Chapter 1: Polish students from the Galileo's circle in Padua
- Gli scholari polacchi nella Cerchia Galilee and Padova
The first and the most comprehensive of the four Bilinski's chapters concerns Polish students from the Galileo's circle in Padua. The arrival of Galileo to Padua in 1592 coincided with the date of the constitution of Polish Nationality at that University.
There had been already centuries old traditions of Poles studying in Padua, but only at that year a book of entries was established - both for Polish students, as well as for important Poles passing by Padua in their travels. This Book have been kept uninterruptedly until 1745; it contains 2359 names. The last decade of the sixteenth century was a period of great influx of Polish students - the years 1592-1599 alone showing nearly three hundred entries.
The Poles also become part of the student authorities at the University of Padua. For example, in the list of lectures of Art and Medical Faculty for the year 1593, it is stated, among others: "Excellentissimus D. Galilaeus de Galilaeis Florentinus leget Sphaera Euclide et tertia post meridia hora", and then at the very beginning of the book - after the names of the prefects - as a rector on behalf of the students: "Georgius Dominus Perillustris Pipanus Cracoviensis". In the year 1604 Pawe³ Boym of Lwów was a trustee and pro-rector there and in the year 1613 Maciej Vorbek-Lettow of Wilno was a trustee at Padua University.
In the years 1592-1593 Walenty Fontanus - formerly a professor of astrology at the University of Cracow, where he lectured in the years 1578-1580 "De revolutionibus" of Copernicus - studied medicine in Padua. It is probable that he and Galileo has met and discussed Copernicus ideas.
At that times private lessons given by professors - mostly for students coming from higher social strata - were quite widespread. They provided additional revenue for professors, and for students - more practical profile of knowledge to better prepare them to their future life tasks. So also Galileo - striving to keep up his mother and siblings - accepted students and residents, whom he educated not only in the 'sphere or cosmography' according to Ptolemy system, but also in the field of mechanics, geodesy, military architecture and fortifications - teaching them how to use proportional military compass (improved by himself). These instruments were made in the Galileo's house by a technician Marcantonio Mazzoleni. His secretary, Mastro Silvestro, drew up copies of the professor's teaching treaties, also purchased by students.
The sector, also known as a proportional compass or military compass, was a major calculating instrument in use from the end of the sixteenth century until the nineteenth century. It is an instrument consisting of two rulers of equal length which are joined by a hinge. A number of scales are inscribed upon the instrument which facilitate various mathematical calculations. It was used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry, multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots. Its several scales permitted easy and direct solutions of problems in gunnery, surveying and navigation. The sector derives its name from the fourth proposition of the sixth book of Euclid, where it is demonstrated that similar triangles have their like sides proportional. It has four parts, two legs with a pivot (the articulation), a quadrant and a clamp (the curved part at the end of the leg) that enables the compass to function as a gunner's quadrant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_(instrument)
Among Galileo's private students were Italians, Frenchmen, Germans and Poles. There exist handwritten notes of Galileo, the "Ricordi", where he have listed the names of the students - together with the amounts of money he received from them. Sometimes it is an aggregate record, as the one from 1602 about two Poles, who have started subject of fortifications, or the one from 1607 about seven Poles "learning about the sphere". Galileo described some students only by name and nationality, but there is not lack of people mentioned by their full name and the title.
Most of them came from noble families and magnate clans, so it is not surprising to find there the persons who later put their clear mark on political and cultural history of Poland. The first one, occurring in the Galileo's Ricordi in 1599, was the buyer of his "instrument" and the four-pointed compass - "Giovanni Tencin", i.e., the future governor of Krakow, Jan Têczyñski. He undoubtedly entertained military interests, but he is best known for his literary contribution of his era by participating in translation of Tasso's epic "Goffred or Jerusalem liberated (Kraków 1618)", made by Piotr Kochanowski (also a student of Padua) and also dedicated to him.
From December 6, 1601 to August 26, 1602, Rafa³ Leszczynski took lessons and also bought the Galileo's compass. Padua was one of the last links of his long-term studies and travels abroad through nearly all of the most important centers, universities and courts of Europe, which started already in 1595. A later governor of Be³z he has won in this way a thorough preparation for the role of one of the greatest patrons in the history of Polish culture in the first half of the seventeenth century, which he was to be. He was to create a magnificent residence and court in W³odawa. A Protestant and a protector of Polish and Czech Protestants, he provided for and established congregations, schools and printing houses - in Baranów and Leszno. Under his guard a prominent naturalist of Scottish origin Jan Jonston and the great Czech pedagogue Jan Amos Komensky worked in the Leszno center. The latter testified in a 1659 letter to Louis Wolzogen of his Governor's Copernican conviction. We know, moreover, that Leszczynski also possessed literary talents and he dealt with translations of French literature.
Leszczyñski's steward ("maiordomo"), Daniel, was also recorded In the Galilean "Ricordi". This was actually Daniel Naborowski, who studied for twelve years law and medicine at Wittenberg, Basel, Orleans and Strasbourg, and later became connected to Radziwi³³s as a doctor and the poet.
In the years 1602 and 1604-1605, a name of Krzysztof Zbaraski appears in the records of Galileo. His first and last name is preceded by a title of Prince ("Ilustrissimo et Eccellentissimo S. Duca"). Along with his older brother Jerzy he was in Padua earlier, in 1592, and at the beginning of the seventeenth century, he also studied at Leuven. In contrast to his older brother, the humanist, this Galileo's student from Padua indulged mainly in science and technology. He was later regarded as the inventor of a new type of gun - according to Italian specialist in the artillery employed in Poland, Andrea dell'Aqua. Strong connections of Zbaraski brothers with Italy are confirmed by the fact, that the design of a new residence of their ancestral seat - Zbara¿, in the type of "palazzo in fortezza", was ordered from the renowned Venetian architect, Vincenzo Scamozzi.
In his polemical writing "Difesa contro ed alle calunnie Baldessar Imposture di Capra" (Venice 1607) Galileo invokes the names of three private students, mentioned above - Jan Têczyñski (along with his brother Gabriel), Rafa³ Leszczyñski and Krzysztof Zbaraski - as the ones who knew the functionalities of his military compass. It is worthy to emphasize that they found themselves in a great group of other users of the compass, including dukes of Florence and Mantua, and Archduke Ferdinand.
Still one more of the Polish students of Galileo from the turn of 1607 and 1608, Marcin Zborowski, acquired the ability to use the compass and he handed it down to Professor Jan Bro¿ek in Kraków. In connection with Zborowski, one interesting subject from "Ricordi" was omitted or neglected by the previous researchers: On January 19, 1608, Galileo received from him a sable muff ("di una manizza zibellini"), valued 150 lire. It is not known whether it was a gift, or a subject material in place of the due cash. Anyway, a professor of Padua - thanks to the Polish disciple - became an owner of the garment, typical of northern Europe, made of very valuable fur.
Polish Galileo's disciples were also Jan Krzysztof Buczacki, Pawe³ Palczowski and hard to identify abbot ('il. S. Abate polacco "). Not only just students, but also residents in the house of Galileo were listed by name - "Signor Stanislao Polacco" - Stanislaw Lasocki; "Signor Giovanni Lituano" - probably Jan Pac, "Signor Marco" - Marek Lentowicz and "Illustrissimo Signor Conte di Zator" along with entourage, two noblemen and five servants - the governor of Zator, Jan Pawe³ Le¶niowolski.
In total, about twenty Poles passed through Galileo's house, and even lived in it. Wolynski already calculated that in the "Ricordi" years, of the total sum of 25 709 lire for the board - 5 728, or almost one quarter, have been paid the Poles. Similarly out of the sum of 14 291 lire for lessons, instruments and manuals - 3 604 lire have been paid by Polish students. Galileo indicates that the writing of Polish names caused him much difficulty, so one must not be surprised that he sometimes was leaving them out. His entries are usually phonetic - Sboroschi, Sbaraschi. The hardest one was the name Leszczynski, listed variously as Lencischi or Lescinschi.
[Boletus: In the same vain Italian names were often polonized. For example, ironworks and smelters in W±chock and Samsonów in 17th c. were named: Caccio, Seravalle, "Dzianetty" and "Dziboni" - From "Historya Artyleryi Polskiej" by Konstanty Górski]
The only case of bad memory, left in the circle of Galileo's students from Poland, was a case of brothers £yczko, who borrowed 300 crowns from his old servant, went back to Poland and did not reply to any letter. The trace of this story remains in one of Galileo's letters of 1609 to the Secretary of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Belisario Vinty, where the scholar presented the affair of his servant, Alessandro Piersanti, who three years earlier had lost in this way all his security, and now he was terminally ill and was entirely dependent on Galileo. Galileo wrote that they were "Giovanni Liczko di Ryglice et un su o fratello" and that they were well known to Montelupi family (a family of Polish Post Masters). He earnestly asked for intervention at the secretary of the Polish court. According to historical records the brothers Jan and Stanis³aw £yczko, Sulima clan, of Ryglice near Tarnów, studied at that time in Padua and they had to be debtors to Piersanti. It is not confirmed though whether they were really disciples of Galileo.
There are however a number of written records, witnessing to the best bonds, which existed between the Polish students and their teacher. The letters sent to him by some of them testify to this fact. And so Mark Lentowicz, soon after his return home, as a secretary of King Sigismund III, wrote to Galileo from Krakow on August 13, 1604, dreaming of inviting him to Poland: "Faxint caelites ut hic noster Septentrio eius viri vultum videat, cuius famam et virtutem iamdudum stupet et admiratur". He asserted that he would use all possible effort to ensure that this could come true.
During his next visit to Italy, in the years 1611-1612, Krzysztof Zbaraski, no longer finding Galileo in Padua, sent him two letters from Bologna, reflecting on the best memories that he retained from the time of the Galileo's tutoring and of his unchanging admiration to him. In his letter of March, 8, 1611 there are dominating words of his sincere regret and disappointment of not being able to meet him in person and to enjoy the conversation with the master ("Mi di molto rincresce non haverla Trovato and Padova, come to me pensavo, per Potter godere Conversation dolcissima la della sua qual, per esser tant'anni Privo, con quest occasione della mia venuta in Italia di Poter credevo sodisfare all'animo mio "). From this letter it is clear that one of his friends sent him the Galileo's groundbreaking publication "Sidereus Nuncius", which reached him during the anti-Moscow expedition ("Le sue lucidissime Stelle Medicee sono pervenute fino in quella freddissima zona di Moscovia"). Zbaraski was overjoyed with the thought that their era exceeded that of antiquity, and that Galileo has already assured himself the immortal fame. In a letter of September, 27, 1612 he asked for telescope lens, and he hoped for a meeting in Florence. Unfortunately, no further news is known about his order.
Zbaraski, who in 1623 was sent as ambassador to Constantinople on behalf of Sigismund III, died prematurely four years later and did not live to witness the sad times of trial of his Padua master.
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