Thek@ Favaro - Chronology

1847

Antonio Favaro, born in Padua on 21 May to Giuseppe Favaro, a mathematician, and Caterina Turri, the descendant of a family steeped in Italian patriotism who came from the Polesine area.

1863

Antonio Favaro completes his school-leaving qualification at the “Santo Stefano” gymnasium in Padua where he is taught by Giacomo Zanella whom he will always remember vividly, recalling Zanella as the first to have introduced him to a work of Galileo’s.

1866

Favaro takes his degree at the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Padua where he had been taught by Giusto Bellavitis, Serafino Rafaele Minich, Gustavo Bucchia, Domenico Turazza and Giovanni Santini. One of the “most hot-headed” among the students, in thrall to the Risorgimento myth of Galileo, he had taken part in demonstrations against the Austrian police, forcing the Rector to display Galileo’s fifth vertebra to purify the university halls defiled by an incursion of imperial soldiers.

Pasquale Villari publishes the inaugural lecture to his course in history at the Istituto di Studi Superiori in Florence, La filosofia positiva e il metodo storico, a text that will become the manifesto of historical positivism, in the periodical “Il politecnico”.

1869

On 28 June Favaro obtains the title of engineer from the Scuola di Applicazione in Turin, presenting a thesis on the tunnel through the Cottian Alps which had a markedly positivist tone thanks to the constant rhetoric on progress and the long introductory historical analysis. The work will become his first publication, followed by a group of writings on civil engineering and applied mathematics.

For a few months he attends the Polytechnic in Zurich at the time that Karl Cullmann, a railway engineer considered to be the founder of graphic statics, was teaching there.

1870

Favaro is appointed to the University of Padua as assistant to Domenico Turazza. He soon has to take over from Turazza during the latter’s long absence, assuming responsibility for the teaching of applied mathematics (rational mechanics). He teaches his first lesson on 7 June.

On 20 June he is made associate member of the Società degli ingegneri e degli industriali in Turin.

He begins his enduring collaboration with the “Rivista periodica dei lavori [later Atti e memorie] dell’Accademia di scienze, lettere ed arti in Padova”, a periodical which will see the publication of some of his most important writings on Galileo, with a contribution on the tunnel through the Cottian Alps.

1872

Having advanced quickly from libero docente to professore incaricato, Favaro is appointed professore straordinario of Static Graphics, a subject he will teach for decades, finally becoming full professor in 1882. Throughout his career he will also teach higher calculus (infinitesimal analysis) and projective geometry.

Sulle prime operazioni del calcolo grafico is published, the first of a long and significant series of contributions he will write for the “Atti dell’Istituto veneto di sciencze, lettere ed arti”.

The year of the first extant letters of Favaro’s correspondence, not all of which has survived, with the Roman prince Baldassarre Boncompagni, a historian of science, whom Favaro will honour as a master of rigour in the search for documentation and in the use of original sources, remembering his “widely known standards of scrupulous precision which he pushed to exaggeration”.

1874

Favaro starts what will become a frequent and long-lasting collaboration with the “Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche” edited by Baldassare Boncompagni, publishing his first work on a historical theme, Notizie storiche sulle frazioni continue dal secolo decimoterzo al decimosettimo, which follows on from a group of previously published youthful writings on civil engineering and applied mathematics.

1875

On 15 July Favaro is made full member of the Accademia di scienza, lettere ed arti in Padua.

On 9 September he marries Giuseppina, the daughter of Domenico Turazza.

He begins his relationship with Raffaello Caverni whom he had contacted for information relating to Caverni’s book Problemi naturali di Galileo Galilei e di altri autori della sua scuola, published the previous year.

1876

During the summer Favaro contacts Domenico Berti to whom he sends the review he had written of Berti’s book Copernico e le vicende del sistema copernicano in Italia nella seconda metà del secolo XVI e nella prima del XVII, which had recently been published in the “Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik”, founded among others by Moritz Cantor. Favaro will remember Berti for having urged him not to dissipate his energies by working on too many subjects, but rather to concentrate on the field of Galileo studies.

During the course of the year he publishes a group of writings on seismology in various periodicals.

1877

The Lezioni di statica grafica is published in Padua by Francesco Sacchetto, a partial lithographic version of which had already been published in 1873 by the printers Fracanzani. A Spanish and a French translation furnished with a long historical introduction soon follow.

Birth of Giuseppe, son of Antonio Favaro and Giuseppina Turazza on 1 May.

1878

In his capacity as libero docente Favaro begins his course on the history of mathematics, a course he will continue to teach until 1911 when it will be abolished in line with the legislation on higher education.

He initiates what will prove to be a rich series of contributions on the history of the University of Padua, publishing Lo Studio di Padova e la Compagnia di Gesù sul finire del secolo decimosesto in the “Atti dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti”, and most importantly La storia delle matematiche nella Università di Padova. Lettera a Don Baldassarre Boncompagni in the “Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche”, in which he underlines the importance of a knowledge of history for scientific research, defining “the historical method not only as having great intrinsic benefit in the study of the sciences, but also as a powerful instrument in the hands of the teacher”.

Birth of Maddalena, daughter of Antonio Favaro and Giuseppina Turazza on 23 June.

1879

Favaro’s well-known and important essay Intorno alla vita e alle opere di Prosdocimo de’ Beldomandi, matematico padovano del secolo XV, a portrayal of the teaching of pure and applied mathematics in Padua in the 15^th century, is published in the “Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche”.

Philippe Tamizey de Larroque with whom Favaro will maintain a regular correspondence brings out the first of twenty one volumes of Les correspondants de Peiresc which is published by Noubel et Lamy of Agen. Subsequent volumes continue to be brought out by different publishers until 1897.

1880

Favaro publishes his first writing on Galileo, Le aggiunte autografe di Galileo al Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi nell’esemplare posseduto dalla Biblioteca del Seminario di Padova, in the “Atti dell’Accademia di scienze, lettere ed arti di Modena”.

In May he visits Florence and for the first time consults the Galileo manuscripts at the Bibilioteca Nazionale.

During this stay he meets Cesare Guasti, who was then the director of the Archivio di Stato in Florence, whom he will recall as the first judge of his project to create an edition of the works of Galileo, remembering with gratitude Guasti’s encouragement to take the project forward.

The Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti announces the Tomasoni competition, offering an award of 5000 lire for the publication of the best work on the history of experimental method in Italy. The deadline is put forward to 1889 after the failure to agree a winner within the established timescale.

1881

On 29 May Favaro is made full member of the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti.

Through Cesare Guasti, Favaro meets Isidoro Del Lungo who will accompany him along the path of the edition of Galileo’s works and with whom he will develop a strong and sincere friendship that will last all his life. One of the most active and esteemed academicians of the Crusca, Isidoro Del Lungo promotes and encourages Favaro’s undertaking, seeing in the works of Galileo an invaluable source for the compilation of the Vocabolario. Favaro will describe Del Lungo as “first a valuable advisor, then a highly revered friend” and will honour their association as “possibly a not very frequent example of agreement that came from reciprocal admiration which was nourished by a perfectly shared understanding kept alive in the face of grave obstacles by an unshakable faith in the highest ideal”.

At a meeting on 13 November of the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti Favaro presents his project for a new edition of the works of Galileo, only twenty five years after the final volume of Eugenio Albèri’s edition under the patronage of the Grand Duke of Tuscany had come out. Favaro’s report, entitled Intorno ad una nuova edizione delle opere di Galileo, is published in the “Atti” the following year.

1882

Favaro is appointed to the chair of Static Graphics, a position he will continue to occupy in the following decades.

1883

Thanks to the involvement of Isidoro Del Lungo, Favaro brings out Galileo e lo Studio di Padova, the first significant collection of documents reconstructing the eighteen years that Galileo spent in Padua, published in Florence by Successori Le Monnier in two volumes.

He brings Raffaello Caverni into the project for a new edition of the works of Galileo, charging him with arranging and providing a commentary on Galileo’s writings on motion.

1884

Alcuni scritti inediti di Galileo Galilei tratti dai manoscritti della Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze edited by Favaro, one of his most important compilations of unknown material from the Galileo collection, comes out in the “Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche”.

In November, the publishing house Successori Le Monnier, having initially been due to publish the national edition of the works of Galileo, begins to interest the Ministry of Education in the project in an attempt to obtain royal patronage for it, proposing the appointment of Favaro and Raffaello Caverni as science editors, with Isidoro Del Lungo responsible for the philological aspects.

1885

On 1 February Favaro is made full member of the Deputazione veneta di storia patria.

He publishes the first of his writings on Leonardo da Vinci, Gli scritti inediti di Leonardo da Vinci secondo gli ultimi studi, in the “Atti dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti”.

Documenti inediti per la storia dei manoscritti galileiani nella Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze, the first documented reconstruction of how the papers of Galileo and his disciples came into the Galileo collection, is published in the “Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche”.

Ferdinando Martini, having been elected secretary general of the Ministry of Education the previous year, urges the government to allocate funds for the national edition of Galileo. This leads to a resumption of negotiations with the publishers which had floundered in previous months.

1886

Favaro publishes in the “Atti e memorie dell’Accademia di scienze, lettere ed arti in Padova” the first of a series of twenty four Scampoli galileiani, a collection of notes, snippets of information and documents which continues to come out until 1914.

In collaboration with Alarico Carli, Favaro completes the catalogue of the Galileo collection at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence which still preserves Carli’s handwritten copy. The work is entered in a competition held by the Ministry of Education for the best catalogue of a manuscript collection, but although awarded a prize is never published.

Favaro persuades Raffaello Caverni to write his Storia del metodo sperimentale in Italia for submission to the Tomasoni competition held by the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti.

Favaro’s meticulous work with commentary on the Carteggio inedito di Ticone Brahe, Giovanni Keplero e di altri celebri astronomi e matematici dei secoli XVI e XVII con Giovanni Antonio Magini tratto dall’Archivio Malvezzi de’ Medici in Bologna is published in Bologna by Zanichelli.

Concerned about the less than flourishing state of the Successori Le Monnier publishing house which risks compromising the successful outcome of the national edition, Favaro advises the Ministry of Education to contact other firms. The Florentine company Barbèra agrees to undertake the publication of the Opere di Galileo Galilei as a business risk, entrusting the editorship to Favaro and Isidoro Del Lungo.

1887

On 20 February a royal decree is promulgated which makes the expenses for the new edition of Galileo the responsibility of the state, placing the project under the patronage of the Ministry of Education headed at the time by Michele Coppini.

The Minister of Education Michele Coppino appoints as science advisers to the national edition of Galileo Gilberto Govi, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli and Angelo Genocchi, who however dies shortly afterwards and whose place is taken by Valentino Cerruti. Govi and Schiaparelli in particular play an important role in the choice of criteria to be adopted for the Opere di Galileo Galilei project.

Favaro publishes a circular letter in Italian, English, French and German to be sent to the most important cultural institutions in Europe and to periodicals worldwide in which he asks for collaboration in finding documents and texts of Galileo for the national edition.

On 12 April an unsigned letter with polemical overtones comes out in “La nazione”, Florence’s daily newspaper, written by the proprietor Niccolò Nobili, who was a shareholder and partner in the Successori Le Monnier publishing house. From it Raffaello Caverni finds out that he is no longer part of the group of science editors of the national edition. For this he blames Favaro, unaware that in addition to the ministerial decision not to furnish the new edition with an explanatory commentary his name had been vetoed by Gilberto Govi. From that moment on relations between Caverni and Favaro begin to cool and Caverni gradually reduces and eventually ceases his collaboration in the work on Galileo’s writings on motion.

The Successori Le Monnier publishing house, which had been excluded from the Opere di Galileo Galilei project, puts forward a suggestion for printing a cheap edition which would exactly reproduce, but in a smaller format, the volumes to be published by Barbèra for the national edition.

Following his earlier receipt of the titles of Knight and Officer, on 19 June Favaro is awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy.

A substantial collection of studies and research articles on Galileo edited by Favaro, Miscellanea galileiana indedita, comes out in the “Memorie dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti”.

1888

The first differences of opinion as to how the texts should be edited begin to emerge between Isidoro Del Lungo, who is primarily interested in the linguistic aspects, and Favaro, who is concerned that an over-weighty critical apparatus and the use of archaic spellings could obscure the philosophical and scientific meaning of Galileo’s works. The disagreements continue for some time, widening to include on the one hand the science advisers of the national edition and on the other some of the major exponents of the Florentine school of philology, and drive Isidoro Del Lungo to suspend his work and even to threaten his resignation. They are settled just before the first volume of the edition comes out thanks to Favaro’s conciliatory mediation.

The Martinus Nijhoff publishing house in The Hague brings out the first volume of the Œuvres complètes of Christiaan Huygens, an edition that will be completed in 1950 with the publication of volume XXII. Following the publication of the first volume and for several years prior to his death, the mathematician David Bierens de Haan, president of the committee overseeing the edition, is in correspondence with Favaro and maintains a productive exchange of information with him.

1889

In February the Minister of Education Paolo Borselli agrees to the request of Favaro and Isidoro Del Lungo to appoint Umberto Marchesini as assistant editor of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei.

In Florence the Successori Le Monnier publishing house brings out the third part of the first volume of Giordano Bruno’s Opera latine conscripta which will from then on be edited by Felice Tocco and Girolamo Vitelli. The edition, the first parts of which edited by Francesco Fiorentino, Vittorio Imbriani and Carlo Maria Tallarigo had been published in Naples, become the target of Favaro’s criticism because of the “photographic” criteria adopted in preparing the text.

1890

As a result of Favoro’s favourable report to the judges of the Tomasoni competition on 6 February at the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, Raffaello Caverni’s Storia del metodo sperimentale in Italia is awarded the 5000 lire prize.

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume I of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s early works up to and including De motu. Only 500 copies of each volume, unavailable for purchase, are published and the small scale of the print run leads to protests over the “secret edition.”

The Successori Le Monnier publishing house brings out volume I of Le opere di Galileo Galilei, ristampate fedelmente sopra la edizione nazionale con approvazione del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. This is a cheaper version of the national edition that was planned as part of the original project and was intended for a wider public, but is never continued beyond this first and only volume.

1891

On 20 January Favaro is awarded the title of Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest honour of the French state.

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume II of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s writings and material from his years in Padua.

Favaro publishes, again with Barbèra, Galileo Galilei e Suor Maria Celeste, the complete edition of the letters of Virginia Galilei to her father, together with a reconstruction of the interactions among Galileo’s family during the course of his life.

Favaro publishes Nuovi studi galileiani in the “Memorie dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti”, a compilation of important unedited works and material which are then in part included in the volumes of the national edition

Irritated at not only having been excluded from the group in charge of the national edition but also by the regulation of the Tomasoni competition which foresaw payment of the prize money after the work had been published, Raffaello Caverni breaks definitively with Favaro. They had already become distant over a number of years, Caverni having accused Favaro to the authorities of the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti of writing his report for the competition on the basis of a résumé that had been expressly requested in order to save himself the effort of reading the whole manuscript.

The Civelli publishing house in Florence brings out the first volume of Caverni’s Storia del metodo sperimentale in Italia, the subsequent volumes of which are then published in parallel with the volumes of the national edition. It is only years later that Favaro will become aware of the substantial changes that had been made to the original manuscript as it was prepared for publication, as well as of Caverni’s blunt opinions with regard not only to Galileo but also to the editors of the national edition of Galileo’s works. Favaro and Isidoro Del Lungo decide to ignore Caverni’s volumes and not to respond publicly in order to avoid fruitless arguments or some other “poisonous insinuation … to the detriment of the dead in order to denigrate the living”.

The first of four volumes of the Œuvres de Fermat edited by Paul Tannery and Charles Henry is published in Paris by the Gauthier-Villars et fils publishing and printing house under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. Publication is completed in 1912 and a supplement, edited by Cornelis de Waard, comes out in 1922. All the editors, in particular Paul Tannery, become part of Favaro’s correspondence network.

1892

On the occasion of the solemn celebration of the third centenary of Galileo’s teaching at the University of Padua, Favaro is commissioned to commemorate the eighteen years that Galileo spent in Padua on behalf of the university. His address is then published in Florence by Barbèra.

The Barbèra printing house brings out the first part of volume III of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains the Siderus nuncius and other related writings. On this occasion Vittorio Lami is made assistant to Isidoro Del Lungo in editing the text.

The first of six biographical portraits that Favaro devotes to the Oppositori di Galileo comes out in the “Atti dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti”, the last of which is published in 1921.

The Minister of Education, Pasquale Villari, who had never concealed his opposition to the national edition, informs Favaro of the decision to suspend publication of the cheaper edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei because the Ministry is unable to meet the expenses which have been judged to be excessive. The first volume is thus the only one to be published, and Favaro will on several occasions hold Pasquale Villari responsible for this choice.

1893

On 15 January Favaro is awarded the title of Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Spanish authorities.

1894

The Barbèra printing house brings out volume IV of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s writings on the debate relating to floating bodies.

Favaro publishes in the “Atti dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti” the first of forty one contributions to the series Amici e corrispondenti di Galileo, which continues to come out until 1919.

1895

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume V of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains the debate on sunspots and Galileo’s writings in defence of the Copernican system.

The third and final corrected and enlarged edition of Favaro’s Lezioni di geometria proiettiva is printed in Padua by Francesco Sacchetto.

1896

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume VI of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Il saggiatore, the writings on the debate about comets, as well as other writings from the same period on various subjects.

Seven years after the start of the print run of the series “Indici e cataloghi” under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, the Bibliografia galileiana (1568-1895), collected with commentary by Favaro in collaboration with Alarico Carli, is brought out.

1897

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume VII of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains the Discorso sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo as well as other related writings.

In Paris, under the auspices of the Minister of Education, the Léopold Cerf publishing house brings out the first of the thirteen volumes of the Œuvres de Descartes edited by Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, which continue to be published until 1913. When Tannery dies, Favaro recalls their “shared purpose in work and the quarter century of lively scientific correspondence that went hand in hand with a very cordial friendship”.

1898

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume VIII of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains the Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze together with related fragments, the Lettera sopra il candor lunare, in addition to other writings on various subjects.

1899

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume IX of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s writings on literature.

1900

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume X of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1574 to 1610. The cover and the title page are black-edged in mourning, following the assassination of King Umberto I.

1901

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XI of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1611 to 1613.

Favaro entrusts the compilation of the indexes for the national edition to Edmondo Solmi in what will prove to be an unsuccessful collaboration.

1902

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XII of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1614 to 1619.

1903

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XIII of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1620 to 1628.

1904

On 13 March the national edition of the works of Giuseppe Mazzini is inaugurated by royal decree, with publication due to begin a couple of years later. The intention of the Minister of Education Vittorio Emanuele Orlando is to finance the new project by significantly reducing the funds destined for the Opere di Galileo Galilei which would have resulted in the Galileo project being suspended. The determination with which Favaro defends the right to continue the publication of the volumes of correspondence, which are already at an advanced stage, successfully counters the threat and allows him to bring the whole project to completion.

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XIV of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1629 to 1632.

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XV of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence of 1633.

1905

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XVI of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1634 to 1636.

Favaro is elected president of the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, a position he will hold for two years.

1906

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XVII of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1637 to 1638.

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XVIII of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s correspondence from 1639 to 1642.

Favaro’s article Leonardo da Vinci e Galileo Galilei comes out in the “Raccolta vinciana”, thus starting a collaboration which will see the publication of various other of Favaro’s contributions connected to Leonardo.

At a meeting of the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti on 22 April, Favaro commemorates Fedele Lampertico, praising Lampertico for the help Lampertico had given in his role as senator to the completion of the national edition of Galileo. This had played an important part in overcoming “the difficulties that, given the fluctuation of administrations, are unfortunately a feature of works promoted by the state”.

1907

The Barbèra publishing house brings out the second part of volume III of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains Galileo’s calculations and observations of the Medici planets (the moons of Jupiter), many reproduced as facsimiles of the originals in Galileo’s hand.

In a volume entitled Galileo e l’Inquisizione edited by Favaro the Barbèra publishing house prints in their entirety and for the first time (with the exception of a small run of only thirty copies that had come out in advance in 1902) the documents relating to Galileo’s trial extant in the Archives of the Holy Office (Inquisition) and the Vatican Secret Archive. The volume constitutes an independent extract of material published in volume XIX of the national edition, edited by Favaro. He is unsuccessful in obtaining permission to consult the documents of the Florentine Inquisition and those in the Archdiocesan Archives in Florence which will be published the following year by the Florentine publishing house Libreria edited by Michele Cioni.

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XIX of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains personal documentation relating to Galileo and his family and biographical accounts of Galileo by his contemporaries.

Favaro terminates the participation of Edmondo Solmi due to his dissatisfaction with the work undertaken, and himself takes on the compilation of the indexes of the national edition with the help of Umberto Marchesini.

1909

The Barbèra publishing house brings out volume XX of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, which contains indexes and a supplement to the correspondence and to the documentary collection.

1910

At a meeting of the Accademia della Crusca on 30 January Favaro celebrates the completion of the national edition of Galileo’s works, retracing all the stages of the enterprise including the inadequacies of previous attempts. His text, entitled Galileo e le edizioni delle sue opere, is subsequently published in the “Atti”.

On 7 July Favaro is awarded the title of Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, following his previous award of the titles of Knight, Officer and Commander.

As part of the “Profili” series published by the Formiggini publishing house of Modena, Favaro brings out the volume dedicated to Galileo (No. 10) which is destined to enjoy great success in the years to come, as indeed does the whole series. This brief profile will come to constitute Favaro’s principle work dedicated to the life and works of Galileo since the projected large-scale work, a synthesis which Favaro claimed as “truly and exclusively” his own, fails to materialise.

Favaro edits the selection made for Galileo Galilei. Pensieri, motti e sentenze tratti dalla edizione nazionale delle opere, an elegant small, pocket-sized volume, only eleven centimetres high, brought out by the Barbèra publishing house.

Leonardo da Vinci, published in Milan by Fratelli Treves, includes Favaro’s contribution Leonardo nella storia delle scienze sperimentali. This is the text of one of the lectures delivered in Florence as part of a series organised in 1906 by the Società Leonardo da Vinci in which Favaro evaluated Leonardo’s work in the context of the history of science, underlining the essential role played by the manuscripts in understanding his thought.

1911

The Sansoni publishing house brings out the first of the so-called popular editions edited by Favaro and Isidoro Del Lungo, La prosa di Galileo per saggi criticamente disposti ad uso scolastico e di cultura, an anthology with commentary of Galileo’s works.

Favaro receives the Binoux Prize awarded by the Académie des sciences in Paris for work in the history of science for his editorship of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo.

1912

Following his short biography of Galileo for the “Profili” series published by the Formiggini publishing house of Modena, Favaro brings out the volume on Archimedes (No. 21).

1913

Favaro publishes the first of a series of contributions about iconography, his Studi e ricerche per una iconografia galileiana, in the “Atti dell’Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti”. The plan for a comprehensive study of representations of Galileo in the figurative arts through the centuries is never completed.

1914

Favaro is appointed director of the Scuola di Applicazione for engineers in Padua, a position he will hold until 1917.

1915

The second of the so-called popular editions edited by Favaro and Isidoro Del Lungo, Dal carteggio e dai documenti: pagine di vita di Galileo, a chronologically-based selection with commentary and equipped with various indexes, is published by the Sansoni publishing house.

At a meeting on 23 May of the Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti Favaro presents his Quarant’anni di studi galileiani, a survey of his writings on his favourite theme, beginning with his review of Domenico Berti’s volume, Copernico e le vicende del sistema copernicano in Italia nella seconda metà del secolo XVI e nella prima del XVII. The text is published in the “Atti” the following year, preceded by two analogous surveys covering the twenty and thirty years since Favaro’s first contribution involving Galileo.

1916

Favaro publishes the first of a series of seven essays dedicated to the Adversaria galileiana in the “Atti e memorie dell’Accademia di scienze, lettere ed arti in Padova”, the last of which comes out posthumously in 1923.

1918

On 16 March Favaro is elected corresponding member of the Accademia dei Lincei. Previously he had on several occasions voiced his suspicion that he was not viewed positively by the Academy which, in his opinion, was reluctant to accept that an enterprise as significant and important as the national edition of Galileo’s works could become the responsibility of someone outside the Academy.

In June he is elected member of the new Commissione vinciana, under the presidency of Mario Cermenati. The Commission had been given responsibility for the project and editorship of the national edition of the works of Leonardo da Vinci.

1919

In the tenth issue of the “Raccolta vinciana” Favaro publishes a long article entitled Passato, presente e avvenire delle edizioni vinciane which contains a wealth of information on the history of Leonardo’s manuscripts, on the various attempts to publish them and on the methodological rules to be observed in preparing the complete edition.

1920

On 10 June Favaro is made Knight Grand Cross with cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy.

1921

On 11 December Favaro is awarded the title of Knight of the Civil Order of Savoy.

1922

Favaro brings out his last important undertaking, the Saggio di bibliografia dello studio di Padova, as the R. Deputazione veneta di storia patria’s contribution to the celebrations of the seventh centenary of the University of Padua published by Officine Grafiche C. Ferrari of Venice.

Favaro dies unexpectedly in Padua on 30 September.

A strictly private funeral is held in accordance with Favaro’s wishes. He is buried in the Cimitero Maggiore in Padua.

At a meeting of the Accademia dei Lincei on 19 November, Isidoro Del Lungo commemorates Favaro. He uses the occasion to relaunch the idea of a popular edition of the works of Galileo, reviving Favaro’s previous plan for a cheaper edition of the national edition which had been blocked twenty years earlier by the Minister Pasquale Villari. Despite the unanimous approval of the Section of moral, historical and philological sciences and the president Vito Volterra the project fails to materialise.

1923

The posthumous edition of the nine books of Leonardo da Vinci’s Del moto e misura dell’acqua, compiled by Luigi Maria Arconati and edited by Favaro and Enrico Carusi based on the archetype Barberini codex, is published by the Zanichelli publishing house in Bologna.

The small volume Gilberto Govi ed i suoi scritti intorno a Leonardo, a profile of Govi and a collection of works by him on Leonardo, edited by Favaro and preceded by an obituary of Favaro who had died the previous year by Mario Cermenati, is brought out in the series “Vinciani d’Italia: biografie e scritti”, a publication of the Istituto di studi vinciani in Rome directed by Cermenati, printed by the P. Maglione e C. Strini successori E. Loescher publishing house.

1929

Under the patronage of the King of Italy and Benito Mussolini, the Barbèra publishing house brings out the first volume of the reprint of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei, supplemented by various additions, a project that will continue for the next ten years up to and including the final volume in celebration of the “Italic genius”. The work is directed initially by Antonio Garbassi and then by Giorgio Abetti. Angelo Bruschi and Enrico Fermi alternate as science advisers, with Guido Mazzoni as literary collaborator and Pietro Pagnini as assistant for textual editing. That same year Benito Mussolini signs the Lateran Pacts with the Holy See and the following year the Vatican canonises Robert Bellarmine.

1943

Giuseppe Favaro comes to an agreement that his father’s papers should become part of the collections of the Domus Galilaeana in Pisa which had been established two years previously at the instigation of Giovanni Gentile. After various delays due to the war, Antonio Favaro’s archive is handed over to the president Sebastiano Timpanaro Snr.

1964

The national committee charged with the programme of events for the celebration of the fourth centenary of Galileo’s birth launches the second reprint of the national edition of the Opere di Galileo Galilei under the patronage of the Italian president Giuseppe Saragat. Once again the publishing house is Barbèra. The compete run of twenty volumes takes two years to complete but is then destroyed in the flood of 1966. In 1968 the edition is reprinted again under the aegis of the Ministry of Education.