L'Italo-Americano

HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS PEOPLE www.italoamericano.org 8 THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023 L'Italo-Americano I nstinctively, you say: " G a l i l e o ! " U p o n reflection, you proba- bly remember it was Hans. But what if I told you that the person who invented the telescope was the one and only Leonardo da Vinci? This is the con- clusion researchers came to, after consulting documents k e p t a t t h e A m b r o s i a n a L i b r a r y i n M i l a n a n d a t the Académie Française, in Paris. Let's take a step back and l o o k i n t o w h a t w e k n o w about the telescope and its invention. Dutch optician Hans Lippershey is widely credited with inventing the telescope in 1608 when he sought patent protection for a device that would magnify objects in the distance. Sev- e r a l o t h e r i n v e n t o r s w e r e also working on comparable devices at the same time, and t h e c o n c e p t o f e m p l o y i n g lenses to magnify objects had been around for centuries. Astronomers and scientists were quick to recognize the t e l e s c o p e ' s p o t e n t i a l f o r studying the cosmos, regard- less of who really invented it. Galileo Galilei was one of the first prominent tele- s c o p e u s e r s . I n 1 6 0 9 , h e brought together, in a fash- ion typical of the Renais- sance's scientific revolution, new theoretical approaches in the field of optics and the craftsmanship of Dutch arti- sans, to create a small tele- scope, which he then perfec- tioned over the years. With it, he was to make a number of significant discoveries, including that… the Earth wasn't at the center of the Universe, as it was common- ly believed back then. We all know what happened after that, right? The Church tra- ditionally upheld a geocen- tric view of the Universe, which asserted that Earth was at the center of the cos- mos and that all other heav- enly bodies rotated around it. Galileo's telescope discov- eries were considered a chal- l e n g e t o t h i s l o n g - h e l d assumption. Needless to say, our favorite astronomer was a c c u s e d o f h e r e s y a n d imprisoned. It would take t h e C h u r c h 3 5 9 y e a r s t o a d m i t h e d i d n ' t c o m m i t heresy. If we stick to this short narrative, Lippershey would be the inventor of the tele- scope, and Galileo, let us say, its most famous early user. So what's the deal with L e o n a r d o ? W e l l , h e h a d already come out with the first working telescope in 1492! Thanks to his research on the waves created when an object falls on a calm and undisturbed horizontal sur- face of water, Leonardo con- cluded that both light and sound traveled through the air in the form of waves. According to an article pub- l i s h e d i n L a R e p u b b l i c a , L e o n a r d o f i n e - t u n e d i t s 1 4 9 2 i n v e n t i o n i n 1 5 0 8 , when he placed a plano-con- vex lens (the objective) in a tube and, at the other end, h e a l i g n e d a d i v e r g e n t b i c o n c a v e l e n s ( t h e e y e - piece). By doing so, he man- aged to reach a magnifying p o w e r o f a b o u t 4 0 % . Descriptions of the object a r e f o u n d i n t h e C o d e x A t l a n t i c u s a t t h e A m b r o s i a n a L i b r a r y i n Milan and in manuscripts A, E and F kept at the Acadé- mie Française. These manu- scripts had gone missing for centuries and were found in 1889 by Félix Ravaisson Mollien (1813-1900) who, however, could not interpret them fully. Now, Ravaisson Mollien wasn't some ran- dom man, he was a philoso- pher and writer, who had been named by Napoleon III curator of the classical art section at the Louvre. Yet, w h e n f a c i n g L e o n a r d o ' s d r a w i n g s i n m a n u s c r i p t F, folio 53 verso, he didn't recognize a telescope, but rather two separate lenses to be used respectively indoors and outdoors. L e t u s g o b a c k t o t h e Renaissance, and to the end of the 16th century. Appar- ently, a copy of Leonardo's prototype was brought to the Netherlands in 1590 and it was this object that inspired Hans Lippershey to build a similar model. As we said, L i p p e r s h e y ' s i n s t r u m e n t predates the one built by Galileo of several years. S o , L i p p e r s h e y a n d Galileo may have developed it and made it famous, but Leonardo seems to be the one who invented the tele- scope. It may come as news t o u s , b u t i n t r u t h , researchers and scientists h a v e k n o w n f o r q u i t e a while: in 1930, Italian math- e m a t i c i a n D o m e n i c o A r g e n t i e r i s t a t e d q u i t e clearly, contrarily to what Ravaisson Mollien believed, that Leonardo was indeed the father of the telescope: he had studied the artist's n o t e s a n d d r a w i n g s a n d came to the conclusion that w h a t w a s d e p i c t e d a n d described was an early type of telescope. Not everyone a g r e e d w i t h A r g e n t i e r i , though. Many, in fact, spoke against his theory, including astronomer Pio Emanuelli and physicist Vasco Ronchi. So, in conclusion, what's the answer to our question? Who's the mind behind the c r e a t i o n o f t h e telescope? Hans Lippershey, Galileo or Leonardo? It may be just right to admit that it was a common endeavor: if i t ' s t r u e t h a t L e o n a r d o ' s intuitions and early proto- type may be at the heart of the invention, it is undeni- able that the practical contri- bution of Lippershey and the ingenuity of Galileo in merg- i n g t o g e t h e r s c i e n c e a n d crafts all brought Leonardo's creation a step closer to per- fection. Let's just say that, as i t o f t e n h a p p e n s w h e n i t comes to creativity, ingenu- i t y , a n d l i f e - c h a n g i n g moments in the history of Humankind it's, more often than not, a joined effort. Drawings of several types of telescope (Photo: Artur Balitskii/Dreamstime) Galileo, Hans or Leonardo? Who really invented the telescope? FRANCESCA BEZZONE

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