From the late seventeenth century to the early decades of the eighteenth century, Europe witnessed the beginnings of an important change in the paradigms of interpretation of natural phenomena. A wholly novel approach to nature took shape in a variety of contexts. This new interest far exceeded the typical seventeenth-century enthusiasm for the “wonders of nature” and, in general, for all those “curious” objects that inhabited many personal collections, private museums and the so-called “rooms of wonders”. Rather, it came to represent a desire to gain an understanding of the formative processes of these and other natural phenomena. If, on one hand, scientists established innovative methods of inquiry and developed modern scientific theories, on the other hand, they started thinking about ways to transmit this new naturalistic knowledge to a wider audience, composed not only of scientists and specialists, but also of curious readers with an interest in science. Indeed, following the renowned work of Fontanelle, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (1686), numerous scholars started asking themselves what the most appropriate means of disseminating natural sciences might be, thus providing European readers with instruments to enhance and consolidate their rather basic scientific culture. Taking this general observation as its point of departure, this essay aims to reflect on one of the many trajectories along which similar discussions in eighteenth-century Italy developed, namely that relating to the reception of one of the most representative authors in the debate: the French abbot Nöel-Antoine Pluche. Following a brief biography of abbot Pluche and his distinctive pedagogical reflections on the importance of youth education, I will focus my attention on the main characteristics of his most relevant works: the Spectacle de la Nature (1732–1750), a real encyclopaedic bestseller, and the Histoire du ciel (1739). In particular, I will analyse the numerous Italian editions of both works. Drawing on theoretical and methodological approaches adopted in the Social and Cultural History of Ttranslations, I will examine the works’ principal versions that were printed in Venice and Naples, from the 1730s to the 1770s (not without also offering some reflections on the last, nineteenth-century versions). In doing so, I will seek to understand what editorial and translation strategies were adopted in the process of textual and paratextual adaptation, which aimed at circulating Pluche’s proposal among the Italian readership and making it suitable for different categories of readers. Additionally, I will aim to reconstruct the role of “cultural mediators” of the editors and translators who dedicated themselves to the two works; this will allow me to fathom their contribution to the processes of appropriation and re-elaboration of what has been the object of studies on other European contexts, relating to the “divulgation of natural science knowledge”.

Lo spettacolo della natura. La divulgazione delle conoscenze sui fenomeni naturali nell'Italia del primo Settecento / Alessia Castagnino. - ELETTRONICO. - (2021).

Lo spettacolo della natura. La divulgazione delle conoscenze sui fenomeni naturali nell'Italia del primo Settecento

Alessia Castagnino
2021

Abstract

From the late seventeenth century to the early decades of the eighteenth century, Europe witnessed the beginnings of an important change in the paradigms of interpretation of natural phenomena. A wholly novel approach to nature took shape in a variety of contexts. This new interest far exceeded the typical seventeenth-century enthusiasm for the “wonders of nature” and, in general, for all those “curious” objects that inhabited many personal collections, private museums and the so-called “rooms of wonders”. Rather, it came to represent a desire to gain an understanding of the formative processes of these and other natural phenomena. If, on one hand, scientists established innovative methods of inquiry and developed modern scientific theories, on the other hand, they started thinking about ways to transmit this new naturalistic knowledge to a wider audience, composed not only of scientists and specialists, but also of curious readers with an interest in science. Indeed, following the renowned work of Fontanelle, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (1686), numerous scholars started asking themselves what the most appropriate means of disseminating natural sciences might be, thus providing European readers with instruments to enhance and consolidate their rather basic scientific culture. Taking this general observation as its point of departure, this essay aims to reflect on one of the many trajectories along which similar discussions in eighteenth-century Italy developed, namely that relating to the reception of one of the most representative authors in the debate: the French abbot Nöel-Antoine Pluche. Following a brief biography of abbot Pluche and his distinctive pedagogical reflections on the importance of youth education, I will focus my attention on the main characteristics of his most relevant works: the Spectacle de la Nature (1732–1750), a real encyclopaedic bestseller, and the Histoire du ciel (1739). In particular, I will analyse the numerous Italian editions of both works. Drawing on theoretical and methodological approaches adopted in the Social and Cultural History of Ttranslations, I will examine the works’ principal versions that were printed in Venice and Naples, from the 1730s to the 1770s (not without also offering some reflections on the last, nineteenth-century versions). In doing so, I will seek to understand what editorial and translation strategies were adopted in the process of textual and paratextual adaptation, which aimed at circulating Pluche’s proposal among the Italian readership and making it suitable for different categories of readers. Additionally, I will aim to reconstruct the role of “cultural mediators” of the editors and translators who dedicated themselves to the two works; this will allow me to fathom their contribution to the processes of appropriation and re-elaboration of what has been the object of studies on other European contexts, relating to the “divulgation of natural science knowledge”.
2021
9788899808297
Alessia Castagnino
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