Marsili (or Marsigli), Luigi Ferdinando

MARSILI (OR MARSIGLI), LUIGI FERDINANDO

(b. Bologna, Ialy, 20 July 1658; d. Bologna, 1 November 1730)

natural history.

Marsili was the son of a nobleman, Carlo Marsili, and the former Margherita Ercolani. He 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. Although he did not complete his formal schooling, Marsili accumulated a vast knowledge of history, politics, geography, and the natural sciences. 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). 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: “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” (letter from Marsili to the astronomer F. Bianchini, 24 December 1726, in Lettere di vari illustri italiani e stranieri [Reggio nell’Emilia, 1841], II, 91).

As a naturalist, with that same 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.

Finally, Marsili was the precursor of the systematic oceanographic exploration that was to begin half a century later with the famous voyage of the Endeavour. Using the same methods, he 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 …(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, 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Marsili’s writings include Osservazioni intorno al Bosforo tracio ovvero canale di Constantinopoli …(Rome, 1681), a booklet repr. in Bollettino di pesca, piscicoltura e idrobiologia, 11 (1935), 734–758; Historie physique de la mer (Amsterdam, 1725); and Danublius-Pannonicus-Mysicus observationibus geographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus et in sex tomos digestus (The Hague-Amsterdam, 1726), also trans. into French (The Hague, 1744). The volume Scritti inediti di L. F. Marsili (Bologna, 1930) includes “Osservazioni fisiche intorno al Lago di Garda,” M. Longhena and A. Forti, eds., and “Storia naturale de’gessi e solfi nelle miniere di Romagna,” T. Lipparini, ed. There is also Marsili’s Autobiografia (Bologna, 1930).

The University of Bologna library has 176 vols. of Marsili’s autograph letters and cartographic sketches: see L. Frati, Catalogo dei manoscritti di L. F. Marsili (Florence, 1928); and M. Longhena, L’opera cartografica di L. F. Marsili (Rome, 1933).

II. Secondary Literature. For information on Marsili’s life and work, see G. Fantuzzi, Memorie della vita del generale conte L. F. Marsili (Bologna, 1770), for the period up to 1711 drawn from Marsili’s Autobiografia. See also two works by M. Longhena: II conte L. F. Marsili (Milan, 1930) and “II conte L. F. Marsili,” in Bollettino della Società; geografica italiana, 95 (1958), 539–573, with a complete list of Marsili’s published writings and an extensive bibliography on Marsili the geographer and naturalist; and Memorie intorno a L. F. Marsili (Bologna, 1930).

Francesco Rodolico