When Galileo's and Torricelli's Writings Turned Up for Lunch

When visiting a research library or surfing through Web archives, looking at the collected works of important historical and scientific figures, it is easy to forget just how much effort has gone into the preparation of such collections. For example, the collected works for Galileo Galilei¹ (1564-1642) are made up of 20 volumes, 21 tomes—volume 3 has 2 tomes—with volume 1 published in 1890 and volume 20 published in 1909. As for the collected works for Christiaan Huygens² (1629-1695), they are made up of 22 volumes, 23 tomes—volume 13 has 2 tomes—with volume 1 published in 1888 and volume 22 published in 1950, a full 62 years later!

In addition to books or articles published during their lifetimes, many of these writers kept copious notes, and extensive correspondence with other writers of their age. So, for example, when gathering correspondence between writer A and writer B, one must search libraries and archives for letters from A to B, and also for letters from B to A, and then try to match them up to see if there are threads of correspondence; this process gets even more complicated when more than one author is involved in the correspondence. And every document needs to be deciphered, since not all writers have spotless handwriting, and many write in multiple languages. And then all these documents need to be organized, and depending on how a specific set of collected works is designed, possibly translated into a common language.

However, the very tracking down of documents can get tricky, depending on what happened to a writer’s works once they pass away. Let’s consider what happened to some of Galileo’s works:

The fate of Italian science following Galileo’s condemnation has long been a source of historical interest as well as good documentary fortune. Concerning the fate of post-Galilean manuscripts themselves, Targioni Tozzetti relates an anecdote from the eighteenth century regarding one Giovanni Lami and several of his luncheon guests, among them the historian G.B. Nelli. After stopping at a market to purchase a fresh portion of mortadella, Lami’s guests soon discovered that their lunch had been wrapped in an original letter of Galileo Galilei. His appetite whetted, Nelli immediately returned to the market to find still other Galilean wrappings.³ [my emphasis]

I wanted to learn more about this singular event. After a couple days of searching, I found a reference in a Spanish-language BBC publication⁴ to a book by Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti⁵ about physics in Tuscany in the middle of the seventh century.

Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti’s book

Here is the relevant passage:

§.XVI. After the death of Abbot Jacopo, which followed in 1737, someone, I am not sure who it was, possibly Buca da Grano, unearthed a bundle of Galileo’s writings, and took them for sale by weight to Cioci Pizzicagnolo in the Market. It happened in the spring of 1739 that the famous Doctor Giovanni Lami, as was his custom, went with several friends to dine at one of his villas, the Osteria del Ponte alle Mosse, and passing through the market, suggested to Mr. Giovanni Batista Nelli, later Knight and Senator, that it would be a good idea to buy some Mortadella from Cioci Pizzicagnolo, who had the reputation of selling the best. They entered the Bottega, and Mr. Senator had two lirate of Mortadella sliced, and put the wrapped product in his hat.  When they arrived at the Osteria, they asked for a plate to spread it on, and on that occasion Mr. Senator realised that the paper with which Cioci had given it to him was a Letter from Galileo. Nelli unravelled it with a wipe, folded it up and put it in his pocket, without saying anything to Lami; and in the evening, having left the villa and returned to the City, flew to Cioci’s shop, from whom he learned that an unknown Servant would, from time to time, bring bundles of similar Writings to sell. Nelli therefore bought those letters that remained in Cioci’s hands, who promised that should more come to him, he would keep them and find out where they came from. In fact, in a few days, a larger bundle of them arrived, and the Senator learned that they came out from the sovereign Buca da Grano; the Senator handled them in such a way that by 1750, for not too many scudi, he had in his hands the rest of those precious treasures, which had been buried there for so many years…. Mr. Senator Nelli, having made the purchase, reordered the Manuscripts and made a great number of studies on them, in order to, as he once had the grace to tell me, compose a vast and well-reasoned Life of Galileo and of his most celebrated Disciples, to be printed together with many of their posthumous works and correspondence; but who knows when his many political occupations will permit him to do so?⁶ [Targioni Tozzetti, pp.124-125, my emphasis]

Upon reading this for the first time, one thinks, “How could this happen?” But it turns out that it was not just part of Galileo Galilei’s (1564-1642) writings that were at stake, but also Evangelista Torricelli’s (1608-1647). Raffaele Pisano and Paolo Bussotti, in their introduction to the massive tome⁷ published this year to celebrate the 380 years since Torricelli published his Opera Geometrica, write:

Torricelli had appointed Ludovico Serenai, who was a close friend, testamentary heir in around 1640. He left precise instructions on the best technique to construct lenses as well as on the publication of his scientific manuscripts. He wanted their publication to be edited by Bonaventura Cavalieri [1598-1647] and Michelangelo Ricci (1619–1682). But Cavalieri died shortly after Torricelli, on 30 November 1647. This was when the adventures and misadventures of Torricelli’s manuscripts began. [Pisano and Bussoni, p.8]

After a convoluted travel via a number of hands, Torricelli’s manuscripts ultimately ended up in the hands of the aforementioned abbot Jacopo Panzanini (fl. first half of 18th century, died 1733), lecturer of mathematics in Florence, and nephew of Vincenzo Viviani (1622-1703), the last disciple of Galileo. Pisano and Bussotti bring up the now familiar story:

When, in 1733 [Jacopo] Panzanini died, he left the manuscripts to his nephews Carlo and Angelo. They did not guess the value of that material and sold a part of it, together with some of Galileo’s manuscripts, to a grocer. He used a manuscript of Galileo to wrap a piece of mortadella, which was bought by Giovan Battista Clemente Nelli (1725–1793), a Florentine academic, who was a bibliophile and an antiquarian. His most important work was Vita e commercio letterario di Galileo, published in Florence in 1793, though, in fear of ecclesiastic censorship, he indicated Lausanne as place of edition. This work is important because the biography of Galileo, based on a deep analysis of his letters, is reconstructed. Nelli, in that piece of paper in which his mortadella was wrapped, recognized Galileo’s handwriting.  Through the grocer, he contacted Panzanini and acquired the whole material, which included Torricelli’s manuscripts. In a letter to Giovanni Lami (1697–1770) dated 15 September 1750 … Nelli mentioned all the manuscripts he had bought. Comparing this list with that written by Serenai and Viviani, it is evident that almost all the material was saved. Nelli tried to organize an edition of the Torricelli’s manuscripts, but without success. [Pisano and Bussotti, pp.8-9, my emphasis]

The collections continued to be at peril: Nelli’s sons tried to sell Galileo’s works, but these were ultimately seized by the Florentine state. Galileo’s works, as written above, were published under the auspices of the new Italian monarchy, i.e., the House of Savoy. As for Torricelli’s works, a collection of works was published in the early 20th century, but only at the expense of his hometown. Only now has a Torricelli Springer editorial project been initiated by Pisano:

In 2009 the Torricelli-Project was born thanks to Raffaele Pisano’s personal initiative. In Florence, he met the outstanding Galilean and Torricellian scholar, Prof. Maurizio Torrini (1942–2019; Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy) who welcomed the Torricelli-Project with profound interest. A correspondence (July 2010) exists, as well. In the future, the Torricelli Project also envisages a second and third part respectively, the commented translation, side-by-side into English of the Opera Geometrica and the commented translation, side-by-side of the whole Opere di Evangelista Torricelli (Torricelli’s Works). [Pisano and Bussotti, p.11, n.12]

I have frequently written that today’s science is profoundly influenced by the debates of scientists of previous centuries. Without the huge effort, time and expense of those who have carefully preserved, archived and then published the works of former great scientists, we simply would not know what took place in those former debates. I tip my hat to these historians of science.

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1. Galileo Galilei. Le Opere. Direttore Antonio Favaro. 20 volumes. Firenze: Tipografia G. Barbèra, 1890-1909.

2. Christiaan Huygens. Œuvres complètes. Publiées par la Société hollandaise des sciences. 22 volumes. La Haye: Martinus Nijhoff, 1888-1950.

3. Robert A. Hatch. Review of Le Opere Dei Discepoli di Galileo Galilei. Volume II: Carteggio 1649-1656 by Paolo Galluzzi and Maurizio Torrini. The British Journal of the History of Science 20(3):360-362, 1987.

4. Dalia Ventura. Cómo los escritos de Galileo Galilei terminaron como papel de envoltura de mortadela. 2 octobre 2022. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-63039465.

5. Gio. Targioni Tozzetti. Notizie degli aggrandimenti delle scienze fisiche accaduti in Toscana nel corso di anni LX. del secolo XVII. Tomo Primo. Firenze: Giuseppe Bouchard Libraio, 1780.

6. §.XVI. Dopo la morte di esso Abate Jacopo, che segui nel 1737, qualcheduno, non so bene chi si fosse, di tanto in tanto apriva quelle Buca da Grano, dissotterrava un fascio di Scritture del Galileo, e le portava a vendere a peso al Cioci Pizzicagnolo in Mercato. Accadde nelle Primavera del 1739, che il Celebre Dottor Gio. Lami, secondo il suo solito, andò con varj Amici a desinare in una sua Villa, cioè all'Osteria del Ponte alle Mosse, e passando di Mercato, suggerì al Sig. Gio.  Batista Nelli, dipoi Cavaliere e Senatore, che sarebbe stato bene il comprare dal Cioci Pizzicagnolo della Mortadella, che aveva il credito d'essere migliore di qualunque altra. Di fatto entrarono in Bottega, ed il Sig. Senatore si fece affettare due lirate di Mortadella, e si messe l'involto nel Cappello.  Giunti all'Osteria, chiesero un piatto per distendervela, ed in tale occasione il Sig. Senatore si accorse, che il foglio col quale il Cioci glie l'aveva rivolta, era una Lettera del Galileo. Lo disunse alla meglo con una Salvietta, lo ripiegò e se lo messe in tasca, senza dir nulla al Lami; e la sera tornati in Città, e licenziatosi da esso, volò alla Bottega del Cioci, dal quale seppe che un Servitore da lui non conosciuto, di tanto in tanto gli portava a vendere in fascio di simili Scritture. Ricomprò adunque quelle che restavano in mano del Cioci, colla promessa che se gli ne capitavano altre, gliele avrebbe serbate, ed avrebe scoperto di dove uscivano. Di fatto fra pochi giorni ne capitò un Fascio maggiore, ed il Sig. Senatore seppe che uscivano dala sovrannotata Buca da Grano, laonde si maneggiò in maniera, che nel 1750 per non moltissimi scudi ebbe in mano tutto il resto di quei preziosi Tesori, che da tanti anni restavano ivi sepolti. Peraltro molti fasci erano stati per lo avanti dispersi, in rinvoltar quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis, ed altri, non so come, erano di già passati in altre mani, e di questi sono le due sovracitate Filze di Lettere, che io ho denominate Felici, le quali erano state comprate antecedentemente dal Dotto Medico Fiorentino Conte Gio. Batista Felici, e poi furono regalate a me dal Sig. Avvocato Angelo suo Figlio. Il Sig. Senator Nelli adunque fatto l'acquisto, ha riordinati i Manoscritti, e vi ha fatto sopra grandissimi studj, e per quanto una volta fece grazia di dirmi, ha composta una vasta e ragionata Vita del Galileo, e de' suoi più Celebri Discepoli, da stamparsi insieme con molte loro Opere postume, e col Carteggio; ma chi sa quando le sue tante Occupazioni Politiche gli permetteranno il farlo?

7. Raffaele Pisano and Paolo Bussotti. Celebrating Evangelista Torricelli's Opera Geometrica (1644-2024): Details in History and Historiography of Physics, Geometry and Mathematics. In Raffaele Pisano, Jean Dhombres, Patricia Radelet de Grave, Paolo Bussotti. Homage to Evangelista Torricelli's Opera Geometrica 1644-2024. Springer, 2024, pp.3-97.