science and medicine in early modern venice 737
now locked in a universal, total struggle with thousands of “ateisti, deisti,
Materialisti, naturalisti, indifferentisti e latitudinarii” who believe that
“men are so many material machines that move according to the laws of
mechanism.”104 Though clearly the rantings of a fanatical cleric, concina’s
extreme views held sway in 18th-century Venice.
in their search for a safe way to carry on debates about the new phi-
losophy, italian intellectuals found a strategy, ironically, in the example of
Galileo.105 The choice of Galileo as a model went much deeper than mere
nationalistic sentiment, for Galileo’s rigorous insistence that the domains
of theology and natural philosophy must be kept separate enabled ital-
ian intellectuals to steer a course between the natural theology of newton
and the radical materialism of the cartesians. antonio Vallisneri, a Padua
professor of philosophy who had studied under the great Galilean Mar-
cello Malpighi at Bologna, was one of the most outspoken proponents of
the “Galilean” method of keeping theology at a safe distance from natural
philosophy. others included antonio conti (1667–1749), who was born and
educated in the Veneto but had spent many years abroad before returning
to Venice in 1726. conti had an excellent knowledge of recent philosophical
and scientific developments in France, Germany, and england.106 While in
england between 1715 and 1718, he met newton and other prominent mem-
bers of the royal Society and himself became a member of the Society. yet
despite his cosmopolitanism, conti thought cautiously: an ominous brush
with the inquisition in 1735 kept him under constant surveillance.
Conclusionafter the trial of Galileo, a mood of pessimism set in among intellectuals
and natural philosophers in Venice. even in the absence of overt
repression or censure, the long shadow of the church stifled any undue
mixing of theology with scientific inquiry. The violent controversies
over how to interpret newtonian mechanism, which characterized the
european enlightenment, were conspicuously absent in the Veneto. in
104 Quoted by israel, Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the
Emancipation of Man, 1670–1752 (oxford, 2006), p. 518.
105 For science in the Veneto in the 18th century, see Vincenzo Ferrone, The Intellectual
Roots of the Italian Enlightenment: Newtonian Science, Religion, and Politics in the Early
Eighteenth Century, trans. Sue Brotherton (atlantic Highlands, n.J., 1982), pp. 89–121.
106 israel calls conti “one of the most impressive figures of the italian early
enlightenment.” Radical Enlightenment, p. 678.