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BORELLI, GIOVANNI ALFONSO(b. Naples, Italy,
January 1608; d. Rome, Italy, 31 December 1679),
astronomy, epidemiology, mathematics, physiology
(iatromechanics), physics, volcanology.
Italianized version of his father's name in their place.
Why they did this perhaps can be guessed from the
circumstances of their early years.
In November 1614 Tommaso Campanella was
returned to Castel St. Elmo, where he had previously
been confined. Meanwhile Miguel Alonso had been
ordered to Castel St. Elmo. Just after Campanella's
return, Miguel became implicated in some serious
offense and was arrested along with several other
persons. Although it is not known for certain what
the alleged crime was, responsible sources suggest that
there may have been a conspiracy to free Campanella.
In any case the interrogations and trial took place
in secret, and during the summer of 1615 Miguel was
found guilty and sentenced to the galleys. Upon his
certification that he was unable to serve in the galleys
the sentence was commuted to exile. Miguel seems
to have gone to Rome, and it has usually been supposed
that this was the occasion for young Borelli's
presence there and eventual contact with Benedetto
Castelli. But now we know that Miguel did not remain
in exile. He appealed his case and was exonerated.
In April 1617 he returned to duty at Castel St. Elmo,
where he stayed until he died in 1624. Laura Porrello
possibly remained attached to Castel St. Elmo in some
capacity, for at her death in 1640 she was buried,
as Miguel had been, at the church serving the fortress.
We can guess that sometime before 1626 young
Borelli came to the attention of Campanella; there
was no lack of opportunity. In 1616 the latter was
given a few months of at-large detention in Castel
Nuovo (he may have written his Defense of Galileo
at this time), but he was back in the dungeon of Castel
St. Elmo when Miguel returned from exile. In May
1618 he was again sent to Castel Nuovo, where he
had a relatively easy imprisonment; he was able to
write, see friends, and even have students. It is possible
that Borelli was among these, and it is also possible
that Borelli received some medical training at the
University of Naples in this period, although we have
no published records to that effect. In 1626
Campanella was taken to Rome, where he was fully
liberated in 1628. Five years later a disciple, under
duress, implicated Campanella in a plot to assassinate
the Spanish viceroy in Naples. Under great pressures
Campanella fled Italy for Paris, in 1634, taking
Filippo Borelli with him. There Filippo helped to edit
and publish various of Campanella's works, and in
at least one he appears as nipote ed amanuense dello
autore. What happened to Filippo later is not known,
but a letter of another of Campanella's disciples in
1657 connects Giovanni Alfonso with information
concerning several hundred copies of Campanella's
books left at the Dominican convent of Santa Maria
Sopra Minerva and also indicates that Giovanni had
a brother, a “P. Tomaso filosofo.” It has been suggested
that on Campanella's death, in 1639, Filippo
entered orders and took the name Tommaso.
We do not know when Borelli himself went to
Rome. Anytime after 1628 he could have resumed
whatever relationship he had established in Naples
with Campanella; and it is quite possible that Campanella
in turn introduced him to Castelli. In any case
he became a student of Castelli along with Torricelli.
He must have been in Rome through the period of
the publication of Galileo's Dialogo and the subsequent
trial. Although he did not meet Galileo, he
probably had access to all the ins and outs of the
affair through both his mentors. And possibly it was
during this period that he acquired a copy of calculations
or tables made by Galileo concerning the Medici
planets (the moons of Jupiter), calculations which
were not among the papers inherited by Vincenzo
Viviani at Galileo's death and which Viviani requested
a copy of in 1643. After Campanella left
Rome, Borelli continued for a while with Castelli. In
1635, or shortly thereafter, Castelli's recommendation
obtained for Borelli the public lectureship in mathematics
in Messina, Sicily. And Castelli continued to
look after Borelli's welfare. In 1640, when the mathematics
chair at the University of Pisa became vacant,
he wrote two letters to Galileo praising Borelli very
highly, calling him in one huomo di grandissimo
ingegno e sapere, versatissimo nelle dottrine di V.S.
molto Ill.re e tutto tutto
NOSTRI ORDINIS. Galileo's
choice, however, was Vincenzo Renieri who then held
the position until his death in 1647. Borelli would
eventually obtain the post, but not until 1656.
Meanwhile Borelli made his way in Messina. The
city had had little to boast of since the death of
Francesco Maurolico in 1575. In the 1630's, however,
there was an effort toward a political and intellectual
revival which included an attempt to improve substantially
the city's university. The people backing
these moves were among the same who formed the
Accademia della Fucina in 1639, a group of the
young, enlightened nobility and merchant class, jealous
of its political rights and beginning to grow
restless under the restrictions of Spanish rule. The
Fucina itself became a forum for both political and
intellectual discussion, and in 1642 it came under the
direct protection of the Messinese senate. It is not
clear when Borelli became a member, but his talents
as a public lecturer of mathematics were already
highly appreciated. In 1642 the senate provided him
with ample funds and sent him on a mission to
leading universities to hire away good teachers, especially