Cartesio in Villa - The Cartesian Seminar at Villa Mirafiori continues with Simone Guidi's tali -- see below

On Thursday 9th, at 4 pm (Italy time)

#Descartes #Cartesianism #17thcentury #histphilo

is-ih.com/the-inaugura...

The Inaugural Gaukroger Lecture: Prof. Sorana Corneanu
on May 26th.

Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

There’s 30% off selected CUP Renaissance titles for SAA, which means you can get Hans Sloane’s Library Collection for *only* £66.50 (lol) : discount code is 106468 www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

A large piece of turf #nature #naturalhistory #histsci #arthistory #environment #envhist

#bluestorians #skystorians does anyone know about a Discourse made by La Hire le cadet at the Academie Royale des Sciences in 1710, April 30th? Thanks #plantstudies #botany #histsci

Today, we focused on various aspects, from D's philosophy, to its presence in today's political life, but language is also important in differentiating between animals and humans and we engaged with Descartes's correspondence, as I did in my chapter on animals: works.hcommons.org/records/k0qp...

Pier Antonio Micheli on some parasitic plants (1710), outlining that the practices of rustics (agricoltori) are sometimes ineffective, especially when not paired with theoretical knowledge of plants!

#envhist #histsci #agriculture #plants #histplants #botany

On marine plants - corals and fungi - in Klein 1747 work! #plantstudies #marineplants #zoophytes #histsci #fungi #corals

📣Next meeting - #DescartesLab
March 27, 2026 - at 3.00 pm (Italy time) / 9.00 am (NY city)

Discussion of Elodie Cassan's Le langage de la raison (Vrin, 2023) - the meeting is in English and online

#histphilo #17thcentury #ageofreason #Descartes #cartesianism - attendance is free

Noemi Di Tommaso on Redi and wine (Bacchus)

myself on Bacci's natural history of wine

Delia Moldovan on wine grafting in Soderini and Della Porta

Barbara Denicolò presenting a paper on wine in culinary recipes

Enrico Zucchi kindly chairing the session

at #RSA26 @rsaorg.bsky.social we discussed wine as an multilayered object, revealing a strong interconnection between human art and natural life, and finally interconnecting medicine, agronomy, botany, culinary, and antiquarianism #histsci #environment #envhist #Renaissance #wine #vino

as it happens, I made this in a haste and with several mistakes in the programme of the three panels... here the correct (I hope) version

#environmentalhistory #envhist #histagriculture #histsci #HSS26 #ESHS26 #17thcentury #histmath

Happy that my panels for #HSS26 #ESHS26 have been accepted. Here the lineup @hssgecc.bsky.social

I look forward to discussing instruments and tools in premodern science (agriculture, botany, mineralogy, navigation and mathematics) #histsci #instruments #agriculture #environment

Wrapping the presentation #Bacci #histsci #histplants #16thcentury #rsa26 @renaissancesociety.bsky.social #rsaSanFran26 #wine #vino #plantstudies #envhist #conenvhist

Animals - 6.1 Automata and animal bodies Despite the efficacy of Descartes's animal-machine analogy, a crucial issue affects his mechanization of animal bodies. This reduction works for the animal in general, that is an abstract representati...

works.hcommons.org/records/k0qp...

on animals and automata in Descartes

Vines - Vitis vinifera in Fuchs, Carrara Herbal and Topkapi Dioscorides... preparing my ppt on the natural history of wine in Bacci and sixteenth-century culture for @renaissancesociety.bsky.social #RSASanFran26 #RSA26 #histplant #plantstudies

A nice seminar organized in Venice/online - it remains difficult to discuss about mechanization and mechanical philosophy in the early modern period, and perhaps it is no more possible to do it with Descartes/Cartesian philo, but this is a great lineup of scholars #17thcentury #histsci #histphilo

On Monday, February 2nd, I present with Simone Guidi Rule 11 of the Regulae ad directionem ingenii - I discuss the second part of it, so to say, where #Descartes offers some insights on #enumeration --- which I have already presented in my talk on Rule 7

Here the program:
www.sns.it/it/evento/re...

a great discussion of Raphaele Andrault's book Le fer ou le feu (2024) - it's a great focus on pain as a crucial element to convey a philosophical investigation. #histsci #histmedicine are important in #histphilo #descartes
we presented it in @descarteslab.bsky.social #DescartesLab

Plants and laboratories: the ascent of sap between physics and vegetal physiology The ascent of sap in plants represented a puzzle in early modern studies of nature. Although philosophers, gardeners and naturalists had traditionally explained it as a process of fermentation caused ...

the ascent of sap is thus an important case to see the role fo plant studies in physics and physiology - which I discussed in this article. Borelli inspired Marcello Malpighi's work at large #vegscilif

works.hcommons.org/records/4rs9...

In the second book of his De motu animalium, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli provides a strong mechanization of plant life, as in chapter 13 he discusses "On Plant Generation and Vegetation", somehow reducing plants to hydraulic machines - or a thermometer raising sap/liquors #plantlife #histsci

#bluestorians #SkyStorians #histsci #histphilo I discuss of Descartes's rule 7 - moving from this article and from the chapter on Descartes's natural philosophy - I believe that this rule reveals his methodological application of inductive knowledge to nature works.hcommons.org/records/1f48...

#PrincetonBucharestSeminar in Early Modern Philosophy, the 25th edition. This time, focus will be devoted to errors, falsehood and forgeries. Apply until January 15.

#earlymodern #histsci #histphilo #17thcentury #errors

organizers are @rodolfogarau.bsky.social Dana Jalobeanu and Dan Garber!

Join us next Tuesday in Rome, at University of Rome 3, for the final meeting of the Prin Comunicare e Rappresentare le scienze della terra nell'Italia moderna with several colleagues. #histsci #17thcentury #earthstudies

Outcomes So far, I have published 3 monographs (on Descartes’s medicine, on Descartes’s study of particular bodies, and on early modern natural philosophy of plants); I have edited 5 volumes and…

If you want to read it oa - check it here: fbaldassarriphilo.wordpress.com/home/cfp-out...

René Descartes, Regulae ad directionem ingenii. Reading Seminar – Séminaire de lecture | ScuolaNormaleSuperiore The seminar will consist of a commented reading of the entire text of Descarte's Regulae ad directionem ingenii. The first meeting will take place on Monday, November 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM (CET). All ot...

#IThinkThereforeJanuary26
#Descartes month schedule:
🧠
Jan.12 - Seminar Regulae (online) - Organized by Iacopo Chiaravalli, Igor Agostini, Alfredo Ferrarin - time: Italy

6:00 pm – F.Marrone: Regula V
7:00 pm – D.Arbib: Regula VI
📚
www.sns.it/it/evento/re...