Background

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili was born on July 10, 1658, in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy to the family of a nobleman, Carlo Marsili, and the former Margherita Ercolani.

Education

Although he did not complete his formal schooling, Marsili accumulated a vast knowledge of history, politics, geography, and the natural sciences. He supplemented his reading by studying mathematics, anatomy, and natural history helped by the best Bolognese tutors and enhanced by his personal observations. After a course of scientific studies in his native city, he traveled throughout Asia Minor collecting data on the Ottoman Empire's military organization, as well as on its natural history.

Career

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili served in the army of Emperor Leopold I from 1682 to 1704, attained high rank, and participated in the negotiations for the peace of Karlowitz - but also was wounded, imprisoned, and even suffered the humiliation of demotion. He traveled widely throughout Italy and the rest of Europe, particularly in the regions around the Danube, and made several long sea voyages (from Venice to Constantinople, from Leghorn to Amsterdam).

As a naturalist, with prudent sagacity, Marsili undertook the exploration of two basic subjects: the structure of the mountains and the natural condition of the sea, lakes, and rivers. He left many local observations concerning the structure of the mountains (noteworthy among them being those on the continuity of the linea gypsea, the gypsum-bearing strata in the hills of the Adriatic slope of the Apennines); accurate sketches of stratigraphic profiles; and even cartographic representations of particular geologic conditions, although he was far from grasping the geologic significance of the strata. Realizing this later, he gave up systematically elaborating his many “schedae pro structura orbis terraquei.”

The sea had fascinated Marsili since childhood. In 1681 he published a study of the Bosporus, the result of observations that he had made at age twenty. It contained valid findings, notably the discovery of a countercurrent with waters of different density beneath the surface current of the strait. He later traveled around the Mediterranean, doing research mainly along the coasts of the Romagna and Provence. The keenness of his mind often made up for the crudeness of his instruments during these travels. In 1724 he published the first treatise on oceanography, Historie physique de la mer. In it, he treated problems which until then had been veiled by error and legend. Marsili examined every aspect of the subject: the morphology of the basin and relationships between the lands under and above water; the water’s properties (color, temperature, salinity) and its motion (waves, currents, tides); and the biology of the sea, which foretold the advent of marine botany. Among the plants, he numbered animals like corals, which before his time had been regarded as inorganic matter.

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili studied Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, discussing its physical and biological aspects in a very valuable report, which remained unpublished until 1930. Marsili wrote a basic work on one of Europe’s greatest rivers, Danubius observationibus geographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus in 1726, in which he devoted much space to a study of the riverbed and of the waters, as well as to the flora and fauna, and the mineralogy and geology of the adjacent land.

Marsili was also a skilled organizer of scientific work. In 1712 he founded the Accademia delle Scienze dell’Istituto di Bologna, which, under his influence, immediately became an active center of scientific research, consisting mainly of natural history exploration of the area around Bologna. With Domenico Galeazzi, Marsili set an example in 1719 by climbing and studying Mount Cimone, the highest peak of the northern Apennines. When Marsili went to London in 1722, to be made a member of the Royal Society, Sir Isaac Newton insisted on presenting him personally and praised him in his speech as both an already famous scientist and a founder of the new Academy of Bologna.

Achievements

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  The Italian Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili who in 1711 founded the Academy of Sciences of Bologna, is internationally known for having played a significant role in the field of cartography, geography, oceanography (of which he is considered to be the founding father), zoology, botany, and geology. Marsili was very popular among his contemporaries. In 1691, he was admitted to the Royal Society of London and in 1715 to the Academy of Sciences of Paris; in 1722 he visited the Royal Society, where he was welcomed by an 80-year-old Isaac Newton. Notwithstanding, as a scientific pioneer, he has not been fully recognized, perhaps due to the fact that most of his works are partly still unpublished.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Relazioni dei confini della Croazia e della Transilvania a Sua Maestà Cesarea 1987
  • Histoire Physique de la Mer 1725
  • Prodromus Operis Danubialis 1720
  • Dissertatio De Generatione Fungorum 1714
  • Instrumentum Donationis Illustrissimi 1711
  • Brieve Ristretto Del Mare 1711
  • Remarques sur les manuscrits orientaux de la collection Marsigli à Bologne, suivies de la liste complète des manuscrits arabes de la meme collection 1885

Politics

Marsili’s political vision of science was also derived from a direct experience of the power apparatuses of the modern state, in the course of his career as a general in the Imperial Army and his acquaintance with the Viennese court. His researches on the Danube basin, from every standpoint, including cartography, astronomy (for calculating longitude), geology, mining, hydrology, natural history, later published in the six great volumes of his Danubius, were made possible thanks to vast financial resources and the work of hundreds of individuals who included engineers and artists. In Marsili’s mind, geography, as a multi-faceted discipline able to unify all knowledge of a particular location, thereby enabling its political control, was a necessary tool for the formation of state rulers both in peace and wartime.

Views

While much of his work dealt with the military sciences, history, and geography, he also made a name for himself as a naturalist. He combined a love of travel with the sharp eye of an observer imbued with the Galilean method. In his scientific activity, he was always guided by a prudent sagacity that once prompted this advice. Marsili was the precursor of the systematic oceanographic exploration that was to begin half a century later with the famous voyage of the Endeavour.

Quotations: "The modern method of observation is the right one, but it is still in its infancy, and we must not be so rash as to expect instantly to deduce systems from these observations; that is something which only our successors, after centuries of study by this method, will be able to do."

Membership

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  Royal Society , United Kingdom

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  French Academy of Sciences , France

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  Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna , Italy

Connections

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili was never married and had no children.

Father:

Carlo Marsili

Mother:

Margherita Ercolani

Acquaintance:

Eleonora Zambeccari

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili was in love with her and wanted to marry but wasn't able due to financial difficulties.

protege:

Eustachio Manfredi

Acquaintance:

Isaac Newton

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Volumes 9 & 10
  1980