Giuseppe Averani

Giuseppe Averani ( born March 20, 1662 at Florence; † August 24, 1738 ) was an Italian jurist and scientist.

Life

Averani studied law at the University of Pisa. He was proposed by Lorenzo Magalotti and Francesco Redi for a Chair in Law, to which he in 1685 by the Tuscan Grand Duke Cosimo III. de ' Medici was appointed.

Friedrich August I visited in 1688 and 1713 a lecture Averanis. Victor Amadeus II tried to call the University of Turin him unsuccessfully. As auditor of the Rota, he advised Florentine duke and minister. The Roman Rota invoked in several judgments on him. Among his acquaintances included Lorenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Del Papa and Guido Grandi.

Giuseppe Averani dealt with geography, philosophy, theology, astronomy, and geometry, but mainly with experimental physics. In the botanical garden of Pisa, he undertook experiments with the Boyle's vacuum pump and electricity modeled after Francis Hauksbee. On behalf of the Grand Duke, he studied with Cipriano Targioni the burning of precious stones by means of a burning glass; an experiment which was later imitated by Humphry Davy. His results he wrote on in his posthumously published Lezioni Toscane. In it, he also deals with the question of the nature and speed of light and sound. Under the guidance of Lorenzo Magalottis he explored odors. He founded the Accademia degli Oppressi, a society to exchange views on physics. With De Momentis corporum gravium inclinatis Averani wrote at the suggestion Vincenzo Viviani a swearing-in ceremony of Galileo Galilei.

He was a member of the Accademia della Crusca (since 1697 ) and the Royal Society.

Works

• Disputation de jure belli et pacis, 1703
• Interpretationes Canon Law, Volume I - II, Florence, 1713; Volume III - V, Florence, 1740-1746
• De libertate Civitatis Florentiae eiusque Dominii, Pisa, 1721
• Oratio de Iurisprudentia, Medicina, Theologia, 1723
• Lezioni sopra la Passione di Gesù Cristo, Urbino, 1738
• Lezioni Toscane, 3 volumes, Florence, 1744-46
• Monumenta Latina, Florence, 1769
• Del vitto e delle cene degli antichi, Florence, 1863