Project description
From philosophical study of nature of plants to contemporary biology and physiology
Scientists have directed attention to the long-forgotten, early modern period of philosophical studies of plants. In the 16th and 17th centuries, two distinct scholars – physician Andrea Cesalpino and, later, physiologist Marcello Malpighi, inspired by Aristotle’s works – created philosophical frameworks for studying the nature of plants, through their observations and principles of classification. Their work enabled development of a science of life. The EU-funded VegSciLif project supports an individual fellowship for investigating and reconstructing how those early concepts of vegetation and vegetal life led to the development of contemporary physiology, interconnected living systems and morphologies of the 18th century.
Objective
This three-year research project aims to explore the emergence of a philosophy and science of plants in the century that goes from Cesalpino’s De plantis (1583) to Malpighi’s Anatome plantarum (1679), which influenced the development of a new science of life. Although understudied, a new approach to the study of plants and vegetation surfaces in this period, bridging the gulf between natural historical efforts to classify plants and natural philosophical investigations of vegetal bodies. By means of overlooked sources, the main objective of this project is to reconstruct these philosophical examinations through 4 sub-objectives: (1) the appropriation and reinterpretation of Aristotelian biology in botany; (2) the development of alchemical and mechanical frameworks to understand vegetal life; (3) the definition of plants as a crucial subject to reinterpret the physiology of living bodies; (4) the collecting attraction to plants diversity, and monstrosity, which preludes to the philosophical perception of interconnected systems of life, forestalling biodiversity. While new scholarly attention has been recently devoted to the philosophical study of plants in the early modern period, the result of this research project will be a broad investigation into the concept of vegetation and vegetal life that paved the way to eighteenth century morphologies and systems of nature. This project will result into several articles and a scholarly book for historians of knowledge.
Dr Baldassarri has international experience in Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Israel, and has focused on the Cartesian understanding of plants and the mechanization of the vegetative soul. The development of this project will profoundly impact his career: training provided by Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and Bloomington Indiana University will help Baldassarri acquire new academic skills and boost his knowledge in connecting early modern science to contemporary biology and vegetal philosophy.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
30123 Venezia
Italy