 Evangelista Torricelli. |
The information we have
about the childhood and adolescence of Torricelli is sparse and imprecise. We know for
certain that he was born in Rome on 15 October 1608. We can also derive some information
on his scientific training from the contents of a letter to
Galileo of 11 September 1632. In this letter, Torricelli explains that after having
studied "under the discipline of the Jesuit fathers" on his own for two years,
at the age of 18 he became a "scholar" under the Abbot Benedetto Castelli. In
February of the same year, 1632, the Dialogue concering the Two Chief World Systems had
been published in Florence. Castelli, who, as it is known, was among the most faithful of
Galileo's disciples and friends, scrutinised the reactions to the contents of the book in
Roman circles with affectionate concern. As he had to leave Rome for a few days, he asked
Torricelli to act as secretary for him. In this way, the young scholar had an opportunity
to write to Galileo, answering one of his letters, and to inform him of the action taken
by the abbot to avoid a "precipitous resolution", or, in other words, the
condemnation of the book and its author. The hope that the worst might be avoided had not
yet fully abandoned the Roman friends of Galileo. Torricelli, as he explains in the
letter, was amongst the first Roman readers of the Dialogo.
He studied its contents "with the delight [...] of one who, having already practised
all of geometry most diligently [...] and having studied Ptolemy and seen almost
everything of Tycho, Kepler and Longomontanus, finally, forced by the many congruences,
came to adhere to Copernicus, and was a Galileian in profession and sect". This was
the only occasion on which Torricelli openly declared himself to be a follower of the
Copernican doctrine. Undoubtedly he was profoundly perturbed by the fate of the Dialogue,
and the condemnation of Galileo which was promulgated by the Holy Office in June 1633. His
interest in the proceedings can only have been heightened by Castelli's enforced absence
from Rome at the very moment at which the trial began, and his instructions that
Torricelli should follow the course of events and keep him informed.
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 Galileo Galilei, Dialogo intorno ai due massimi sistemi del mondo, Florence 1632. |