria saw in the Messina revolt an opportunity for making huge profits in illegal trade. On Concublet's assassination see also the report sent to Messina from Venice in Colonna Romano , op. cit. (ref. 42), Part II, Book 2, 76–77.

MCA , ii, 708, Capucci to Malpighi, Crotone, 24 April 1675. For general information on Capucci see DBI.

On Bartoli see DBI. On the Viceroy Oñate see Galasso , op. cit. (ref. 86), vi, 85–120. Cornelio's appointment, though not representative of Oñate's attitudes, is none the less significant.

Rivalries and court intrigues involved even the Sun King's mistresses. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), ii, 628–9.

The pamphlet by d'Andrea is Copia di una lettera scritta da Roma ad un amico in Napoli, dated 28 January 1676. I used the copy among the papers of the Investigante Lucantonio Porzio preserved at the Oratoriani Library, Naples. Mastellone , op. cit. (ref. 20), 45 and 54ff., provides an interesting account of d'Andrea and the Messina revolt. Colapietra R. , L'amabile fierezza di Francesco d'Andrea: Il seicento napoletano nel carteggio con Gian Andrea Doria (Milan, 1981), 173ff.

Villari , Rivolta (ref. 11), 215. Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), iii, 20 and 861; this plot is known from the correspondence between Baschi and Condé preserved at Chantilly. Fabri's controversies with Borelli ranged from Saturn's rings to muscular motion, from the motions of the Medicean stars to the study of the force of percussion. On the Jesuits see Laloy , op. cit. (ref. 3), i, 97–100, 499, and passim, concerning also the Messina agent at Venice, Francesco Leoni s.j.

Córtese , op. cit. (ref. 71), 40–41 and 70–72. The other Sicilian university, Catania, though more ancient, was less prestigious, had a much smaller budget, and could not attract outstanding professors. Unlike Messina, Catania was an inward-looking agricultural centre where all university positions were reserved for Catania citizens. Storia della Università di Catania (Catania, 1934), 102–3 and 170. See also the collection in Archivio storico per la Sicilia Orientale, xxx (1934), 181–398. Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), 70–71.

Oliva G. , “Abolizione e rinascimento della Università di Messina”, in CCCL anniversario (ref. 8), Part 1, 209–365, pp. 218–9. García Ribot , op. cit. (ref. 33), 231. Dollo , Modelli (ref. 4), 138–40.

Croce , op. cit. (ref. 71), chap. 2. Mastellone S. , Pensiero politico e vita culturale a Napoli nella seconda metà del Seicento (Messina, 1965), esp. pp. 19–22, and op. cit. (ref. 20).

Information on Don Juan is in Pinero Lopez , op. cit. (ref. 70). On Benavides see the oration by Gianbattista Vico when the Viceroy left the Kingdom of Naples in 1696, in Vico G. , Scritti vari e pagine sparse , ed. by Nicolini F. (Bari, 1640), 85–96, esp. pp. 87 (on crushing of the Messina revolt) and 92–94 (on intellectual policy). Badaloni , op. cit. (ref. 32), 308–10. Francesco d'Andrea boasted of his knowledge of French in a letter of 21 January 1673 to Antonio Baldigiani (Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, Ms Redi 219, f. 10v), claiming that he was able to read La Mothe le Vayer. Borelli stated frequently that he could not read French and apparently relied on the assistance of the Abate Filizio Pizzichi.