From 1660 to 1697 Francesco Redi was physician to two Grand Dukes of Tuscany as well as a natural philosopher and poet at the Medici court. Redi produced the first experimental evidence that insects do not spontaneously generate from decaying matter and that the poison of the viper resides in the yellow fluid in fang sheaths. He was also a pioneer parasitologist. His bacchanalian poem in praise of Tuscan wines is still read in Italy today.
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References
1.
SingerC.A History of Biology (revised edn). New York: H Schuman, 1950: p. 433.
2.
BelloniL.Redi, Francesco. In: GillespieCC, Ed. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975: vol. XI, pp. 341–3.
3.
FindlenP.Controlling the experiment: rhetoric, court patronage and the experimental method of Francesco Redi. History of Science1993; 31: 33–64.
4.
StorrF.Academies. In: The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edn). New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica Company, 1910: vol. I, p. 102.
5.
Essayes of Natural Experiments made in the Accademie del Cimento under the protection of the most Serene Prince Leopold of Tuscany, written in Italian by the Secretary of the Academy. Englished by Richard Waller, Fellow of the Royal Society London. Benjamin Alsop, 1684. This work was presented to the Royal Society in March 1667/8 by Signor Magalotti and Signor Paulo Falconieri and remained in the library awaiting translation. Waller gives this translation of the academy's motto in the short historical preface to the experiments.
6.
RediF.Consulti medici. Edizione critica a cura di Carla Doni. Toscano: Centro Editoriale, 1985: p. 229.
7.
RediF.Remarks concerning factitious salts. Philosophical Transactions1698; 20: 281–9. This account was among the papers of the Redi estate.
8.
FindlenP (op. cit. ref. 3): 49. The quotation, translated into English, is from Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, Atti e memorie inedite dell' Accademia del Cimento e notizie aneddote dei progressi delle scienze in Toscana. Florence, 1780: vol. I, p. 251.
9.
Ibid.: 55. The quotation, translated into English, is from BaglioniS, Ed. CestoniGiacinto, Epistolario ad Antonio Vallisnieri. Rome: 1940–1: vol. I, p. 176.
10.
LeikolaA.Francesco Redi as a pioneer of experimental biology. Lychnos1977–8: 117–18. The quotation, translated into English, is from Opere del Redi II. Napoli: Gessari, 1741: p. 87.
11.
KnoefelPK. Francesco Redi on Vipers. Translated into English and annotated by Peter K Knoefel. Leiden: E J Brill, 1988: pp. 4–5.
12.
RediF.Some observations on vipers. Philosophical Transactions1665–6: 160–2.
13.
KnoefelPK (op. cit. ref. 11): pp. 714.
14.
CharasM.Nouvelle experiences sur la vipère. Philosophical Transactions1669; no. 54: 1091–3.
15.
RediF.Lettera sopra alcune oppositione fatte alle sue observationi intorno alle vipere. Philosophical Transactions1670; no. 66: 236–8.
16.
CharasM.A continuation of new experiments concerning vipers together with a discourse by way of a reply to a letter written by Signor Francesco Redi to Messrs Bourdelot and Morus, printed at Florence, 1670. In: New Experiments upon Vipers. Now rendered English. London: J Martyn, 1673: p. 40.
17.
KnoefelPK (op. cit. ref. 11): p. XV, p. 81.
18.
Ibid.: 8.
19.
GottdenkerP.Francesco Redi and the fly experiments. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1979; 53: 575–92.
20.
RediF.Experiments on the Generation of Insects. Translated from the Italian edition of 1688 by Bigelow MAB. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1909: p. 34.
21.
Ibid.: 27–32.
22.
Ibid.: 33–7.
23.
Ibid.: 43, 51.
24.
Ibid.: 26–7.
25.
Ibid.: 92–4.
26.
BigelowMAB (op. cit. ref. 20): 5–11 (Life of Redi).
27.
RediF (op. cit. ref. 20): 119.
28.
FriedmanR.Giovan Cosimo Bonomo. Medical Life1937; 44: no. 1, the Bonomo number celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his discovery of the parasitic nature of scabies. Facsimiles of Bonomo's letter to Redi and the subsequent pamphlet (both in Italian) are reproduced on pp. 43–60. Reuben Friedman's translation into English of Bonomo's letter to Redi is given on pp. 158–64.
29.
MeadR.An abstract of part of a letter from Dr Bonomo to Signor Redi, containing some observations concerning the worms of humane bodies. Philosophical Transactions1703: 1296–9.
30.
GosseE.Dithyrambic poetry. In: The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edn). New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica Company, 1910: vol. VIII, pp. 323–4.
31.
RediF.Bacchus in Tuscany. A dithyrambic poem from the Italian of Francesco Redi, with notes original and select by Leigh Hunt. London: John and H L Hunt, 1825: p. 1.
32.
Ibid.: 5–6.
33.
Ibid.: 10.
34.
Ibid.: 14.
35.
Ibid.: 54–5.
36.
HuntL (op. cit. ref. 31): pp. v—xix (preface).
37.
WeissR.Italian literature. In: Chambers' Encyclopaedia. London: George Newnes, 1950: vol. VII, p. 798.
38.
Roman academies. In: Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Encyclopedia Press Inc., 1913. Read online in the New Advent Website at: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01083b.htm.
39.
The portrait of Francesco Redi, reproduced from Vite degli Arcadi illustri, by Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, Rome, 1708, is illustrated as plate 5A in Vita, Opere, Iconographia, Bibliographia, Vocabulario inedite delle Voci Aretino e Libro inedito dei Ricordi di Francesco Redi Aretino. Parte I. In: VivianiU, Ed. Collana di pubblicazioni storiche e letterarie aretine, 1924: vol. IX. I wish to thank William Schupbach of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine for help in determining the source of the portrait and for translating the Latin inscription.
40.
HabermehlGG. Francesco Redi — life and work. Toxicon1994; 32: 411–17.
41.
LeikolaA (op. cit. ref. 10): 122.
42.
Bellini to Malpighi, Florence, 7 March 1678. Quotation translated into English in Findlen P (op. cit. ref. 3): 56.
43.
RediF (op. cit. ref. 31): 46.
44.
BelloniL (op. cit. ref. 2) gives the year of death as 1697/8. This is in old style/new style notation, as some records were still using 25 March as the start of the year.
