Castelli, Benedetto - Of the mensuration of running waters

Castelli, Benedetto, Of the mensuration of running waters, 1661

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to be Courted by ſundry Princes, and great Prelates. In particu-
lar about the beginning of the Year 1623. and before his Invita-
tion to ROME he was employed by Prince Ferdinando I, Grand
Duke of TUSCANY, to remedy the Diſorders which at that
time happened in the Valley of PISA in the Meadows that lye
upon the Banks of Serchio and Fiume Morto: and in the pre-
ſence of the Grand Duke, Grand Dutcheſſe Mother, the Commiſ-
ſioners of Sewers, and ſundry other Perſons in a few hours he
made ſo great a progreſſe in that affair, as gave his Moſt Serene
Highneſſe high ſatisfaction, and gained himſelf much Honour.

§. No ſooner had he in his fore-mentioned Voiage to RO-
MAGNA (which was but few Moneths after, in the ſame
Year) committed his Conceptions to paper, but he communicated
them to certain of his Friends. In which number we finde Signo-
re Ciampoli Secretary of the Popes Private Affaires; whom in
the beginning of the Firſt Book he gratefully acknowledgeth to
have been contributary, in his Purſe, towards defraying the
charge of Experiments, and in his Perſon, towards the debating
and compleating of Arguments upon this Subject. Some few years
after the Importunity of Friends, and the Zeal he had for the
Publique Good prevailed with him to preſent the World with his
Firſt Diſcourſe, accompanied with a Treatiſe of the Geometrical
Demonſtrations of his whole Doctrine. What Reception it found
with the Judicious muſt needs be imagined by any one that hath
obſerved how Novelty and Facility in conjunction with Verity
make a Charm of irreſiſtable Operation.

§. New it was, for that no man before him had ever attemp-
ted to Demonſtrate all the three Dimenſions, to wit, the Length,
Breadth and Profundity, of this Fluid and Current Ele-
ment. And he detecteth ſuch groſſe Errours in thoſe few that
had untertook to write upon the Subject (of which he inſtan-
ceth in Frontinus and Fontana, as thoſe that include the rest)
and delivereth ſuch ſingular and unheard-of Paradoxes (for ſo
they ſound in Vulgar Eares) as cannot but procure unſpeakable
delight to his Reader.

§. Eafie it is likewiſe and True; and that upon ſo Familiar
Experiments and Manifeſt Demonſtrations, that I have oft que-
ſtioned with my ſelf which merited the greater wonder, he, for
diſcovering, or all men that handled the Argument before him
for not diſcovering a Doctrine of ſuch ſtrange Facility and Infal-
libility. But yet as if our Authour deſigned to oblige the whole
World to him by ſo excellent a Preſent, he ſelects a Subject that
he knew would be carreſſed by all perſons of Nobler Souls, upon
the accounts afore-named, and by all Mankind in General, as
gratifying them in their much adored Idol Utility. And to ren-

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