[656] Libri, Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques en Italie. 4 vols. Paris, 1838.
[657] To pronounce a conclusive judgment on this point, the growth of the habit of collecting observations, in other than the mathematical sciences, would need to be illustrated in detail. But this lies outside the limits of our task.
[658] Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 174 sqq. See also Dante’s treatise, De aqua et terra; and W. Schmidt, Dante’s Stellung in der Geschichte der Cosmographie, Graz, 1876. The passages bearing on geography and natural science from the Tesoro of Brunetto Latini are published separately: Il trattato della Sfera di S. Br. L., by Bart. Sorio (Milan, 1858), who has added B. L.’s system of historical chronology.
[659] Scardeonius, De urb. Patav. antiq. in Graevii Thesaur. ant. Ital. tom. vi. pars iii. col. 227. A. died in 1312 during the investigation; his statue was burnt. On Giov. Sang. see op. cit. col. 228 sqq. Comp. on him, Fabricius, Bibl. Lat. s. v. Petrus de Apono. Sprenger in Esch. u. Gruber, i. 33. He translated (a. 1292-1293) astrological works of Abraham ibn Esra, printed 1506.
[660] See below, part vi. chapter 2.
[661] See the exaggerated complaints of Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 258 sqq. Regrettable as it may be that a people so highly gifted did not devote more of its strength to the natural sciences, we nevertheless believe that it pursued, and in part attained, still more important ends.
[662] On the studies of the latter in Italy, comp. the thorough investigation by C. Malagola in his work on Codro Urceo (Bologna, 1878, cap. vii. 360-366).
[663] Italians also laid out botanical gardens in foreign countries, e.g. Angelo, of Florence, a contemporary of Petrarch, in Prag. Friedjung: Carl IV. p. 311, note 4.
[664] Alexandri Braccii descriptio horti Laurentii Med., printed as Appendix No. 58 to Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo. Also to be found in the Appendices to Fabroni’s Laurentius.
[665] Mondanarii Villa, printed in the Poemata aliquot insignia illustr. poetar. recent.