Caverni, Raffaello, Storia del metodo sperimentale in Italia, 1891-1900

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                of us to lament foreigners'lack of reverence towards Galileo; none of them has
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                reached the point of one Italian who seemed to have taken upon himself the
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                wretched task of stripping all he could of the laurels that embrace the im­
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                mortal brow of the restorer of the experimental method and in some ponderous
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                volumes in which he set himself to weave its history, he has spared no low
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                insult nor poisonous insinuation to damage the dead in order to spite the
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                living”! The rest is in the same tone. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">I think I can identify in this harsh
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                accusation the echo of much of the criticism and even of the charges which
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                were brought against the incautious
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                rapporteur
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                of the Committee for the
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                Tomasoni Prize instituted so few years after the breach of Porta Pia and
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                destined
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                “to whomsoever shall better tell the history of the experimental method
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                in Italy,”
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                certainly presuming that the new atmosphere would lead to a freer,
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                more open condemnation of the old obscurantism. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">The news that the winner was a parish priest from some little hill town in
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                Tuscany must have aroused much disappointment and not a little annoyance!
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                But actually Favaro and his accusers were not altogether wrong. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">Giovannozzi,
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                who has been the only defender of Caverni, also admits that “Strange and
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                almost incredible, there seems to linger in all this work an anti-Galilean spirit;
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                a subtle irony pervades it now and then, the intent to make use of every
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                opportunity to strip the laurels of the great old man of Arcetri, a frenzy to find
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                him at fault, to diminish his merits in order to attribute them to others, to
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                accuse him of having wanted to appropriate them all for himself.” He does
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                attempt, timidly, an explanation: “Who knows? </foreign>
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              <s>
                <foreign lang="en">Perhaps he wanted to guard
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                against an excessive admiration or idolatry and ended up falling into the
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                opposite defect.” And he seems to abstain from an all-out defense almost as
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                though afraid of being more damaging than useful to his friend and teacher. </foreign>
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                The reasons justifying Caverni only in part, but which do explain his behavior
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                as that of a man of terrible, albeit resolute character rather than that of a
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                factious priest as Timpanaro would have him,
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                are also mentioned fleetingly
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                by Giovannozzi. </foreign>
              </s>
              <s>
                <foreign lang="en">There are three main ones. </foreign>
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              <s>
                <foreign lang="en">The recommendation of the
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                Committee that he mitigate his opinion of Galileo must have vexed Caverni
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                greatly; he must have felt that they had not tried to understand his labors. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">
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                Second, he was immediately reminded that he had to publish the
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                whole
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                work
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                at his own expense in order to have the prize, according to the instructions of
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                the testator who certainly had not imagined that publication would have meant
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                an expense far surpassing the amount of the prize. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">And last, he was profoundly
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                embittered and disappointed by the news that reached him shortly after he
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                learned of the prize thus conditioned, that his name had been excluded from the
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                committee for the monumental Galilean edition. </foreign>
              </s>
              <s>
                <foreign lang="en">This certainly was not </foreign>
              </s>
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