Page 85 - Mediterranea 43

Reading Il Caffè: scientific method and economic knowledge in the “School of Milan” 291

Cresippo, by the future Inspector of the Milan Mint, Sebastiano Franci,
declares: «I should go on at great length, should I wish to represent in
detail the worth and usefulness of agriculture; my intent is simply to
give you a sufficing [sic] idea to make you fall in love with this science,
which, Columella declares: tam discentibus egeat, quam magistris
(lacks pupils as well as teachers)». Franci praises «the learned masters»
who have engaged their «sublime capacities in investigating the secrets
of nature», among whom Linnaeus, and adds:

Do not take into any great account the knowledge of the farmers: this pro-
duces only a simple, trivial, practice - the same employed by their great, great
grandparents and which was never able to advance the science of agriculture
by an iota. […] The idiocy and the simplicity of these poor folk should not,
however, dispense you from loving them tenderly and considering them the
chief support of human society, in which they have a more important role
than that of those who have themselves drawn about the city in handsome
coaches. You are dedicated to an art which is the most useful among the
earthly sciences, which has been the delight of many crowned heads and was
very common to the most powerful citizens, to the conquerors of the world
43
who were the Romans .
The continuous oscillation between social elitism and an opening
towards professional – when not authentically popular – knowledge, is
one of the most typical marks of the style, both as to content and as to
44
language, of Il Caffè. In Some Legislation on Pedantry . (‘Saggio di leg-
islazione sul pedantismo’), Alessandro Verri seems to be joining the
discussion to save Franci’s pessimistic vision, hitching up forms of
knowledge with varied social origins to the wagon of true science, so
long as their method shares the same urge towards rigor. «In the
sciences and in letters – in every human learning, I dare say – all
kinds of coin are necessary», as Alessandro puts it metaphorically;
«big, small, of gold or of silver, for as in a State from large gold coins
men descend to those in copper or in silver, so that each of them may
be facilitated in trade, while whoever cannot spend a doubloon spends
a paolo, so likewise it is the case to proceed in the sciences». The par-
allelism between science and trade, intrinsically democratic, opens
then, in the purest traditional Enlightened stance, new ways to the
formulation of the cognitive itinerary of which the Lombard circle is
proud spokesman. «Let all men participate, if possible; let the simple
laborer know the tenth part of what the enlightened man knows, let

43 FR1, 60-71, 71-2.
44 FR1, 133-40.

n.43 Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XV - Agosto 2018
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)