SCIENTIFIC CROSSCURRENTS BETWEEN ITALY AND ENGLAND: ITALIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, 17TH-19TH CENTURIES

The Royal Society of London and the Philosophical Transactions (PTRS) have played an important role in the promotion of science and knowledge ever since their founding in the 1660s. Not only the British but also scholars and researchers from all over the world ‒ among whom many Italians ‒ have been interested in corresponding with the Society, becoming members and/or publishing on the Society’s journal. The PTRS thus became a focal point of cultural interaction between researchers from different countries. Moreover, by considering the journal in diachronic perspective we can see the gradual development of present-day scientific writing. My purpose is to investigate Italian contributions the Philosophical Transactions from a linguistic, historical and cultural perspective focusing on English and Italian relationships from the journal’s creation in 1665 up to the end of the 19th century. In this respect, the present piece of research focuses on a largely unexplored area in the history of Anglo-Italian socio-cultural relations, that is to say the scientific interactions between English and Italian researchers at the time when modern science was born and developed. The present study is a historical and critical linguistic analysis of PTRS articles written by Italians or based on Italian research and by analysing English and Italian relations through the papers and the epistolary exchanges of the scientists from the two countries. The aim from the linguistic perspective is to describe the features and development of Italian and Italian-research-inspired scientific writing in the Transactions; and ultimately, from the historical and cultural point of view, to provide a picture of Anglo-Italian relations in scientific context. The critical linguistic analysis of the primary sources here becomes functional to an objective analysis of cultural relations. It moreover adds to the existing research on the development of scientific writing by providing a study that is focused on a culturally-restricted group of papers and distinguishes between the sources of the writings. Comments and descriptions on editorial and translation practices will also be provided.