Robert Southwell and Vincenzio Viviani: Their Friendship and an Attempt at Italian-English Scientific Collaboration (Essay‪)‬

I. Introduction In the scientific institutions of Europe in the second half of the seventeenth century, friendships and alliances were formed. In France, Christiaan Huygens and Adrien Auzout spent many hours together observing the stars and their friendship helped to attract Huygens to Paris to partake in the city's fledgling scientific societies. (1) In Tuscany, in the Accademia del Cimento, Vincenzio Viviani, a noble courtier who claimed to be Galileo's last disciple, collaborated with the temperamental and brilliant Neopolitan mathematician Giovanni Borelli on a variety of experiments. (2) And in England, Robert Hooke, from a modest rural family, famously became an assistant to Robert Boyle, who was making his mark in Oxford and London intellectual circles through his reputation and connections. They both became important contributing Fellows of the early Royal Society of London. (3) These figures across Europe reputedly put aside their differences, including professional rivalries as well as personality and cultural clashes, in order to take part in scientific societies and produce collaborative advancements in the natural sciences, purportedly adopting an experimental philosophy and avoiding controversies and disputes over theoretical speculations and the subjective opinions of individuals. (4) Indeed, according to Michael Hunter, the spirit of collaboration and collegiality in London in the 1660s was so strong that gaining admission to the Society 'had much to do with friendship and personal recommendation'. (5) So there are known cases of alliances, and perhaps even friendships, forming within the early scientific institutions of the seventeenth century. These have been well documented.