Giovanni Poleni bought this microscope for his experimental philosophy lessons in 1745. According to his catalogue (Conti di spese per macchine), the instrument belonged to the “Public Library, but with broken glasses and added wood”.

Maker: Eustachio Divini, b.1610 - d.1685. Active in Rome from the early 1640s.

Date: 1671

Description

Extremely rare as for its design and dimensions, this instrument seems to be the only surviving microscope signed by Eustachio Divini. It could correspond to the model proposed by Divini in the 1660s, though it doesn’t have the innovative ocular system introduced by Divini in those years, made of two plano-convex lenses touching each other on their convex side. It is however quite sure that the microscope was revised in the eighteenth century, as Poleni underlines that its lenses were broken (“ne’ vetri rotto”). The maker of this microscope, Eustachio Divini, was one of the most well-known optical makers in seventeenth-century Europe. Born in San Severino Marche, he started working in Rome around 1646, focusing on lenses and optical instruments. His innovations in the field of microscopy were mentioned by well-known authors of the time, such as C.A. Manzini e G. Schott, and in prestigious journals of those years, such as the “Philosophical Transactions” of the Royal Society of London. Both Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) and Francesco Redi (1626-1697) used microscopes made by Divini for their observations.

Inscription

Eustachio Divini in Roma 1671

Materials and techniques: cardboard/wood/brass/parchment

Dimensions: height 57 cm, diameter 12 cm

Related scholars: Giovanni Poleni (b.1683 - d.1761). Professor of Experimental Philosophy at the University of Padua from 1739 to 1761.

Keywords: optics

University of Padua, Museum of the History of Physics

Cat. Number: 61

Exhibitions

• "La curiosità e l'ingegno - Collezionismo scientifico e metodo sperimentale a Padova nel Settecento", Padova, Botanical garden, May-December 2000
• "Il futuro di Galileo. Scienza e tecnica dal Seicento al Terzo Millennio", Padova, Centro culturale San Gaetano-Altinate, 28 February-28 June 2009

Bibliography

• Silvio A. Bedini, Science and Instruments in Seventeenth-Century Italy, Aldershot, 1994, pp. 384-421.
• Pierandrea Saccardo, Intorno ad un microscopio di Eustachio Divini conservato nel Museo di Fisica dell'Università di Padova, Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto, serie VII, t. II (1890-91), pp. 817-27.
• Giovanni Poleni, Conti di spese per macchine, Università di Padova, Archivio Antico del Bo, busta 591 [Giovanni Poleni’s chronological list of the items that entered his Cabinet of Experimental Philosophy from 1739 to 1761].