Restoro d'Arezzo
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Ristoro or Restoro d'Arezzo was an Italian monk of the 13th century, author of the Composizione del Mondo[1] of c. 1282.
This is the first astronomical work to be written in Italian (Tuscan).[2] It contains also, as its title (The Composition of the World) suggests, geological theories: these covered the internal structure of a spherical shell Earth, fossils, and erosion, amongst others.
He observed a solar eclipse in 1239 and noted the exact time spend in totality.[3]
It has been claimed that Dante was familiar with Ristoro’s work.[4] Dante in the Quaestio de Aqua et Terra dated to 1320 did consider related matters.[5]
References
- Alberto Morino (editor) (Lavis, La Finestra editrice 2006), La composizione del mondo, Restoro d'Arezzo
Notes
- ↑ Called a ‘vernacular astronomy primer’
- ↑ In fact the first scientific work in Italian; see the external link. Also it is the first Italian prose work.
- ↑ Peter Pesic Sky in a Bottle Cambridge MA:2005- MIT Press Page 27
- ↑ Dante Alighieri.
- ↑ There has been some past scholarly controversy over whether this work really is by Dante.
External links
- (Italian) PDF on the mineralogy of the Compositione with English summary here as HTML
