Floods along the Bisenzio: Science and Technology in the Age of Galileo

Abstract

Floods along the Bisenzio: Science and Technology in the Age of Galileo RICHARDS.WESTFALL In the spring of 1631, Pasquino di Lorenzo di Corso, a landholder on the plain along the Bisenzio River west of Florence, eighty-six years of age, unable to write but blessed with a friend who could, testified that he had “never seen in this area the water and floods that came during the past year. . . There had been heavy rains early in September with general flooding.2 As it turned out, September was only the beginning; more rain inundated the area Dr. Westfall is a professor of the history of science at Indiana University, where his area of special interest has been the scientific revolution. He is currently working on a social history of the scientific community of the 16th and 17th centuries; as part of this project he is concerned with the relations of science and technology during that period, a topic that directed his attention to the floods along the Bisenzio in 1630—31. Much of the research for the article was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship and by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Human­ ities, which are gratefully acknowledged. Professor Jack E. Cermak, University Distin­ guished Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Colorado State University, was generous enough to go over the paper and especially to offer hisjudgment on technical sections. Without seeking in any way to make him responsible for errors, the author wishes to acknowledge his help and to state explicitly that he would not have presumed to write the technical passages without his advice, nor would he have been able to express them as well as he has. 'One of a number of personal statements appended to a report of Stefano Fantoni, May 13, 1631 (Capitani di Parte Guelfa: Rapporti, 1631. Nero 1042, 74, Archivio di Stato, Florence). (With the exception of a few citations from the MSS. Galileiana in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence, all references to manuscripts call on the Archivio di Stato, Florence.) My translation imposes an interpretation on the words of an old man, expressing himself through an intermediary, which do not make sense to me in their literal meaning in the context in which they appear. He opposes radical alterations to remedy the problem because he is eighty-six years old “et sempre haver visto quello anno fatto I’acque e piene venute in detti paesi.” The earliest references I have found are an entry in the Giornale degli Uffiziali dei Fiumi for September 5 and a report of September 6 that the Fosse Reale, which fed the Bisenzio from the east, was flooding the plain of Ormannoro as a result of the recent high water (Capitani di Parle: Giornale degli Uffiziali dei Fiumi, 1630. Nero 260, fol. 65v; and Rapporti, 1630. Nero 1041, 200). Through the rest of September, the meetings of the commission were dominated by crises resulting from the flood (Giornale, fols. 65v-80v).©1989 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/89/3004-0003$01.00 879 880 Richard S. Westfall early in November. After the new downpour, Matteo Maiano, a master builder who served the Commission of Rivers (Ufficiali dei Fiumi), brought back word from Campi, on the Bisenzio, that the residents considered “that this flood was one of the great ones they remember during the past 50 years.”3 If the residents on the plain thought this was enough, they were mistaken, for on the last day of January another surge of high water made at least ten ruptures in the levees along the Bisenzio and flooded the commission with new appeals for help immediately after it flooded the plain with water.4 As he contemplated the problem along the river, the engineer Stefano Fantoni looked back over the winter of disasters and convinced himself it was hardly possible that “rains so extraordinary” could ever be repeated.5 Along with the usual silt and debris, some unexpected matter washed down the Bisenzio those dark and stormy nights—a unique insight into the relations of science and technology in the early stages of the scientific revolution. Descending...