Lorenzo Magalotti

Lorenzo Magalotti (* October 24, 1637 in Rome, † March 2, 1712 in Florence ) was an Italian scholar, poet and diplomat.

Life

Magalotti came from the Roman nobility, his father Ottavio was prefect of the Vatican post office. His uncle was Cardinal Lorenzo, his cousin Filippo Rector of the University of Pisa.

He attended the Collegio Romano in Rome and the University of Pisa, where he studied law and medicine and mathematics at the Galilean disciples Vincenzo Viviani. Also Magalotti was an avid follower of the doctrine of Galileo. Magalotti was from 1660 secretary of the Accademia del Cimento, founded in 1657, which was dedicated to Florence under the patronage of the Medici experimental science in the sense of Galileo. As secretary, he was also instrumental in the 1667 published papers on the experiments of the Academy who found Europe -wide distribution and were influential. Later, he lost interest in science, also from the new Grand Duke Cosimo III. de ' Medici ( 1670 ) little cared for. He was a diplomat in the service of the Medici and later writers.

In 1664 he was entrusted with the supervision of the design of the Palazzo Pitti and established many contacts with artists. He learned by contacts with Englishmen, who attended English and broke in 1667 on a journey to the Netherlands Florence. He was accompanied by his friend the architect Paolo Falconieri and in the Netherlands he was in the simultaneous visit of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III. Medici involved. He accompanied this but not on to Hamburg, but then visited London, where he attended the Royal Society, including demonstration experiments of Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle in Oxford. Then he met in Paris, among others, Henri -Louis Habert de Montmor and Ishmael Boulliau and then rejoined the official tour group of Cosimo Medici to Spain, Portugal, England and the Netherlands and resulted in a diary. They drove back via Paris and arrived on November 1, 1669 again in Florence. Magalotti was then a diplomatic mission in Brussels, Cologne, the Netherlands, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Stockholm, and in 1675 he was elevated to the rank of count and was Ambassador of the Tuscany with the Emperor in Vienna. In 1678 he was back in Florence. 1689 to 1691 he was State Council.

He now turned to the art of poetry in the style of Petrarch, and Anacreontic poems. He translated parts of Paradise Lost by John Milton and poems by John Philips (The Cyder, published posthumously in 1752, and Splendid Shilling ), and Edmund Waller ( 1606-1687 ) ( Battle of the Bermuda) from English. He was friends with the French writer Charles de Marguetel de Saint- Denis de Saint- Evremond. He also commented on the first five cantos of Dante's Inferno.

In 1709 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Writings

  • Lettere sopra le terre odorose d' Europa e America dette d' volgarmente buccheri 1695
  • Lettere contro l' familiari ateismo, 1719
  • Lettere ed Scientifiche erudite, 1721
  • La donna immaginaria, 1690 ( poem )
  • Canzonette anacreontiche, 1723
  • La madraselva, 1762
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