Bartoli, Daniello

(b. Ferrara, Italy, 12 February 1608; d. Rome, Italy, 12 January 1685)

physics.

Bartoli entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fifteen and studied with the Jesuits at Piacenza and Parma. After teaching rhetoric at Parma for a time, he proceeded to Milan and Bologna for the theological studies. At Bologna he studied under G. B. Riccioli. He took his vows in 1643. In 1650, after extensive travel, he was made historian of the Jesuits, and thereafter resided principally in Rome. From 1671 to 1673 he was rector of the Collegio Romano (now the Gregoriana), the principal Jesuit university.

Bartoli’s major published works comprise histories of the first century of Jesuit activity in England, Italy China, and Japan. He also wrote extensively on Italian literary matters and on morals. In the scientific field he did much to expound and popularize the work of contemporary physicists, particularly barometric experiments and the concept of atmospheric pressure (1677). He also wrote works on the physical analysis of sound, sound waves, and the sense of hearing (1679), and on the phenomena of freezing (1681). The last-mentioned work was severely criticized by Giuseppe Del Papa, professor of philosophy at the University of Pisa, in a published letter to Francesco Redi.

Although not distinguished by valuable original contributions Bartoli’s scientific expositions were generally objective, clear, and attractively written; they evidence wide reading and a spirit of true inquiry. Bartoli sought to link the speculative and experimental approaches in science. He did not hesitate to mention Galileo with praise and to quote from his works (which were still on the Index) and from those of such foreign writers as William Harvey, Marin Mersenne, and Pierre Gassendi. Occasionally he disputed Galileo’s opinions, especially on harmonic theory. To judge by their numerous editions and translations, his books were widely read and did much to render the scientific debates of his day interesting and accessible to the general reader, as well as to inculcate a taste for impartial consideration of scientific evidence.

Thomas Salusbury, the English translator of Galileo’s works, published in 1660 a translation of Bartoli’s Dell’huomo di lettere difeso, et emendato. The book was designed to encourage the pursuit of scholarship under such difficulties as poverty, hostile criticism, and neglect of one’s published work; to stimulate public appreciation of original ideas; and to discourage plagiarism or the worship of authority by students. Bartoli’s work was undoubtedly effective, both in Italy and abroad, in increasing interest among lay readers in the burgeoning physics of the seventeenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bartoli’s collected works (Opere) were published in fifty volumes (Florence, 1829–1837). His letters were published with a biography by G. Boero in Lettere edite ed inedite del p. Daniello Bartoli (Bologna, 1865). The works of scientific interest include Dell’huomo di lettere difeso, et emendato (Rome, 1645), translated by Thomas Salusbury as The Learned Man Defended and Reformed (London, 1660); La ricreazione del savio (Rome, 1659); La tensione, e la pressione (Rome, 1677); Del suono, de’ tremori armonici, e dell’udito (Rome, 1679); and Del ghiaccio e della coagulazione (Rome, 1681). An exhaustive bibliography appears in C. Sommervogel, S. J., Bibliothèque de la compagnie de Jèsus (Louvain, 1960).

The biographical article by A. Asor-Rosa in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, VI (Rome, 1964), includes a modern critical appraisal of Bartoli’s literary and historical activities.

Stillman Drake