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FRANCESCO REDI, PATRICIAN OF AREZZO
SOLDANI-BENZI, Massimiliano: Italy, 1684, Bronze (cast),
87 mm
Obv: Bust of Francisco Redi FRANCISCVS . REDI . PATRITIVS . ARETINVS
Rev: Bacchanal with figures of Bacchus and Silenus with maenads and satyrs
CANEBAM (I Have Sung)
Signed: M. SOLD.
Ref: Molinari, 145; Vannel and Toderi, 36; Johnson 140, fig. 126;
Jones, "Art of the Medal", 90/227; Europese Penningen # 1350
Francesco Redi (1626-1697) was an Italian physician,
naturalist and poet. He studied philosophy and medicine at Florence and
Pisa, where he received a doctorate in both subjects. Redi was chosen as a
personal physician by the Dukes of Tuscany and was chief physician to
Ferdinand II and Cosimo III de' Medici. In the field of medicine or natural
history, Redi is best known for his refutation of the theory of spontaneous
generation. He is equally celebrated as a philologist and poet. Redi's
poem, Bacco in
Toscana was the inspiration for the Bacchanalia, alluded to in the reverse of
this medal. (Freeman).
This is one of a group of three
medals, having a similar obverse, that the grand duke commissioned from
Soldani in 1684 and 1685 to celebrate Redi as poet, philosopher and
scientist.
LINK to the painting BACCHUS
by Peter Paul RUBENS (from Web Museum)
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Redi did not write systematic treatises, even
though he was interested in numerous problems of zoology,
botany, chemistry, anatomy, embryology and toxicology. His first
work, Osservazioni intorno alle vipere (Observations
On Vipers), published in 1664, was a study of the toxicity,
the origin and the mode of injection of snake venom.
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Redi's masterpiece, published in 1668, is the
Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti (Experiments
On The Generation of Insects), a book which soon became a
landmark in the history of modern science. Redi disproved the
age-old theory of insects' spontaneous generation by means of an
epoch-making experiment, one which introduced a new method of
scientific research into science.
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This method, which has remained the method of
experimental biology ever since, consists of repeating the same
experiments in different ways, modifying only one parameter at a
time, and carrying out suitable tests. Redi prepared eight jars
with different kinds of meat, four of which were left open and
four sealed. The outcome was unambiguous: only the first four
jars, in which flies had laid eggs, generated maggots which
later became flies. The meat in the sealed jars, on the
contrary, decomposed but did not generate any living organisms.
Moreover Redi introduced an ingenious variation into his
experiment in order to exclude the possibility that maggot's
life cycle could be affected by their being in sealed jars: he
repeated it with two others series of jars, allowing air, but no
flies, to enter the test jars: he simply covered these jars with
fine filter. This crucial experiment disproved for all time the
spontaneous generation of insects. (galileo.imss.firenze.it/multi/redi/eopere)
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