Carlo Roberto Dati

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Carlo Roberto Dati

Carlo Roberto Dati (2 October 1619 – 1676) was a Florentine nobleman, philologist and scientist, a disciple of Galileo (1564-1642) and, in his youth, an acquaintance of Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647).

Biography[]

Dati was born in Florence. He was first educated under Pietro Vettorio the Younger, but then learned classical languages from Giovanni Battista Doni.[1]

He befriended Lorenzo Magalotti (1637-1712) and Francesco Redi (1626-1697). Redi dedicated his Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti [Experiments on the generation of insects] (Florence, 1668) to Dati. A founder of the Accademia del Cimento, Dati participated assiduously in its meetings. He was admitted as a member of the of the Accademia della Crusca at the age of 21 year in 1640. He became Secretary for that society in 1647, and initiated the work that led to the third edition of the Vocabolario (1691) and wrote the Discorso dell'obbligo di ben parlare la propria lingua (1657), in which he staunchly claimed the supremacy of Florentine Italian. In 1648, Upon Doni's death, Dati replaced him as professor of classical literature at the Florentine Studio.

He authored many scientific works, including the Lettera ai Filaleti della vera storia della cicloide e della famosissima esperienza dell'argento vivo [Letter to the Filaleti regarding the true story of the cycloid and the well-known sterling silver experience] (Florence, 1663), written under the pseudonym of Timauro Antiate. In it, he claimed the Tuscan - and thus Medicean - priority in the correct interpretation of Torricelli's 1644 experiment, which had sparked a lively discussion all over Europe. He also published many historical, political, and literary works, including the fascinating Vite de' pittori antichi [Lives of the old painters] (1667), dedicated to Louis XIV (1638-1715). Bayle, speaking of this work, says that it would have saved him a great deal of trouble, as it would have assured him many materials in the article of Zeuxis, if he had met with it sooner. It is the life of Zeuxis, together with those of Parrhasius, Apelles, and Protogenes. «The author,» says Bayle, «hath collected whatever he found relating to those four painters in the works of the ancients, and hath very exactly connected the whole. Besides, he hath added to each life several remarks, full of very fine and curious erudition.»[2]

Dati became a friend of John Milton and Nicolaas Heinsius the Elder on their travels through Florence, and continued a correspondence with them.

Works[]

  • Esortazione allo studio della geometria. Veglia prima. Florence: Stamperia di Borgo Ognissanti. 1814.
  • Vite de pittori antichi scritte e illustrate da Carlo Dati nell'Accademia della Crusca lo Smarrito. Florence: Stamperia della Stella. 1667.

References[]

  1. ^ Elogio di Carlo Roberto Dati recitato nella Reale Accademia fiorentina nell' adunanza del di 30 di Settembre, 1790, by Francesco Fontani, bibliotecario della Riccardiana, published by Gaetano Cambiagi, Florence 1794; page 37.
  2. ^ Pierre Bayle, Pierre Desmaizeaux, Anthelme Tricaud, Alexis Gaudin (1738). "Zeuxis". The dictionary historical and critical of Mr. Peter Bayle. 5. London: printed for J. J. and P. Knapton; D. Midwinter; J. Brotherton; A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch. p. 626.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links[]

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