Fabrizio Baldassarri

Pier Antonio Micheli on some parasitic plants (1710), outlining that the practices of rustics (agricoltori) are sometimes ineffective, especially when not paired with theoretical knowledge of plants!

#envhist #histsci #agriculture #plants #histplants #botany

On marine plants - corals and fungi - in Klein 1747 work! #plantstudies #marineplants #zoophytes #histsci #fungi #corals

📣Next meeting - #DescartesLab
March 27, 2026 - at 3.00 pm (Italy time) / 9.00 am (NY city)

Discussion of Elodie Cassan's Le langage de la raison (Vrin, 2023) - the meeting is in English and online

#histphilo #17thcentury #ageofreason #Descartes #cartesianism - attendance is free

Noemi Di Tommaso on Redi and wine (Bacchus)

myself on Bacci's natural history of wine

Delia Moldovan on wine grafting in Soderini and Della Porta

Barbara Denicolò presenting a paper on wine in culinary recipes

Enrico Zucchi kindly chairing the session

at #RSA26 @rsaorg.bsky.social we discussed wine as an multilayered object, revealing a strong interconnection between human art and natural life, and finally interconnecting medicine, agronomy, botany, culinary, and antiquarianism #histsci #environment #envhist #Renaissance #wine #vino

as it happens, I made this in a haste and with several mistakes in the programme of the three panels... here the correct (I hope) version

#environmentalhistory #envhist #histagriculture #histsci #HSS26 #ESHS26 #17thcentury #histmath

Happy that my panels for #HSS26 #ESHS26 have been accepted. Here the lineup @hssgecc.bsky.social

I look forward to discussing instruments and tools in premodern science (agriculture, botany, mineralogy, navigation and mathematics) #histsci #instruments #agriculture #environment

Wrapping the presentation #Bacci #histsci #histplants #16thcentury #rsa26 @renaissancesociety.bsky.social #rsaSanFran26 #wine #vino #plantstudies #envhist #conenvhist

Animals - 6.1 Automata and animal bodies Despite the efficacy of Descartes's animal-machine analogy, a crucial issue affects his mechanization of animal bodies. This reduction works for the animal in general, that is an abstract representati...

works.hcommons.org/records/k0qp...

on animals and automata in Descartes

Vines - Vitis vinifera in Fuchs, Carrara Herbal and Topkapi Dioscorides... preparing my ppt on the natural history of wine in Bacci and sixteenth-century culture for @renaissancesociety.bsky.social #RSASanFran26 #RSA26 #histplant #plantstudies

A nice seminar organized in Venice/online - it remains difficult to discuss about mechanization and mechanical philosophy in the early modern period, and perhaps it is no more possible to do it with Descartes/Cartesian philo, but this is a great lineup of scholars #17thcentury #histsci #histphilo

On Monday, February 2nd, I present with Simone Guidi Rule 11 of the Regulae ad directionem ingenii - I discuss the second part of it, so to say, where #Descartes offers some insights on #enumeration --- which I have already presented in my talk on Rule 7

Here the program:
www.sns.it/it/evento/re...

a great discussion of Raphaele Andrault's book Le fer ou le feu (2024) - it's a great focus on pain as a crucial element to convey a philosophical investigation. #histsci #histmedicine are important in #histphilo #descartes
we presented it in @descarteslab.bsky.social #DescartesLab

Plants and laboratories: the ascent of sap between physics and vegetal physiology The ascent of sap in plants represented a puzzle in early modern studies of nature. Although philosophers, gardeners and naturalists had traditionally explained it as a process of fermentation caused ...

the ascent of sap is thus an important case to see the role fo plant studies in physics and physiology - which I discussed in this article. Borelli inspired Marcello Malpighi's work at large #vegscilif

works.hcommons.org/records/4rs9...

In the second book of his De motu animalium, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli provides a strong mechanization of plant life, as in chapter 13 he discusses "On Plant Generation and Vegetation", somehow reducing plants to hydraulic machines - or a thermometer raising sap/liquors #plantlife #histsci

#bluestorians #SkyStorians #histsci #histphilo I discuss of Descartes's rule 7 - moving from this article and from the chapter on Descartes's natural philosophy - I believe that this rule reveals his methodological application of inductive knowledge to nature works.hcommons.org/records/1f48...

#PrincetonBucharestSeminar in Early Modern Philosophy, the 25th edition. This time, focus will be devoted to errors, falsehood and forgeries. Apply until January 15.

#earlymodern #histsci #histphilo #17thcentury #errors

organizers are @rodolfogarau.bsky.social Dana Jalobeanu and Dan Garber!

Join us next Tuesday in Rome, at University of Rome 3, for the final meeting of the Prin Comunicare e Rappresentare le scienze della terra nell'Italia moderna with several colleagues. #histsci #17thcentury #earthstudies

Outcomes So far, I have published 3 monographs (on Descartes’s medicine, on Descartes’s study of particular bodies, and on early modern natural philosophy of plants); I have edited 5 volumes and…

If you want to read it oa - check it here: fbaldassarriphilo.wordpress.com/home/cfp-out...

René Descartes, Regulae ad directionem ingenii. Reading Seminar – Séminaire de lecture | ScuolaNormaleSuperiore The seminar will consist of a commented reading of the entire text of Descarte's Regulae ad directionem ingenii. The first meeting will take place on Monday, November 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM (CET). All ot...

#IThinkThereforeJanuary26
#Descartes month schedule:
🧠
Jan.12 - Seminar Regulae (online) - Organized by Iacopo Chiaravalli, Igor Agostini, Alfredo Ferrarin - time: Italy

6:00 pm – F.Marrone: Regula V
7:00 pm – D.Arbib: Regula VI
📚
www.sns.it/it/evento/re...

Happy for this book review of my "René Descartes's Natural Philosophy and Particular bodies" written by Andrea Strazzoni In the latest issue of the Rivista di filosofia #descartes #17thcentury #histsci #histphilo #physics
the review is here: www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1413/...

"[P]ER EXPERIENTIAM SCILICET, VEL DEDUCTIONEM": DESCARTES' BATTLE FOR SCIENTIA IN THE EARLY 1630S After his second arrival in the Dutch Republics, René Descartes' (1596-1650) challenging project to explain global physics was initially discussed in his correspondence, in which he disclosed his dema...

works.hcommons.org/records/1f48...

I published something on the method of the Regulae and Descartes's 1630s correspondence - oa here

#philsky #histsci #bluestorians #skystorians #histphilo #17thcentury #Descartes #method Do 🐻 with us!

For more info: email <cartesianlaboratory@gmail.com>

Kärin Nickelsen has written a generous book review of my volume: 🌳Plants in the 16th and 17th century (🌿 www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi... ) - you may find it on Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 🌱
elibrary.duncker-humblot.com/.../vol-52-2...
@historychroniq.bsky.social

I think therefore #January2026. A very #Cartesian month. More soon

Join us online on January 27 for the next #DescartesLab event (in English) - email us for info or link!